Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Some pictures of approaching fall in New England

Again I have returned late, this time from the last day of teaching my workshop in Jaffrey New Hampshire. Like last night I am way too tired to write very much. I will post some photos I took at the end of the day. We painted on an old farm, that has been in one family for generations. Fall is slowly taking over here, although it was very warm today. The autumn color happens so quickly that some trees change by the hour.

Some of you live in California or Florida, those are idyllic places and have benign climates. But I am certain that all of you would like New England weather in the fall. It is really lovely here this time of the year.

The old stone walls crisscross this property and most of new England and their gray green color is a good foil for the bright leaves. I like that there is still plenty of green this time of the early fall as it also is a counter to all that red and orange.

I shot these in the last half hour of the light, and when it rakes in at a low angle it illuminates the trunks and branches of the oaks and maples. It looks like an Inness painting this time of year up here.

We painted about as hard as you could for three days and went home exhausted. I did anyway.
There was a lot of camaraderie as we ate together in the evenings and all worked pretty much as a group. Including myself, there were 12, and that is a great size for a workshop. I have taught as many as 18, but that is too physically demanding. I am doing 20 minute private lessons all day for about 10 hours nonstop, usually somewhere in there I do a demo painting.

I think this view looks like one of those tonalist paintings I was showing a week or two ago.

This last shot has such great shapes in it although it does seem a little melancholy. It too looks a little like a tonalist painting.

My life returns to normal tomorrow and I can assemble some more ambitious posts.

17 comments:

DennyHollandStudio said...

I would die for some of that New England fall color out here in Northern California. The closest we get are the golden aspens in the Sierra (which I will be painting in two weeks). Get some rest, pal.

Gregory Becker said...

Love the pics. Hard to not be inspired to paint.

Unknown said...

This was a great weekend. We are all totally exhausted! We met at 9am, and generally painted until at least 6pm.. The farm was a wonderful location, as just about everywhere one looked, there was something worth painting. With the colors just starting to change, its actually just perfect.. not too vivid but a change from the greens of summer.
Here's a link to my blog post with a few more pictures and a brief video of Stape doing a demo. http://debpero.blogspot.com/

See those cows? My dog had to come with me on the last day of the workshop and managed to roll in some cow manure first thing. Niiiice..

Robert J. Simone said...

No kidding, I would like the fall weather in New England. I could take some winter, too! We have 9 months of summer and 2.5 months of spring and 2 weeks of fall. It's still pushing 90 degrees with 90% humidity everyday. I am jealous!

Carol A. McIntyre said...

I too sometimes miss the colors of the NE, but fortunately in CO we have the golden leaves of the aspen, which glow like jewels when the sun is shining.

http://paintingharmony.com/blog

innisart said...

It's so beautiful! I wish I was there!

JAMES A. COOK said...

The work shop was intense this past weekend. Everyone worked so hard and STAPE just kept on bouncing from easel to easel teaching and demoing for three days straight. Great teacher. Great learning watching stape do a demo in the moring , doesn't get better than that. Thanks STAPE.I look forward to your next workshop. Winter time would be awesome, You could teach us how HIBBARD painted his snow.
My photo of me painting at my easel showed up on the front page of the KEENE SENTINEL, WWW.SENTINELSOURCE.COM

Philip Koch said...

Stop it, stop it stop it already with the beautiful photos of rural pastures and stone walls! I can't get up to New England until Thursday and I'm too impatient as it is.
Hope your good luck with your weather holds until I'm done with my paintings.

Stapleton Kearns said...

Denny;
I have painted aspens they are a great subject.You have REAL mountains.

........................Stape

Stapleton Kearns said...

Gregory:
Thank you. Michigan must be beginning to turn also.
...............Stape

Stapleton Kearns said...

Deb:
Thanks for coming. It was an immersion style class as advertised. I loved the farm on which we painted.
..............Stape
.

Stapleton Kearns said...

Simone:

We have to pay it all back during mud season.
..................Stape

Stapleton Kearns said...

CarolMac:
There are those aspens again! I have painted up in the Colorado mountains when they were at peak color. I thought it was great, hope to get back some day.
................Stape

Stapleton Kearns said...

Innisart
Any where in New England will be good now, its happening fast.
..............Stape

Stapleton Kearns said...

Philip:
You picked the perfect time for your destination.Bring your cadmiums and maybe some Quinacridone too.
.................Stape

Stapleton Kearns said...

James:
Thank you so much.I would love to do a winter snow workshop. Thats my favorite time to paint outside. I wonder if anyone else is hearty enough to be on board for that? It is not for the weak. Floundering through deep snow and then standing in one place for six hours in five degree weather is physical.It would be a lot of fun though.
...............Stape

tom martino said...

I too was in the area of Jaffrey, unfortunately couldn't make the workshop, although I did smear some paint on canvas which I hope to pull together in the studio. Yes, those days were beautiful -- what more could a plein-air painter want?