3rd Annual Northport Plein Air Painting Weekend

If you know Northport, then you know the Shipwreck Diner. If you are of a certain age, then you know it as Otto's Shipwreck Diner. If you are younger, you know it as Tim's Shipwreck Diner. Tim took over from his dad some years ago. Otto still puts on an apron behind the counter there and, when I was painting this, he took a break to come across the street and take a look at what I was painting.

Although he seemed to like what he saw, he didn't llinger. "Gotta get back," he said. "Don't want to lose my job!" Then as if to reinforce his opinion of my work he said, "Show that to the boss!"

The Shipwreck Diner is where my wife and I had our first date. It was also used in the filming of the movie, "In and Out" starring Kevin Kline, Tom Selleck and Joan Cusack.

This 9 x 12 inch oil will be in the silent auction at the LaMantia Gallery tomorrow afternoon between 1 and 3 pm.

Pilgrim, Islesford, Maine

I think I might title this one, 'Once Again,' although I like the name of the boat herself, 'Pilgrim.' I liked the color possibilities in the faded yellow of the boat, the maroon below her water line, all the greenery of the trees and yard surrounding the boat. This scene was up the road from where we stayed on Little Cranberry Island.

The lettering on the stern and a number of other details I'll save as the final stage of this painting. For now I'm just trying to get the larger areas of color right.

Sketchbook drawings from Maine

We spent a week on Little Cranberry Island, a few miles southeast of Mount Desert Island and Acadia National Park. We were there the last week of May, a time when it's still pretty cool and, in our case, fairly wet as well. Individually and as a community, the people on this island are very friendly, smart and helpful. Lobstermen, for the most part. Renee bought lobster for dinner right on the dock and my brother made a rhubarb pie from a brief harvest of the garden.

John brought along his dog, Bo, a lab who enjoyed daily dips into the ocean, each of which inevitably culminated in the near-euphoric discovery of yet another waterlogged, saliva-saturated stick proudly laid at his master's feet.

Access is by ferry. We stayed at the former Braided Rugs Inn, a big old Victorian with its own impressive library, accumulated over the life of the house. Josephine's House, as it is now called by islanders, is across the street from the island's post office and a few short steps from the elementary school -- a school that this year had an enrollment, I was told, of 12 or so.

Off to Maine

Off for a week on Little Cranberry Island, Maine. Hope to get lots of sketching and painting done. Back in a week. Meanwhile finished this last night which had been set aside almost a year ago.

Robin, week three

Wheel invented!

If you are the sort of person who pokes around on art and artists' websites you may have come across an ad for "The Carder Method" (trademarked). Carder's website sells a six-hour dvd and two tools for learning to paint and draw according to this method. The proportional dividers shown above can be bought from his website for $29.95.

Yes, that's two pieces of wood with some holes drilled into them and a brass screw and nut holding them together. $29.95. I will admit to having bought one of these a couple of years ago, largely because I am too lazy and/or inept at building and making things to have tried to make such a device myself. But that doesn't mean I don't feel foolish for having spent thirty dollars for two pieces of wood and a brass screw.

Carder also sells a color spot checker for $14.95 Presumably that's less expensive because it has no moving parts.

Mark Carder is a very capable and accomplished portrait artist. You can see some of his work on the same website. I respect his art considerably more than I do his marketing claims.

The method itself being described on his website is a quite solid, dependable, almost foolproof method for learning to draw by carefully measuring proportions and learning to paint by carefully observing and comparing mixed colors to the natural colors you're trying to duplicate. As Carder says in a video on his site, this is "how to become a color Xerox."

But while Carder has trademarked the name "The Carder Method," I don't see a patent mentioned anywhere. The irony is that his descriptions of his "method" leave one with the impression that he's come up with all this himself. In fact, these methods have been around much longer than Mr. Carder.

Proportional dividers are such an old concept that one can find them showing up in old master etchings and engravings. And the color-spot method of painting was being taught by Charles W. Hawthorne after the turn of the previous century. "Hawthorne on Painting" published in the 1930s is still being reprinted, by the way, and can be purchased from Dover for $5.95, considerably less than Mr.Carder might charge were he to issue it under his name.

In the book, Hawthorne makes no claim to having originated this approach to painting himself but neither does he mention Carder who, in fact, would not be born for another few decades.

2-minute poses and longer