Friday, October 10, 2008

"Gull Rock"

One of the places that we painted on Monhegan was Gull Rock. After arriving on the ferry we hiked across the island and perched ourselves on some pretty high cliffs to paint.
Colin was up for climbing down the cliffs to paint at the bottom ( see photo below ).
The water is pretty cold here and the current strong. They say that you should not fall in, because there won't be time for anyone to rescue you if you do. Besides freezing to death.

Here is one of my paintings from this location followed by a photo of the view.


"Gull Rock", 8" x 10" oil on linen, Frank Gardner © 2008
Private Collection



View of Gull Rock, Frank Gardner © 2008



Colin Page painting at Gull Rock



Peter Kalill painting at Gull Rock



Paul Schulenburg painting at Gull Rock

15 comments:

Hi! I'm Ruby said...

awesome work :)

Anonymous said...

yeah, that's a great spot to paint. That view just takes your breath away when you come through the narrow trail to this massive cliff dropping into the water! That's one hell of a spot.

I like how this painting came out. Is this one you may do a larger version of? It would make a dramatic image. Plus those rocks look great with the color in them... especially below the high tide line where they go orange.

Anonymous said...

Frank- I really like seeing the comparison from painting to the actual setting to "get " how you transition to canvas.

You've really made these rocks sparkle with light and shadow.

Sounds like a touchy terrain but looks so worth the trek.

And seeing all you guys like crabs, on your individual rock perches- I can only imagine what a great time it was.
I caught a brief video on Jeremy Lipkings' blog too.

Dean H. said...

Love the color and loose handling of the rocks, Frank. I envy your great painting time with buddies!

Frank Gardner said...

Hi Ruby, thanks!

Hey there Colin. The arrival on Burnt Head to Gull Rock was pretty awesome. Just kind of come up on it. It looks pretty steep from the top. You get extra points for hauling your pack down to the bottom.
Glad you came back up for your second painting so you could swap jokes and wise cracks with us though.
I may do a larger version of this one, but I am going to get started on a 24x30 of that one that is now in your collection.
The dark rocks and orange/ yellow sea weed below the high tide line are real nice for warming up a cool ocean view.

Hi Bonnie.
Thanks for checking in. Don't compare them too much, you might start to see my deviations :(
It was pretty steep, the only way to find a place to set up was to spread out on the ledges.

Thanks Dean!

Sylvia Jenstad said...

had to stop... really cool... love your colours...your compostion... everything... I also love 'Tapetes'

Marian Fortunati said...

Another lovely painting that rocks!!! It is so instructive (at least for me) to see the photo AND the spot you painted. It helps us see what you moved, what you left out, what you changed. If we weren't artists who did that, we might as well use photos, huh??

Anonymous said...

Nice photos of the guys at work. I ran into Molly Siple at an exhibition last weekend, we talked about the Maine trip, I had no idea that she had gone down to your workshops! Sounded like she really loved it, and is trying to find more reasons to get back down there.

Frank Gardner said...

Thanks Sylvia.

Thanks Marian. I'm glad that you like to see the photo of the scene.
Your kind.
You say "what I moved, what I changed, what I left out", and I think... what I got wrong. LOL
Just kidding, editing is an important part of composing a painting.

Hi Eric. That must have been at the CAC show.
Yeah, Molly wrote a pretty nice article on a three day workshop that I gave here.
Check out my post from tonight when you get a chance.

Christine Mercer-Vernon said...

first, very cool to see all the pics of everyone painting. and second, i really really like this one. my favorite so far from your trip. i like how you took what was in front of you and made it your own, the colors, the shapes (great shapes in those rocks), and i like that you get the water somewhat reserved so that the rocks, and that great little pine, take the spotlight.

Frank Gardner said...

Oh, I have lots of pics of the guys painting. I'll try and include some more.
Thanks for the approval on this one.
The water was pretty clam, so it did not distract me much from the rocks. I tried to get the horizon down. It was lighter in the sky than the water on one side and vice versa on the other side, with a line of dark right at the horizon.

Mary Sheehan Winn said...

I like your colors in this painting of Gull Rock. Great shots from that cliff. I have painted on that site and if you drop a brush it will roll away before you can pick it up. And don't lunge after it or you'll be at the bottom of the cliff! Nothing like Monhegan adventures!

Frank Gardner said...

Thanks Mary, yeah, you don't want to drop any of your stuff over the edge.
Actually, I found a couple of brushes at the edge while walking and wondered if the artist had fallen over.

Julia Lundman said...

nice rocks - aren't rocks the damndest things to paint in all of plein air painting?!!

Frank Gardner said...

Hi Julia, They can be pretty tough. The Maine coast is a good place to go if you want to paint rocks.