|
The Feathered Brush
Painting and Birding 'round the Long Island Sound
by Sean Murtha on 8/8/2012 1:47:16 PM
Despite its name, gulls are not welcome on Great Gull Island. When they approach, dozens of terns rise into the air and chase the intruder out, if they can. Great Gull is a tern nesting colony, hosting the largest Common Tern colony in the world, and the largest Roseate Tern colony in the western hemisphere. This remarkable place is at the eastern end of the Long Island Sound, owned and managed by the American Museum of Natural History. For a week this summer my son Brendan and I, along with a few friends, spent time volunteering at Great Gull. Typically we [...]
Read This Full Article >>
by Sean Murtha on 6/11/2012 11:17:05 PM
It seemed that summer was finally here, and then suddenly things got cool and damp. Last week an unsettled front stalled over the northeast and as a result the skies became decidedly autumnal. There wasn't too much rain but often the threat of it, and there were enough breaks in the clouds to allow glimpses of sunlit patches and blue sky. For a painter on the East coast used to painting horizontal landscapes, skies like this offer the nearest thing to vertical Western scenery- and I wasted no time in getting the paints out and keeping my sights high! It was [...]
Read This Full Article >>
by Sean Murtha on 3/10/2012 8:34:37 AM
When I found myself employed by the American Museum of Natural History back in 1995, I knew it was not merely a job but a life-changing event. I could never have guessed, however, how profound it would be. I had been visiting the AMNH since I was very young, and though it was dinosaurs that drew me there in the first place, I became increasingly captivated by the dioramas. What magic they were! Being an imaginative boy, I could easily suspend belief and find myself transported halfway around the world, closer to wild animals than I would ever dare to be, [...]
Read This Full Article >>
by Sean Murtha on 11/1/2011 8:13:08 PM
"Red Island" oil, 8x10, 2011 Sean Murtha
This time of year I always begin thinking about Fourteen Acre Pond. Though I visit this pond, which is in my home town of Norwalk, CT, throughout the year, in my mind I always link it with Autumn. I have not painted there often (though I have no reasonable excuse) and I hope to change that. I did this painting there a week or two ago, and should get back soon before the colors disappear.
I first discovered Fourteen Acre pond about three years ago, as a result of a rare bird alert. I had been vaguely aware of a pond behind [...]
Read This Full Article >>
by Sean Murtha on 1/28/2011 10:25:55 PM
"Snowfall, Bruce Park" 2011, Sean Murtha
At last, a New England Winter! I've always wanted to experience one... so much so that I even moved to New England ten years ago. But Southwestern Connecticut is only technically New England; latitude and shore-effect keep the winters fairly mild, typically, and snowfall minimal. Not this year! Since Christmas we have had storm after storm, with increasing frequency, each one dumping at least half a foot, some well over that. The snowplows have run out of places to put all the snow, and the piles at the end of my driveway are nearly as tall as I am. Everyone is [...]
Read This Full Article >>
by Sean Murtha on 1/21/2011 12:35:31 PM
Tundra Swan Study, Sean Murtha 2010
I remember reading somewhere that "the best poems are never written because the act of writing them would have spoiled the moment", and this statement could apply equally to painting--especially plein-air painting where the "moment" is truly happening there before you. For all the romance associated with the image of the artist dutifully painting away at their easel while the sun sets in the distance, in reality that sun has probably set before they have the easel set up and the paints squeezed out onto the palette. That is, if they even have their paints with them when that amazing sunset [...]
Read This Full Article >>
by Sean Murtha on 1/5/2011 6:00:40 PM
"The Third Day of Christmas" 2010, Sean Murtha
I hope everyone had a Happy New Year! Nothing has really changed except the calendar page, but there is something comforting about wiping the mental slate and starting fresh. I'm wondering, however; are we going to call it "Two-thousand eleven" or "Twenty-eleven", neither of which really flows smoothly off the tongue?
January is named for Janus, the Roman god of doorways, who had two faces, one looking forward and one back. I'll begin this first post of 2011 by looking back. This was my last signed painting of 2010. It is a plein-air done at Waveny Park in New Canaan, right after [...]
Read This Full Article >>
by Sean Murtha on 12/21/2010 9:20:45 PM
Indian Harbor, from the bridge on Oneida road
Having written about "My Patch" being Bruce Park in Greenwich, I thought I'd wander off to a few other sites where I frequently paint, all within easy reach of the day job. I'm quite fond of shoreline vistas, and though Bruce Park has at least one of these, I usually head elsewhere for views of salt water.
Just down the road is a small woodlot and marsh area managed by Greenwich Audubon, called the Oneida Sactuary. Oneida road borders it to the South, where the marsh drains beneath a small bridge. This painting was begun on that bridge at low tide, looking [...]
Read This Full Article >>
by Sean Murtha on 12/14/2010 6:38:49 PM
"Crimson, Gold and Green" 2010, Sean Murtha
Some birders I know speak of "their patch" being the place that they bird so often that they know it intimately, and hardly miss anything that comes through. I'm going to borrow the phrase to refer to the place where I do a lot of my plein-air painting. That place is Bruce Park in Greenwich CT.
"Fair day at the Park" 2007, Sean Murtha
It's not because it's particularly attractive to me; in fact I prefer wilder, more natural locations with longer views, and Bruce Park is a rather cramped, manicured town park with tennis courts, public sculpture, gardens and paved paths. But [...]
Read This Full Article >>
by Sean Murtha on 12/12/2010 4:24:52 PM
Autumn Beeches (clunker!)
As a plein-air painter, one has to accept that some paintings just don't work out. I usually spend some time back in the studio, "fixing" my field paintings. But now and then I bring one home that makes me wonder "what was I thinking?"-- the problem with the painting is so deeply imbedded in the design or overall color choices that the time spent fixing would be better spent on a whole new painting.
Here is just such a painting, which I did one day about two weeks ago. It's a fairly good record of the light and the seasonal color, but [...]
Read This Full Article >>
|
