Category: StudioJournal

Today working on the Kennebec Courthouse mural I did the initial block in of the logger.  I enlarged and transferred the drawing to the wall with the traditional grid method…drawing a grid on the drawing and then drawing a larger grid on the wall and using the grid to reference where the parts of the drawing go.  I have been drawing the larger grid on the wall with light colored pencil and then just drawing the figures in charcoal.  Then I proceed to the block in of the paint.

Also worked on trees, ship rigging, an 18th century musket and some mist today.  A good day of brushes.  I am not the tidiest of painters but I like the feeling of planning very well up front with drawings and studies and then working loose on the final canvas…pulling things from seeming chaos.  Rough scrub-ins give much more energy underlying the final paint.

For my Kennebec County Courthouse mural I have been finding models all over the place.  After lots of research about logging in Maine I had narrowed down the type of pose I wanted.  This taught me the tools and how they were used.  How the men moved and pried logs, and maneuvered logs in various currents.  So I worked up a dynamic posed I liked but then I needed a model.

Then doing a bit of shopping in the grocery store I found him.  A great guy, a great face, and a good model who fell right into the right pose.  This is a man who has done a lot of outdoor work and it makes a difference in the posing.  People who have done physical labor can pose much more naturally than trying to pose someone in a more sedentary job.

Here is an interesting old film about logging I found on youtube.  From stump to ship: A 1930 logging film

Yesterday I spent the day at Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, Maine, doing mural research in the photo library.  It was a fascinating day looking through hundreds of vintage photographs.  This kind of research is enjoyable but is also essential for this type of mural.

I need to make sure that I am getting details historically accurate.  What does a schooner shipyard of the time look like.  What kind of jobs are going on.  All this is very important.  To the right is a nice clear photo of the tugboat the Seguin.  This tug was built in 1884 and towed schooners down the river for many decades.  I needed a clear image of its structure so I can find how to draw it for the mural.  With a clear enough series of photos I can ‘learn’ the ship and then draw it from any angle I need.

There is another aspect that, as a painter, and a story telling painter, that I find very important.

While some photos are of important events in history, a lot of the type of photos I learned from yesterday were the snapshots of the day.  Just someone with a camera.  In these I often look at the main event but I can also find out essential story telling details by looking a tiny corners of the photos.   Someone bending to pick up a tool.  A woman with a basket of bread.  Little things that take time to see and decipher but that will flesh out the daily lives of the people I am trying to portray.

While posed photos of famous people may tell me what that person looked like.  Other photos will tell me how people lived, worked and played.

 

 

 

 

 

An oil for an exhibit about human trafficking.

For my 8 x 32 foot exterior mural, “Dance of Two Cultures” in Brunswick, Maine I used Golden heavy body acrylics.  These paints are wonderful.  This mural is now 6 and a half years old on an exterior, West facing wall in Maine.  There is a small eve at the roof but nothing that shelters this mural in the least.  So this means the paint has been exposed to 6+ years of Maine weather 365 days a year.  The wall bakes hot in the summer and endures typical winter temperatures 10 degrees Fahrenheit or below .  Blizzards, snow flurries, torrential thunderstorms and hot summer suns, Maine weather can be extreme… and the paint shows no signs of fading.

I used a palette of 9 or 10 colors.  Golden has many technical sheets about their products on their site and they rate paints for exterior use.  This palette has the highest light fast ratings, and I can now say I agree completely.

The mural was painted, indoors, over the winter of 2007-08. The paints had rich pigmentation making painting easy and a joy.  Opaques easily painted over contrasting value and colors.

The color is just as rich today as day one six years ago.  Thanks Golden.  And nope, I am not getting paid to say this.  It’s just great paint.

 

 

My “Dance of Two Cultures” mural in Brunswick, Maine  is 6 and half years old this fall.

Yesterday I was down in Brunswick doing a little upkeep before winter.  It is an outside mural, year round in all weather but it needed surprisingly little maintenance.  The paint is very tough and the entire mural has a protective varnish as well.  It did need a little repair in a few small spots and along a few seams.

First I removed the protective varnish, which is why I am wearing the gloves, BTW.  Then I moved on to fixing a few seams where the paint had cracked a tad.  I used the red oxide color just so I can remember where the repairs were.  On the next warmish day I will head back down to restore the original brushwork.

 

 

[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Work for my public mural for the new Kennebec County Courthouse in Augusta, Maine is well underway.  I was commissioned to paint a 14 x 30 foot mural depicting the rich maritime history of the Kennebec River, our major thoroughfare for many centuries for the fur trade, granite industry, ice cutting as well as bringing food and people from away.

Part of the work is becoming familiar with the type of gestures and movements people make while doing types of work.

• What tools do they use?
• How do they hold those tools?
• What is their body gesture?
• What period of time is it and what would they be wearing?

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This is the original concept sketch.  The mural is developing from this rough start.  Miles to go before I sleep.

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[vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Rockland, Maine gallery Harbor Square is situated next to the Farnsworth Art Museum in the heart of Rockland’s busy gallery district.  Its compelling roster of artists include Imero Gobbato,  Serge Hollerbach, Leo Osborne and Cabot Lyford.  The Muir Garden For Contemporary Sculpture is located on the gallery roof, and offers stunning views of the Rockland skyline. Christopher Cart has been named Harbor Square’s featured artist for the month of October, 2014.  Also this month be sure to see work in gold and precious stones by several noted jewelers including Thomas O’Donovan.

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This is a logo and poster I designed for a fancy dress, black and white ball back in 2012.

The Pemaquid Lighthouse in Maine looms through dreamy streamers of fog as the dramatic black shapes of crows swoop through the salt laden air.  On the left glows the deep pink of beach roses.  One of Christopher Cart’s homages to his beloved Maine, “Crows” has a slight air of the otherworldly that adds to its beauty.  Although sold to a private collection, it is available as a print in our print shop.

 

 

 

 

 

a poster for an Adobe User Group meeting

This atmospheric watercolor of a Maine churchyard by Christopher Cart was originally a cover illustration for a book about hauntings in Maine by DownEast Books.  It is a beautiful painting in its own right.  It gives us that feeling of sad beauty and eternity that Maine natives know when the last brilliant Maple leaves have fallen, and winter is waiting in the wings.