8×10″, Oils on canvas covered hardboard
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I have painted this scene many times at different times of day. This one was painted at 12 noon on location. Notice how the light is flatter in the middle of the day. Shadows are not as dark, and contrasts are less pronounced.
6×8″, Oils on sealed, primed hardboard
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It was so cold standing in the wind at Olana while painting this that tears were running down my face!
24×36″, Oils on stretched canvas
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This large painting was done on location in Cold Spring, New York over a period of several days. It was pretty windy some of that time, and I thought the painting was going to act as a sail and carry off the entire easel from time to time! I was exhausted by the time the painting was completed, with the long days and long drives over to the location, but it was worth it.
6×8″, Oils on canvas covered hardboard
$150.00 plus $10 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.
This painting was started a couple of weeks ago on a very chilly morning at the top of Kaaterskill Falls. It just needed a few minutes of studio touch-ups to call it done. This is one of my favorite painting spots, and I go there often to paint the stunning cascades as they spill over the rocks before plunging down the 279 feet of Kaaterskill Falls. It is the tallest waterfall in New York State.
This was a favorite spot of the Hudson River School painters as well. Back in those times, there was a dam up here to hold back the flow of water. A bucket would be lowered to the viewers below, who would each pay into the bucket for a water release to view the falls. Snack and drinks would also be lowered down to complete the attraction.
6×8″, Oils on canvas covered hardboard
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Sunday was the Olana Paintout, an annual event at the estate of the late Hudson River School painter Frederic Church. As I drove along the road that runs through the grounds to the top of the hill overlooking the Hudson, I was immediately captivated by this brilliant red tree standing alone out on the field. I pulled my car off the road and set up my easel on the spot.
This was my first time painting since my hand surgery, and it sure was a challenge with a cast!
12×16″, Oils on canvas covered hardboard
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There is nothing for a Hudson River painter quite like standing in the yard at Frederic Church’s estate and looking up at his home, paintbrush in hand. Spending an occasional day at Olana makes me appreciate the history and drama of painting in the Hudson Valley.
This painting, done on location at Olana, needed a few studio tweaks before I could call it done. As you can probably tell by looking at the painting, the drawing of the mansion took up most of my painting time on site! The sun was moving quickly and the lighting changed dramatically before I had a chance to wrap it up. In the studio, I touched up the trees a bit and altered the slope on the left side. Now it’s ready for a special wall—maybe yours?
5×7″, Oils on canvas covered hardboard
$125.00 plus $10 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.
The morning was overcast and looked like it was going to rain, so I was undecided whether or not to drive all the way over to the Hudson River to paint. In the end, I decided to go and do a cloud painting, and I’m so glad I did! The sky was fabulous, and although the clouds moved and changed quickly, I think I managed to capture the feel of the day.
6×8″, Oils on canvas covered hardboard
$290.00 plus $20 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.
I painted with friends last week at an overlook on the west side of the Hudson River. The scene was very dramatic as the filtered sunlight fought through the haze, bursting onto the river in patches of yellow light.
I’ve been painting, painting, painting lately, but haven’t had a chance to get all of these photographed yet. More to come during the week….Stay tuned!
6×8″, Oils on canvas covered hardboard
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This painting was also done from the top of Hunter Mountain, this time facing eastward toward Kaaterskill Clove, made famous by the Hudson River School painters. The mountains you see in this painting are the easternmost mountains of the Catskill range. Beyond them stretches the Hudson River Valley. Through that cleft in the mountains on the left lies the former home of Thomas Cole, and across the river is Olana, home of Frederic Church. Many of their most well-known paintings were of scenes between here and there.
Clouds Over the Palisades: Hudson River Quadricentennial Series No. 23
12×16″, Oils on Raymar canvas panel
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This painting was posted a few weeks ago without the barge and tug. I feel the boats change the painting enough to warrant reposting it. I think they add a lot to the painting, don’t you? When the barge and tug went by, I wasn’t far enough along with the painting to put them in. However, I was quick to grab them with my camera, and so I had the reference image to add them later. They help give scale to the scenery, and are so typical of the boat traffic that goes up and down the river in the course of a day.
I spent a great day down in Hastings-on-Hudson. This wonderful, small park is right on the Hudson River, with the cliffs of the Palisades looming over the far shoreline. The morning started out overcast, but broke into big, billowy clouds by late morning.
This is Number 23 in my Hudson River Quadricentennial Series of paintings, commemorating the 400 year anniversary of Henry Hudson’s voyage up the river.
Below is an image of the painting before I put in the barge and tugboat.
Here is a detail of the boats below the cliffs:
Breaking Blues at Olana: Hudson River Quadricentennial Series No. 29
6×8″, Oils on sealed, primed hardboard
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This oil sketch was done from just outside the home of Hudson River School artist Frederic Church. He had this classic view of the Hudson from most of the terraces and many of the rooms in his beautiful Moorish-styled mansion. The land was nearly all farmland back then. The trees have taken over since he lived here, and many of the vistas he enjoyed have become obscured by the overtaking foliage. I’m told that they will be doing some clearing in the not too distant future, to bring back some of those farmland views present in Church’s time.
There were a lot of visitors to the site while I was painting this. Occasionally the blue sky would poke through the layers of clouds as I painted, and I would snatch the opportunity to include those hopeful, fair-weather breaks of cerulean in the painting. Two minutes later, it would be completely overcast again. I found myself having to explain to visitors more than once that I really, really did see that blue sky just a minute ago!
8×10″, Oils on sealed, primed hardboard
$250.00 plus $15 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.
On Saturday I had a show opening at the Palenville Library. From there, I drove up the mountain to South Lake, where Thomas Cole did his famous painting, Lake with Dead Trees, and many other Hudson River School painters did their renditions of Round Top Mountain’s peak looking down upon the lake. It was my intention to finish a painting I’d started there on Friday. However, the light was totally different, and I saw a beautiful sunset emerging. I decided to do this new painting instead, and chased the sunset to the very end.
Catskill Mountain House Vista: Hudson River Quadricentennial Series No. 28
8×10″, Oils on sealed, primed hardboard
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When I arrived at the site of the Catskill Mountain House atop South Mountain early in the morning, I was above a heavy cloud cover. It felt like I was in outer space looking down at the earth! As I painted, more and more of the clouds gave way to the rolling fields below, and the Hudson River appeared out of the hazy covering.
It is from this exact spot that Frederic Church did his famous painting, Above the Clouds. This was a popular painting location for many of the Hudson River School painters.
Layers of Blue Mountains: Hudson River Quadricentennial Series No. 27
6×8″, Oils on sealed, primed hardboard
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After visiting the Thomas Cole Historic Site, we crossed the Hudson River to tour the home of another famous Hudson River School painter: Frederic Church. A fabulous guide led us through his Moorish-style home, where we admired the eclectic collections and intricate wall stenciling. A second tour there brought us to a show of his works done on site at Olana, which just opened recently on the second floor of the estate.
Following that dose of inspiration, Gretchen Kelly and I wandered down a trail near the parking lot and came upon this beautiful view of the Hudson River and Catskills. We set up to paint in the strong, warm, late day light, but it wasn’t long before these beautiful, billowy clouds turned into thunderheads. I don’t think I’ve ever packed up my gear so quickly in my life!
Late Day Light on the Hudson: Hudson River Quadricentennial Series No. 25
10×8″, Oils on sealed, primed hardboard
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‘Gotta love the color and light along the Hudson River in the late afternoon. The grass and rocks glow, and there is always soft color above the horizon. There were lots of boats and ships going by too. I took photos of them and I’ll add one to the painting, then will repost it. If anybody chooses to purchase the painting before then, you get to pick the boat that goes into the painting!
I see in posting it here that the color is a little hot-looking. The coloring in the actual painting is softer and more subtle. I will correct it once I paint in the boat (probably next week or the following week) and reshoot the image.
16×12″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on canvas covered hardboard
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Visiting the Hudson River School show at the Thomas Cole Historical Site last Friday made me think about many of my own paintings of the Hudson River, and how our contemporary, plein air pieces fit into the grand scheme of things. The Hudson River School paintings are filled with details, and tell a story about man’s journey—past, present and future. In the years before paint tubes, it wasn’t so easy to transport paints and equipment out into the field. As I looked over those paintings, I recognized many bits and pieces of the locations. The artists would go out into the field and sketch these bits and pieces, then come back into the studio and combine them into a grand work with a foreground, middle ground, and horizon, incorporating figures and animals representing man’s mark on the landscape and his journey.
I look at the Hudson River as a theme that flows through my work. I think those of us who paint plein air have been heavily influenced by many factors through the generations. While there are ateliers and painting schools that teach the techniques of the Hudson River School painters of past generations, there are also those who have been heavily influenced by the Impressionists, and the immediacy necessary to capture a scene on location under the conditions of changing light. It will be very interesting for those in future generations to trace back through these Hudson River styles as a more direct painting approach evolved.
As for me, I plan to go out and continue to paint my favorite river. I suppose I will leave it to the art historians to determine how we fit into the spectrum of art history!
This is a scene painted from a lovely waterfront park along the Hudson River in Nyack, New York. It faces the Tappan Zee Bridge, which was just barely emerging from the fog as I set up to paint.
5×7″, Oils on Ampersand Gessoboard
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I’m doing a lot of small studies for larger paintings lately. This is a scene painted from a photo I took up at Garrison Castle, overlooking the Hudson River. It’s not surprising that Frederic Church of the Hudson River School painters selected this site for the Osborn family to build their castle in the sky!
This is a view straight up the Hudson River, where the currents are the most treacherous, and the river channel narrows and wraps around West Point Military Academy. Those are the buildings of West Point silhouetted in the painting in the foreground peninsula.
The scene is so complex, and takes in many of the most famous spots in the Hudson Highlands. You can see the point of Breakneck Ridge on the right, and Bannerman Island even further upriver. The mountain farthest back on the left is Storm King, and the Catskills are straight ahead off in the distance. The Hudson illuminates at sunset from this high vantage point.
I think this sunset view through the Hudson Highlands from above is deserving of a really, really big painting sometime in the not too distant future!
This painting is Number 21 from my Hudson River Quadricentennial Series, celebrating the 400 year anniversary of Henry Hudson’s travels up the river.
8×10″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on sized archival matboard
$250.00 plus $15 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.
My friend Nancy and I went up to the top of Kaaterskill Falls yesterday morning. We didn’t expect it to be so cold and blustery out there on the ridge at the mountaintop! We weren’t dressed for those kinds of conditions. We thought we’d been there for hours because we were so chilled, but when we asked a passing hiker what time it was, we learned it was only 9:39am!
Back in the days of the Hudson River School painters, there was a dam constructed near this site. Tourists would pay to see the falls (from the bottom), and water would then be released from the dam for a spectacular display. The dam is no longer there, but there was still plenty of water rushing over the edge while I was painting!
For this venture, I used the foamcore pochade box I made. It weighs almost nothing, fits in my backpack, and even holds four wet panels. When I’m painting in the Catskills, I know I can always find a rock or fallen tree trunk to sit on, so instead of a stool, I carry a very light closed cell foam cushion in my backpack. They can be found in gardening centers; they’re actually made for gardeners to kneel on as they work.
8×6″, oils on Raymar canvas panel
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This magnificent spot, with the red barns nestled in the valley below the Catskills, is about five minutes from our house. There are mountains and rolling fields everywhere you look. Locations like this one are what make me realize why the Hudson River School painters were so drawn to this area!
It was only 26 degrees yesterday morning when I painted this, so it was done from the warm comfort of my car, parked off on the side of the road!
12×16″, Oils on canvas covered hardboard
$440.00 plus $20 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.
Kaaterskill Clove was one of the favorite painting locations for many of the Hudson River School artists. Thomas Cole, Frederic Church, Jasper Cropsey and many others painted these mountains in centuries past. It’s easy to see why they were drawn to this dramatic location. The Hudson River provided easy access upstate from New York City and the Lower Hudson Valley. The mountains are only 10 miles inland from the river.
Here is an image of the work in progress, after the underpainting and initial color layer:
Here’s how I set up to paint from the computer for works larger than 8×10″. I prefer this to using printed photos.
The colors I used are:
Titanium White
Cadmium Yellow Lemon
Cadmium Yellow Medium
Raw Sienna
Cadmium Red
Cerulean Blue
Cobalt Blue
Ultramarine Blue
Viridian
Ivory Black
These are the mediums I planned to use for the painting. It’s the first time I tried the Weber Res-n-gel, but it didn’t tack up as quickly as I’d hoped. I think I prefer just turp, or turp and a tiny bit of Liquin for the underlayers.
I use a glass palette in the studio with a sheet of brown kraft paper below it. It is so easy to clean. I had a glass store cut this 16×24 piece of 1/4″ glass for me and grind the edges.
I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the steps and materials used along the way.
5×7″, Oils on Ampersand Gessoboard
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This painting is done from a photo I took along Platte Clove Road, between Saugerties NY and Tannersville. The road is narrow and winds around the mountain, with sheer cliffs alongside, and is so dangerous that this portion is closed in winter. The views are breathtaking. My husband and I pulled off to the side of the road to take some pictures. After years of looking for a vacation home, it was this drive around Kaaterskill High Peak that narrowed our search to this dramatic area of the Catskills.
18×24″, oils on stretched canvas
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I used a smaller, plein air version of this scene as a field study to paint this larger work inside the studio. This painting is still wet, and since it’s too large to fit in my light filtering box, there’s some glare on the image. I’ll try to get a better photo of the painting before it goes off to its new home!
8×10″, Oils on Raymar linen panel
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Palette: Cadmium Yellow Lemon, Permanent Rose, Ivory Black, Titanium White
Painted on location at Olana in Hudson, New York.
6×8″, oils on sealed, primed hardboard
$150.00 plus $10 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.
This painting was done en plein air at Olana during the workshop. The palette is just Cadmium Yellow Lemon, Permanent Rose, black and white. It was an interesting exploration of warm and cool color without a blue on the palette.
8×10″, oils on Raymar canvas panel
$250.00 plus $15 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.
Painted on location at Olana in Hudson, New York. (Home of Hudson River School painter Frederic Church)
Pathway at Olana
7×10″, Watercolor on 300# Saunders Waterford cp
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It’s Watercolor Wednesday again! I still have Hudson River School images of Olana running through my mind, so I pulled out the photos I took while painting there the other day and did this one from my pictures. I worked on Cold Press paper this time.
Palette:
Raw Sienna
Cadmium Yellow Pale
Cadmium Red
Permanent Alizarin
Cerulean Blue
Cobalt Blue
Ultramarine Blue
Viridian
Burnt Sienna
6×8″, oils on sealed, primed hardboard
$165.00 plus $10 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.
When the haze lifted, the view of the Hudson River suddenly appeared in the distance!
6×8″, oils on sealed, primed hardboard
$150.00 plus $10 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.
It was raining pretty heavily at 6:30am and I wondered if I should go up to the beautiful home of Hudson River School artist Frederic Church for the day. I finally decided to take the chance, and drove up to Olana.
It was heavily overcast when I got there, but the rain had ended. I set up my easel along this path winding down through the fields, where I enjoyed the serenity, atmospheric light, and fading distances.
Click to enlarge:
24×18″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on canvas covered hardboard
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This large painting was done using my plein air study, “The Base of Kaaterskill Falls”, as a reference image, along with a photo I took at the scene. I did a value underpainting in Transparent Red Oxide before going in with local color. One of the things I love about the Golden OPEN paints is the way the underpainting shows through without mixing and muddying the color. I would have had to wait for my oil paints to dry before continuing in order to achieve some of the effects I got here with Golden OPEN.
This was one of the spots painted by many of the old Hudson River School painters, and many of the new ones too! This painting is just the bottom tier of the falls; there is another tier above!
6×8″, Golden OPEN Acrylics on sealed, primed hardboard
$160.00 plus $10 shipping and insurance within the Continental United States. Please email me at JamieWG@aol.com for International purchases or with any questions.
I once knew a wonderful painter named Mike Pacitti, who passed away a few years ago. He used a few different colors to underpaint with. One of them was called Burnt Carmine, made by Rembrandt. I remember it as a strong carmine/crimson color mixed with black. Even with black in the mix, I was surprised by how strong the color was when I saw Mike use it, and yet his paintings were filled with beautiful subtleties.
I decided to try something like that while waiting for clouds to break along the Hudson River in Cold Spring. I mixed Quinacridone Magenta half and half with Carbon Black, and used that to do the underpainting for this little plein air. It was much stronger than the colors I normally use to lay out my composition and values. No matter what you use to paint over it, the magenta seems to work its way through. Part of me thinks it still comes through too much. Another part of me thinks I’m just not used to it, and that I kind of like the effect.
What do you think? (Please click “comments” at the bottom of this post to let me know rather than emailing, because I’m getting swamped! 
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