“Murphy Hill Road” - watercolor landscape painting

"7 × 11” watercolor on paper

I’m not sure what is more dazzling in autumn - the vivid color of the trees or the beautiful, raking light that illuminates them. Whichever it is, there is no denying the visual richness that seems to engage all the senses in a way that few experiences do.

I’m not sure it is possible to capture the full range of this sensation in a painting, but has been a career long endeavor to be able to at least capture the light effect. Doing so means finding a way to translate the range of color, the temperature shifts and the contrasts - both subtle and dramatic - into a manageable composition.

That was the goal with this work. My work is often influenced by the calendar and the current moment to the point that I often paint ‘in-season’ - simply put, I paint summer scenes in summer, winter scenes in winter and fall scenes in fall. For whatever reason, autumn seemed to arrive a bit early and suddenly this year. It caught my eye and I found myself paying more attention to the season, the color and the light than I have in many years. This is one of the paintings that is a result.

This painting is a studio piece which means it begins with an idea that needs a scene to come alive. The scene comes from a plein air painting done in winter eight years ago on the actual Murphy Hill Road in Shaftsbury, Vermont. The elements from that painting and location were adapted to the new idea and developed into a finished work.

“Almost No Snow”

Scene painted en plein air on Murphy Hill Road in January 2017. This painting was the starting point for this post’s subject painting.

As you can see, the new painting is similar to, but also changed from the original plein air work. This is what happens when an idea is looking for a subject! BTW - the original plein air painting, “Almost No Snow” served as the starting point for another recent painting “Fade”.

As much as I enjoy autumn and enjoy painting autumn scenes, managing to capture as full a sensation of a ‘dappled-light’ autumn day as this one is rare. For me, “Murphy Hill Road” turns out to be one of those.