10×8″, oils on panel, unframed
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.

Painted on location at Tilly Foster Farm in Brewster, New York.

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4×6″, Watercolor sketch on Canson paper

This is another little watercolor sketch from my Poet’s Walk expedition in Rhinebeck, NY yesterday. There is a beautiful pavillion made with tree trunks and branches at the top of the hill. Even more importantly, there is a bench in a cool shady spot along the path nearby from which to paint it!

Sketches | 2 Comments »

7×9″, Watercolor sketch on Canson paper

Since I had my show opening in Rhinebeck this evening, I spent the day up there at Poet’s Walk in Red Hook. I took a million pictures to have as references for paintings, and did this watercolor sketch of the view of the Catskill Mountains across the Hudson River. I packed very light, bringing just my camera, water, a small watercolor pan set, and my Canson watercolor book tucked into my pack stool. It was a beautiful, tranquil site. I can’t wait to go back! I would love to do a larger acrylic or oil painting of this scene.

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5×7″, Golden Open Acrylics on Fabriano Artistico rag watercolor paper
$100 via PayPal, $7 shipping within US

This painting was started en plein air in Cold Spring, New York. There was a lot of construction noise from the site next to this one, so I ended up leaving the location and finished this in the studio from a photo. It was about 80% completed on location. I love this spot in the Hudson Highlands, with the purple mountains looming over the river.

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8×10″, Golden Open Acrylics on canvas covered hardboard
Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.

This painting was started last week on location in the apple orchard at Lasdon Arboretum in Somers, New York. I was about a half hour away from completion when thick clouds moved in and it started to rain! I had to pack up quickly and return home. Fortunately, I got a photo while the light was still good, and finished it today from the photograph.

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16 x 20″, Oils on Canvas covered hardboard
Please contact the RiverWinds Gallery if interested in this painting.

Come join me at the opening of the show “Spring in the Hudson Valley” on Wednesday, May 14 from 5:30-7:30! It’s in Rhinebeck, NY, and you can read more about it and the location here. I have nine paintings in the show, including this one. I hear they serve good food during the openings! ‘Hope some of you can make it there.

This is a painting I did on location in springtime at Boscobel Restoration, enjoying the beautiful cherry blossoms along the path above the Hudson River. The painting is varnished, framed, and ready to hang on your wall!

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Click to enlarge:

16×20″, oils on canvas covered hardboard
SOLD!

Here are yet more spring flowers and trees from Boscobel Restoration in Garrison, NY. This was painted on location in the garden courtyard.

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16×12″, Golden Open Acrylic on canvas covered hardboard
Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.

This is another Hudson River painting done this week on location at Hastings Waterfront Park. This time, I turned toward the Palisades across the river, with the rocks and trees in the foreground bathed in cool, morning light.

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8×10, Golden Open Acrylics on Canson board
Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.

This is another painting done this week from the Boscobel overlook to the Hudson River. The channels wind through Constitution Marsh, and the spring foliage is still sparse enough to clearly see them between the islands of violet-toned grasses. It’s a spectacular view in any season.

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12×12″, Golden Open Acrylics on canvas covered hardboard
Please email me at JamieWG@aol.comif interested in this painting.

We had a paintout today of the Lower Hudson Valley chapter of New York Plein Air Painters. Five of us gathered at the beautiful Hastings Waterfront Park on the Hudson River for a day of perfect spring weather. There were a couple of fishermen there, and one of them was kind enough to pose for me. Thank you, Sean!

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7×5″, Golden Open Acrylics on sealed, primed hardboard
$100 via PayPal, $7 shipping within US

Although this scene was an enormous challenge to paint, I think I had an even more difficult time trying to get the photo right! I can’t seem to get the dark trees in the background light enough without bleaching out the foreground flowers. This painting will be available here on my website for only a couple of weeks.

Since this scene presented so many interesting challenges, I decided to take a few extra pictures to share.

Here is a photo of the scene:

I was immediately drawn to the strong contrasts, and the L-shaped composition created by the flowers, fountain and figure. I also love painting stone walls, so it was a plus to have that in the composition as well. Fitting all this onto a 5×7 panel didn’t prove to be easy.

Here’s my pack stool and lightweight painting box. The umbrella clamp is affixed to my stool. I was using a Pittman bag, which can hold my box flat so the paint won’t shift as I change locations. My panel carrier and extra paints fit in there too, and even the umbrella.

Here’s a closeup of the box, ready for paint. The panel is affixed to the box lid with blu-tac. It works great. The panels and paper stay put, and there are no clips or clamps obscuring parts of the painting surface. My paper towel is clipped onto the box lid to allow more room alongside the palette for paints and my sprayer.

The plastic paint storage containers were purchased in the camping section of Sports Authority. They have a rubber seal around the outside so the paint stays fresh. I find it much easier to set out paint this way, rather than having to search for a tube and open caps.

The box further to the back contains my standard plein air palette:
Cadmium Yellow Primrose
Pyrrole Red
Transparent Red Oxide
Phthalo Blue
Ultramarine Blue
Titanium White

The box in the front contains add-ons that I use in the figure studio. I bring it along for plein air too, just in case….It has
Naples Yellow
Cadmium Yellow Medium
Cadmium Red Light
Oxide of Chromium
Cerulean Blue Chromium hue
Permanent Alizarin
I also carry quinacridone magenta with me for these garden scenes.

Whoever said that every painting has to have an ugly stage sure knew what they were talking about. There’s mine! I toned the upper part of the painting with transparent red oxide, and painted the figures a dark, greyed blue. That way, even in the underpainting, I could judge the figures more carefully. Then I worked in the green background. I blocked in the area of strong yellow below to reserve it—-a useful tip given to me by wonderful plein air artist, Lee Haber.

From there, it was lots of fun getting the painting to emerge. I feel like my painting process doesn’t really get underway until after this block-in step is done and I have a layer of paint down. Getting this much done didn’t take all that long, but I forgot to stop and get more pictures once I got past this beginning stage. It did eventually get done.

I started another painting later in the afternoon, but it started to rain and I had to pack up. I’ll finish it from a photo on a rainy day later in the week. I hope you’ve enjoyed these extra photos!

Available, Demos/Work in Progress, Landscape | 1 Comment »

8×10″, Golden Open Acrylics on 8 ply 100% rag board
Please email me at JamieWG@aol.comif interested in this painting.

Can you tell that we still have cherry blossoms blooming around here? I wish this cherry blossom phase could last for months! I went back to Boscobel today and painted this view around the back path. What a great day!

I also delivered two of framed Boscobel paintings to the museum shop there, so now there is one more place where you can find my work!

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Path Through the Open Land Foundation
8×10, Golden Open Acrylics on Multimedia Artboard
Please email me if you are interested in this painting.

It’s been sooooo hard for me to keep this under wraps, but the time has finally arrived when I can share the great news! Everybody’s been asking me this year what acrylic paints I’ve been using that look so much like my oils, and I have to hem and haw and politely change the subject……until now. Golden Paints has developed a brand new line of “acrylics” with a very long open time. It is called Golden Open. They’ll be shipping to stores on July 1. The painting above is one of my favorites done with these new paints. You can see my demonstration thread for this painting here.The underpainting was done with Golden Fluid Acrylics, and then the Open paints were used over that.

I’ve been testing these paints for Golden Acrylics since last August, and it’s been such a thrill for me to finally have an acrylic paint that does what I want it to do. The long open time enables me to paint like I would with oils, only better. It is really like a new medium in that it can do some of the things oils can do, some of the things acrylics can do, some of the things gouache can do, and some of the things watercolors can do. After nine months of using this paint, I feel like I’m still just scratching the surface in terms of its possibilities. Almost all of the acrylics that you’ve seen here on my blog since August were done with this paint.

This still life on clear-sealed linen is another one of my favorites done with this paint:
Flowers on Linen, 8×6″

The paint tacks up as I work just enough to be able to do things that oils cannot. No more acrylic paint drying on your brushes either. When you finally get that mix of colors just right, the paint doesn’t dry out before you get a chance to use it. Edges can be blended and manipulated—no more razor-sharp acrylic edges in your paintngs unless you want them. Yet, it tacks up enough as I work to be able to scumble, glaze, and overpaint. Oils can’t do that! For plein air painting, they can’t be beat. Just a spray of water now and then keeps them totally workable. I can get paintings varnished and out to galleries in less than two weeks. I don’t have to put up with that nasty “sinking in” and flattening of values that oil paints do overnight without my permission! The color remains as beautiful and vibrant as when it was painted. These dry to a matte finish, so do not at all have that plastic look of many acrylics.

I’ve had good success with it in the figure painting studio too. This one from a few weeks ago is one of my favorite figure paintings with the new paint:
Amanda Resting, 8×10″ on Canson board

I hope any of you artists out there reading this will have the opportunity to try out this new product. It’s like nothing you’ve ever experienced before. I’d be happy to answer any questions relating to the working properties of the paints; just enter them as comments on this post. I am so happy to be able to discuss them at last.

Available, Landscape, Portraits and Figures, Shows and News, Still Life | 4 Comments »

5×7″, Golden Open Acrylic on Ampersand Gessoboard
$100 via PayPal, $7 shipping within US

Today was one of those unexpected “bonus” days. It was supposed to be rainy and cold, but turned out to be warm and sunny! I packed up my gear and headed to Boscobel. I even remembered to bring my camera this time, so I’ve got lots of photo references of the gorgeous blooms to work from when the rain starts.

It’s too bad the blossoms are so short-lived, because I could paint these flowering trees overlooking the river for a couple of months without getting tired of them!

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8×10″, Golden Open acrylic on Saunders Waterford 100% rag watercolor paper, 300lb cp
Please email me at JamieWG@aol.comif interested in this painting.

It was freeeeeezing cold today at Boscobel Restoration along the Hudson River, but I couldn’t resist painting the cherry blossoms. Every spring, it’s a race to paint them before they go. It seems that as soon as they bloom and rain comes along, which it does constantly this time of year, they are gone until the following spring. Today is the only day this week slated for sunshine, so I put on my winter coat and braved the strong winds and the chill. Now that I’m back home and toasty warm, I’m so glad I got this painting done!

Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

3.5×2.5″, acrylic on 100% cotton rag board (Shown above larger than life size!)
SOLD!

As a step along the path to curing my funk, I decided I’d do something “just for fun” today. Again it was raining out—a true northeast spring. Normally I’d sketch or paint in my sketchbook for fun, but I decided this time to do an ACEO-size painting (click here if you don’t know what that is) from my studio window. I had such a great time, and love this little painting to bits!

The image above is much larger than the actual painting. Depending on the size of your monitor and your screen resolution, the painting as shown below is probably closer to the real size. At this small size, it really shows how much detail the painting has. Isn’t it adorable? By the way, you can get standard size frames for these at Michael’s Arts and Crafts and other stores. They also look great on little table easels.

Landscape, Recently Sold | 1 Comment »

5×7″, Acrylic on Ampersand Gessoboard
$100 via PayPal, $7 shipping within US

It’s raining out today, but I’ve been in something of a painting funk and really wanted to break out of it today. I pulled out some spring photos that I took at Lasdon Arboretum and painted this one of the azeleas near the potting shed. It cheered me right up to paint spring colors! I set out way more colors than my usual limited palette and dipped into just about everything, though I could have easily painted this with just a few colors. It was that kind of day!
Titanium White
Naples Yellow
Cadmium Yellow Primrose
Cadmium Yellow Medium
Pyrrole Red
Cadmium Red Light
Alizarin Crimson
Quinacridone Magenta
Transparent Red Oxide
Chromium Oxide Green
Cerulean Blue Chromium Hue
Phthalo Blue
Ultramarine Blue
I’m sure I must be forgetting something!

Available, Landscape | 2 Comments »

$100 via PayPal, $7 shipping within US

5 x 7″, Oils on canvas covered hardboard, unframed

There is so much to paint from this one spot in scenic New Paltz, New York, that I think I could go there every day for a month and not run out of things to paint by just facing in different directions!

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Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.
12×12″, Oils on canvas covered hardboard, unframed

What better way to brighten up your day than with a bouquet of sunflowers, paired with one of Louise King’s unique “Mud Pony” horse sculptures? I loved doing this colorful painting, with the strong color, high contrasts, and varied textures. It’s one of my personal favorites.

Available, Still Life | 5 Comments »

16×20, Acrylic on Ampersand Gessoboard
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.

What a gorgeous day it was! When my friend Shelli told me this morning that she was going to paint at Tilly Foster Farm, I just had to join her. I’m sure that tomorrow I’ll be feeling the effects of forgetting my sunscreen, but it sure felt good to paint on this beautiful spring day.

Here’s a pic of my setup with the painting and the scene.

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8×10, oils, unframed
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in this painting.

Don’t you just love warm late day light and strong shadows? I got to spend it with my easel, down along the banks of the Hudson River.

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The River Behind Tom’s House
12×16″, oils on canvas
NFS

Please click here to play the audio file of Andy Lafreniere and me playing a pair of Humphrey guitars while you read this post. The piece is “The One”, by California composer Peter Madlem.

When my Ramirez classical guitar slipped from my grasp on a flight of stairs in 1979, splitting in three places, it led me to the doorstep of classical guitarmaker Thomas Humphrey. As I rang his doorbell on West 72nd Street in Manhattan, with my damaged instrument, I didn’t know that I was about to meet one of my closest friends, or that I’d end up owning four of his amazing guitars, or that our future spouses and children would play together in the brook behind our house and his, and that we’d watch them grow together until his untimely death last Wednesday.

Tom’s entire workshop at that time was crammed into a small bedroom in his New York City apartment. He worked day and night, tirelessly unlocking the secrets to producing instruments with a sound he heard clearly in his head, but not yet in a classical guitar. Already well-known as a luthier in New York, his apartment was affectionately referred to as Grand Central Station. Musicians would congregate, friends would come and go, and there were more fabulous spur-of-the-moment classical guitar performances there than in the concert halls of New York City. Tom’s magnetic personality, wonderful sense of humor, and beautiful-sounding instruments drew guitar players from near and far. His reputation sky-rocketed when he developed and patented his Millennium design, and his name became a household word for guitarists world-wide. The elevated fingerboard gave players easier access to the high reaches of the instrument, and combined with his unique bracing design, increased it’s projection.

When C.F. Martin approached Tom about making two models that copied his design, my husband and I tried talk Tom out of it. But those who knew Tom know that it was always futile to argue with his vision. While we were afraid that it would lead to loss of business for his own handmade instruments, Tom felt it would force him to have to invent something even better. And so his search for the next great breakthrough continued. Like all great artists, Tom was never satisfied. He always wanted more volume, fuller sound, better sustain.

Tom was as much a philosopher as he was an artist and inventor. He looked at life as a creative journey, and pressed ever-onward along his ingenious path. It wasn’t unusual for my phone to ring early in the morning, with Tom’s excited voice on the other end, explaining his idea for a new bracing pattern. Once Tom and his wife Martha moved up to their estate in Gardiner, NY, I’d often bring my paints along on visits to capture the Shawangunkill River that wound through the back of their property, or the white cliffs of the Gunks that faced the front. But often as not, we’d get absorbed in conversation, talking away in the workshop for the day, or playing his latest batch of guitars one by one, and the brushes would remain in my easel.

When I rang that doorbell in New York City in 1979, and as we had our first philosophical conversation, I didn’t imagine that his voice would be silenced at the young age of 59. Tom’s sound will forever live on through his instruments, and I am grateful that I will hear him speak every time I pick up my guitar.

You can click to read the New York Times Obituary. You can also visit his website to read more about his instruments and see articles written about him.

Landscape, Personal Collection, Shows and News | 3 Comments »

Please email me if you are interested in this painting.
8×10″, Oils on primed masonite, custom framed

This painting has been published in Plein Air Magazine. It is one of my favorite early spring plein air paintings, done at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation in Pound Ridge, New York.

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Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in purchasing this painting.
12×9″, soft pastels on Art Spectrum sanded pastel paper

Everybody loves visiting an artist’s studio and seeing paintings come together, so I thought I’d share part of the process of this painting.

Here’s a photo of my setup in my studio, along with the pastel in progress. The pastels on the paper towel are the ones I selected from my huge box of colors. Setting them aside like this makes them easier to find, and helps maintain a unified palette with good color harmony.

Above is a photo of the full area of my studio where I was working on this piece, so you can see the whole pastel box. I think now you can see why I find it necessary to separate the colors I’m using in a particular work; otherwise I’d be forever looking to find them again!

This is an image of the painting about 1/3 of the way through the process. The basic color plan has been made and the objects blocked in. Following this stage, it’s time for refinement. Most of my time on a painting is spent in the refining stages.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this trip to my studio!

Available, Demos/Work in Progress, Still Life, Studio Tours | 3 Comments »

8×6″, acrylic on linen, matted to 8×10″ or mounted on board (buyer’s choice)
$100 via PayPal, $7 shipping within US

I loved the way the backlighting rimmed the front of the figure in this pose.

Available, Portraits and Figures | 3 Comments »

5×7″, gouache on Fabriano Artistico rag paper, matted to 8×10″
$100 via PayPal, $7 shipping within US

This was painted at Muscoot Farm, Somers, NY, in the Hudson Valley. The forsythia was so colorful against the red barn that I had to stop in my tracks and paint it. The fields at Muscoot are newly plowed and all the animals were out enjoying the spring sunshine.

Available, Coffee Table Paintings, Landscape | 1 Comment »

12×24″, acrylic on canvas covered hardboard
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in purchasing this painting.

It’s hard to beat springtime in the Hudson River Valley. This is a scene from Teatown Lake that I paint every spring. This morning, it seemed like I didn’t have my head screwed on quite right. I left the house feeling disorganized, had to pack up on location before leaving the car, and ended up forgetting my water. You can’t paint with acrylics without water! I went back up to the car to get the water, got back to my painting spot, and realized I didn’t have paper towels or my glasses! I managed to use old, somewhat soggy paper towels that were stuck in a zip-lock bag in with my painting gear. That didn’t solve the issue of the glasses, but sometimes painting without my glasses can help me see the big shapes without getting bogged down in unnecessary detail. The swans were nesting again to the right of the bridge, where I see them every April. It’s a tranquil spot with a magical feeling.

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12×16″, acrylic on canvas covered hardboard
Email me at JamieWG@aol.com if interested in purchasing this painting.

If you’ve ever driven over the Tappan Zee Bridge, across the Hudson River, you’ve likely noticed this sparkling lighthouse near the eastern shoreline. I finally found a great vantage point from which to paint it. It was very cold and windy even though the sun was strong, but I was inspired enough by the view to stick it out and paint. With the New York City skyline in the distance, the Palisades jutting out into the river, and the bridge behind the lighthouse, there was a lot to put into one painting. I liked including the foreground tree too, to give yet another dimensional plane to the work. I’m hoping to return many more times as the foliage emerges. Gotta love that red!

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5×7″, acrylic on Fabriano Artistico (rag paper) hp
$100 via PayPal, $7 shipping within US

My friend Shelli came up from New York City so that we could go plein air painting together for a couple of days. We were painting alongside the stream behind my house and she said, “Is this what you call ’streaming’?”

For once I left the stream out of my painting. The recently-opened forsythia blossoms and evergreens caught my eye, along with the chunky textures of the big willow trunk. It was a gorgeous afternoon, but still very cold. In spite of the spring colors, I wondered if spring is really here. Maybe it’s just an optical illusion!

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8×10, Acrylic on Canson board
$150 via PayPal, $10 shipping within US

This painting is from today’s open studio—a great pose from our model Amanda, with lots of foreshortening to make me work extra hard!

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