While I have managed to complete two paintings and start a another since the first of the year, so much of my work over the past month has been getting ready to paint. I finally finished building some stretchers, got the canvas stretched, gessoed them, and have bought more canvas to use in order to re-purpose an older stretcher. I also spent some time last week laying out some compositions for three new paintings based on site sketches and photographs from the past three months or so.

This time of year always gets very tough and it is always helpful to find some time to break away and re-energize myself. Rebecca and I headed up to Corolla, NC on the Outer Banks for a weekend get-away. I think it’s kind of hilarious and ironic that we leave a beach town to go spend time at the beach. Nowadays there just isn’t an off-season here. However, I digress… It was indeed a very refreshing weekend and I made several new sketches. While it may take quite a long time to get around to all of them, I have no shortage of ideas and notes for paintings.

We also made a stop on the way back home in a little town called Plymouth, NC. Rebecca wanted to see the replica Civil War ironclad on display there. It was a bit underwhelming but it afforded me some time to make a couple of relatively quick sketches of the Roanoke River one of which includes the paper mill there.