First Plein Air Painting of 2014!

The first day to paint outdoors is always a joyous occasion for me.  45 degrees is my personal cut off point...and it got to 46 before the sun went behind clouds. It involved a trip to my studio to round up some equipment and supplies, but I actually got out on my deck to do a small pastel painting of our wetland...and one of our fallen pines with it's roots at a 90 degree angle to normal. We have freshly fallen snow and now that I've made something out of it, I can agree with all the Vermonters who are declaring with delight that this is a "real winter".

Eastern Horizon

This is the view I see every morning. Different colors, temperatures, seasons, moods. I love the sunrise and feel bad if I sleep through it...rarely happens.

This particular pastel painting, done in the studio this month, will be on view at Gallery Wright in Wilmington, VT beginning in February.  On your way to or from Mt. Snow go take a look. Gallery Wright has moved to 103 West Main St,(Rt 9) Wilmington Vermont. 802-464-9922

Eastern Horizon image size is about 15 x 22, framed with a mat to about 22 x 29.

Purple House

This 16 x 16 pastel of my house in Vermont is now on exhibit at the Butternut Gallery & Second Story Books in Montrose PA (570-278-4011) along with it's partner Yellow House.  I framed them with Tru-Vue (Museum) glass to diminish reflections as well as preserve the bright colors over time. The glass is AR (anti-reflective) and UV (keeps ultraviolet light from bleaching pigments). Pastels and most works on paper need to be protected by glass. Looking through Tru-Vue makes the glass almost invisible. I know that sounds weird, but you can definitely appreciate the difference between Tru-Vue and regular or so-called non-reflective "frosted" glass. Stop in and take a look. Tell Tom & Betty I sent you. They are each priced to sell at $550 framed.

Ragged Ends

SOLD 
A February evening in my neighborhood looks peaceful and quiet. I am certainly taking advantage of this exceptionally snowy winter in both Pennsylvania & Vermont. Often I don't get more than one or two snow scenes done per winter because I have a habit of trying to avoid February and March by traveling to warmer climes. This is another 12 x 16 from the Transitions series.

Ground Hog Day in Vermont

No woodchuck saw his shadow this year...and many of us in the NE are ready for a hint of spring. So we are reassured that spring will come early. I spent the day looking out on two of my garden trees....sort of an incongruous, artless pairing. They are of a similar size; a black cherry and a paper birch. They appear to be growing away from each other like the north poles of magnets...likes repel. The day was full of heavy snowfall, but we did not get the 30" predicted...around 12", I think, which makes over 36" on the ground in southern Vermont. It was tough shoveling to stock the bird feeders. The snow blower is in Pennsylvania.

Fields of Snow

Very pretty around here...lately. Amazing what a good whitewashing does for the place.

Fresh back in the studio from a late afternoon drive around my PA neighborhood I choose this subject photographed across the fields above Williams Pond. I use one of my favorite pastel papers; salmon-colored Sabretooth. It has a deep, open tooth, which means that the color of the paper will show through a bit in the finished painting. I started with a light wash of some purple/red pastel and turps and then worked 5 or 6 layers of very soft pastels into the tooth. I love the depth and complexity this paper gives; you can see into it...like looking through layers.

My snow scenes are popular; probably because they are warm...in hue.

Fields of Snow 12 x 16...I cropped it poorly when I photographed it...there is a bit more sky than seen here.

Gone is my PC world. So using my new Mac and my same old lousy camera skills makes everything take longer so I hesitate to photograph it again for the fourth time right now. I am loving the Mac, though... knew I would.

Looking East from My Studio Window

SOLD
Returning from a month in sunny, but cold, northern New Mexico this sight was a bit of a shock. It turned out OK though (most of the shovelling and plowing was all ready done); just left me with some easel work to pull this together. It is 9 x12 and will be put in a black rustic wide wood frame with a thin gold bevel to match the snow scene from January. Thanks for having a look and keeping the homefires burning.

Hawley Farm

SOLD
Unusually restrained color for me in this typical Susquehanna County Farm scene. The image is 18 x 18 and will be for sale this summer at the Butternut Gallery. I am working on some new Susquehanna County pieces for an August showing by Bob Smith, Betty Bryden & me; part of a year-long celebration of the 200th birthday of our county. My focus for these new paintings will be places and small scenes that interest me; not the county icons. I'm on the look out for little buildings and quirky twists to a typical scene.

Blown Off the Field

I was so excited to be met with a day above 50ºF that I quickly grabbed the easel and a few pastels and drove down my road until I spotted a likely subject. A cold front was moving in quite fast and the sky was very active. I kept a death grip on the easel against the gusts and did manage to get the panel covered with color before the rain sent me packing. I don't care; it was my first day out since Nov. 4!

I like this painting...it has strong composition, interesting color and it is fresh & windy. I might normally title it 'spring thaw' but we are far from spring here and we've all ready had several of these thaws, then ice storms, then foot of snow and we're only a week into winter officially.

December Thaw (11 x 14 UArt #800 on panel) will get some finishing work and I will publish the finished piece then. Such a delight to get out of the studio even if it was brief.

BTW the studio is open for appointments during most of the winter. email is best rtilley@rodricatilley.com

Season's Greetings

SOLD
The studio is shrouded in clean new snow...about a foot now, but we keep having thaws and freezes. Just want to thank everyone who has visited the studio or one of my exhibits this year. Your interest in my work is one of the reasons I keep painting.

It seems for the past month I've been mostly moving paintings around to and from various exhibits, but I look forward to some serious studio time in January...I have ideas collected in my brain.

My exhibit in Ithaca at Kitschen Sink (two posts below) is on until just after the New Year and the exhibit at NOW (one post below) will hang through January. And I'll be here not far from the woodstove at my Montrose Studio.

This pastel painting, Watrous Corners Barns is available for $475, framed to 20 x 26 in a rustic gold wood frame. You can see it in the window of NOW Hair Studio at 132 Adams Avenue Scranton.