After nearly a week in New England, including lots of coastal Maine, I returned home full of enthusiasm and creative visions.

Upon returning to Texas, my first step was to buy a stack of large-ish canvases, generally 20″ x 26″ or larger. Then, I started several paintings. As of noon today, I’ve started five new canvases. My goal is to have at least ten in-progress, so I always have something to work on… and I meet my target of 10+ paintings for my July show in Maine.

Since these larger canvases intimidate me, I decided to start with the largest. The oil sketch at left is on a 30″ x 40″ canvas. It’s not great, but it’s a very good start.

The red showing through–especially where the water will be–is the cadmium red mid-tone underpainting. In most of my completed paintings, the red doesn’t show very much, if at all.

The subject is York Harbor, Maine. The public beach, about a block from the post office, features one of the loveliest views around coastal York.

At this point, the painting is like a series of jigsaw puzzle pieces, each with a different color and/or tone. I can already see things that I want to change, but the composition is shaping up well. It’s a good start.