RMW Ramblings

October Gold   A chiaroscuro still life.    Painted in a dark room with glancing light on the gourd assemblage.  

Havre de Grace Waterfront Art 4   On the flip side of the HdG barriers edging the Promenade Grille outdoor seating Ezra Berger and his crew painted birds of the Chesapeake. I have painted many of these Bay aviators, mostly great blue herons. Here is a set of four paintings depicting a heron prancing on our seawall with classical Greek and medieval heraldic references, Erodios.

    Havre de Grace Waterfront Art 3     Among the HdG barrier paintings on the water side is one non-piscatorial Chesapeake inhabitant, a blue crab. I have painted many crabs over the years, and one from the same set of the "Yellow Perch" and "Rockfish" earlier. We'll look at the inland bird side of the barrier paintings later.

      Havre de Grace Waterfront Art 2   Another fish on the HdG Promenade Grille barrier paintings is a striped bass, which we here call a rock fish. My take on this tasty fish was sold years ago, but I still have a picture. He's capturing a Mayfly.  

Havre de Grace Waterfront Art   Havre de Grace Waterfront Art 1   An outdoor seating area asides a snack grille at the marina end of the the HdG waterfront promenade. Earlier this year the protective Jersey barriers were painted with images of the fauna of the Chesapeake by local artist Ezra Berger and a supporting crew. Aqueous Chesapeake denizens on the parking side, birds on the seating side.        Many of these I have painted myself in the past. We'll look at a few. My yellow perch swims by my desk at the cottage.  

  Staffage Staffage    ​ [stafaʒ] is the term used in art for figures in a painting or photograph that are not the primary subject of the picture.  The silhouetted figures in my photograph, Sunset at Lido Key, are important elements of the total composition but not its focus.      The crowd in Isabel Bishop's Dante and Virgil in Union Square ,  a favorite of mine at the Delaware Art Museum, is similarly a use of staffage.   Here are staffage examples from some of my paintings...

  Principio Flying with the gulls I painted this postcard size cartoony acrylic sketch of the office of the historic Principio Furnace iron works ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principio_Furnace) near our summer cottage.