Josiah E Chase House, East Limington Maine

Pencil sketch / study of Josiah Chase Octagon House – Limington Maine.

I’m amazed at how on location sketches speak to me even after more than twenty years.

This sketch was completed shortly after I began painting – more than twenty years ago.  There are so many things that I observed, consciously or not, at the time that I was not able to paint – but the painting brings those memories back.  

This octagon house was in the process of being restored to its former glory.  Even unrestored there was an elegance about the house and surrounding property.  The house is surrounded by massive oak trees and overlooks the Ossipe and Saco Rivers.  The house was built @ 1858 for sea captain Josiah Chase (1819-1898) and his family.  His children left a momento (their initials) carved into one of the widow’s walk windows along with the date (which I can’t recall).

The painting below was done on location.  It was a beautiful, breezy day and I set up in the shade of one of the oak trees.  I completed another painting, a watercolor, during this visit as well.  I need to destroy the painting, it was badly damaged in a flood a few years back, but before I did I wanted to make another sketch using the on location painting for inspiration.  I’ve squared off some larger drawing paper with margins for notes, as well as for mattes, and I wanted to see how this might work.

I’ll use the sketch and notes for a larger work in watercolor and oils, perhaps doing similar views in different seasons.

I would also like to reach out to the current home owners to see if they would mind if I did some more work on location!  While researching online I found some very interesting information on Josiah E. Chase including an abstract of a journal kept by Chase on a voyage before he was promoted to captain.

Log/journal, kept by Josiah E. Chase, relating to a whaling voyage to the Atlantic, South Pacific, and Indian oceans.  Includes descriptions of types of whales seen or taken, collision at sea, death at sea, badly damaged ship sailing to Sydney, Australia, for repairs after being set on fire by members of crew at Fiji, smoking ship for stowaways, indigenous people, punishment on ship, and shipwrecks including the ship Russell (1847); and whale stamps, accounts, poetry, and crew members names mentioned thoughout log. Other places represented include Lord Howe Island (N.S.W.), Bay of Islands, and Tonga.

National Maritime Digital Library

It's all about the sea...

American Offshore Whaling Voyages: A Database

•  Voyages of Chase, Josiah E. 

Vessel Departure Arrival Hailing Port Destination Sperm Whale Bone Source

Martha (Ship)

1850, May 1853, Nov New Bedford, MA New Zealand 1724 158 700 *

Elizabeth Swift (Bark)

1854, Nov 1858, Oct New Bedford, MA Pacific 1781 0 0 *

Elizabeth Swift (Bark)

1859, May 1863, Sep New Bedford, MA Pacific 1356 80 1800 *

Hunter (Bark)

1867, Dec 1871, Jul New Bedford, MA Pacific 2441 36 0 *

California (Ship)

1872, Aug 1876, Aug New Bedford, MA New Zealand 2600 200 1500 *

James Arnold (Ship)

1878, Oct 1882, Sep New Bedford, MA Pacific 1370 180 0 *

I don’t know how families survived these long periods of absences (four year whaling voyages).  

His wife accompanied him on at least one voyage – their daughter was born at sea.  At least they had a good sixteen years after his retirement to enjoy their home together.  Imagine the stories we’d hear if these walls could talk.

Bath New Hampshire

                                     

While driving to a wedding in Vermont, Julie and I happened upon a village that looked as it must have looked 250 years ago.  Farmland filled with corn right up to the river's edge.  Beautifully maintained farm houses and barns.  And in the town center, a church, a huge covered bridge, and a general store that claims to be the oldest continuously operated general store in the United States.

We had no time to really stop and explore Bath NH on that first trip, but the town has never left my mind.  Many years later, we went back to Bath and I hiked across the covered bridge, up the hill on the other side and did a very quick pencil sketch, from which this charcoal drawing is taken.

For years I was content to simply leap in, draw or paint without really considering the composition or other elements of the scene in front of me.  From time to time I still do that, but over time - through talking to others, reading, and experimenting on my own I've begun a more systematic approach to painting and drawing.  I want to maximize the time I have to draw and paint.

As many of my paintings as possible are started (and completed if possible) on location.  Even a five minute sketch helps to recall the mood and details of a place even nearly 20 years later.

The next step is to examine the on location study in more detail.  Are there different compositional arrangements that will make for a stronger painting.  These are for the most part, very loose line drawings until I've settled on a composition...  This is a very quick and fun process that I'm able to do almost anywhere at any time.

The next step has become a finished charcoal drawing (usually 11" by 17").  This step is to more fully establish both the values and the composition of the finished painting.  Although I haven't yet made drawing surfaces exactly the same size (or half or a quarter the size) of the finished painting... I'll probably start marking out those areas to make the transition to larger paintings more seamless.

I don't know if any of you would find these methods or ones like them to be helpful in your journey - I just wanted to share what I've learned through trial and error over the last twenty years.  Although I find being more methodical , as described above, has helped me to produce stronger paintings - I find that nothing matches the thrill of starting and completing a painting on location.

If you've developed other methods that have helped in your journey, please share them.

This first attempt was based on a quick on location sketch.  It never quite worked for me.  The quick on location sketch came out pretty well, but didn't work in a larger format.

                                   

Below is another version of the sketch that I  began working on yesterday.  I've altered the perspective and the angle of the bridge - not quite as it was, but pictorally in the first sketch, the bridge stopped the eye from going into the picture.  Although the empty  left midground did provide balance for the composition, I found it to be too plain.

I've added the beginning stages of apple orchards in the left mid ground as well as farm field in the far distance.  I still have come detail work on the bride and values clarification on the rock wall on the far bank.  I've intentially left out the waterfall in the foreground as it competed with the center of interest.  Plenty of subjects to do from this area.

Seasonal views of this would also prove to be interesting - Spring, Fall, and Winter I think.