Author: Chuck Plaisted

Starting to turn. 10″ x 14″ 90 lb CP 2025

Red Maple turning 14″ x 10″ Arches 140 lb CP 2025

A show at the Senior Center — October 2024

The current group of paintings resulted from a trip that my wife and I made to Martha’s Vineyard in October 2023.  A friend and I got the 5:30 AM ferry to Chappaquiddick intending to fish the Gut where we could expect many fish.

I had forgotten my fishing gear, but I had my phone. The photos that I took turned out to  a gold mine of images that I have used for these paintings.

The atmosphere at daybreak was foggy, but absolutely still.  At this time of day colors are muted (or grayed) but very intense. There was a group of waves from a boat several miles away that arrived and slightly disturbed the glassy sea. The clouds and the rising sun made for brilliant colors in the eastern sky. The rising sun cast a spotlight on structures which protrude from the landscape while the surrounding land remains dark. This was for me, a magical experience.

A neighbor asked me recently if I would make a painting of Fitch Pond for her. The obvious painting was simple but I was interested in suggesting rather than elucidating.

Fitch Pond Fog 6, Arches 140 lb Watercolor 10″x14″

Prince Edward Island, May 2012

PEI Estuary Arches Watercolor 140 lb, 14″x10″

More Orchard Aerial Paintings

I am interested in the patterns that the farmers create when they plant their fields. David Hockney’s Yorkshire countryside sketches have been an inspiration.

Aerial Orchard 4 — 12″ x 16″ Arches 140 lb CP

Aerial Orchard 2 — 12″ x 16″ Arches 140 lb CP

• 

Aerial Orchard 1 — 12″ x 16″ Arches 140 lb CP

• 

Aerial Orchard 3 — 12″ x 16″ Arches 140 lb CP

Springtime in Sterling

• 

Forsythia on Redstone Hill Road 2 — 16″ x 12″ Arches 140 lb CP

Forsythia on Redstone Hill Road 1 — 16″ x 12″ Arches 140 lb CP

Sterling Open Space

The tree colors in April just before the leaves bud are hard to capture in paint as hard as I try. It turns out that the spring green color is also hard to capture.

Open Space 1 — 10 1/2″ x 14″ 90 lb paper

Open Space 2 — 10 1/2″ x 14″ 90 lb paper

Birch Tree 1 — 14″ x 10 1/2″ 90 lb paper

Open Space 3 — 13″ x 20″ Arches 140 lb CP

Open Space 4 — 12″ x 16″ Arches 140 lb CP

Open Space 5 — 12″ x 16″ Arches 140 lb CP

Open Space 6 — 12″ x 16″ Arches 140 lb CP

Open Space 7 — 12″ x 16″ Arches 140 lb CP

I have been recording video and photographs from my drone. Some of the images have led to paintings. I have been inspired by David Hockney’s paintings of the Yorkshire countryside.

With the pandemic raging and the cold weather, I have been painting at the Tower Hill Botanic Garden in Boylston, Massachusetts.