Anywhere I Roam

Duluth

2011-01-22T10:48:00.000-08:00

"Hillside, Duluth Harbor" 12" x 16" available

This is a view from the hillside in Duluth Minnesota looking down at Minnesoat Point, AKA Park Point (the long narrow stretch of land in the middle ground), and the Duluth Harbor. The one thing that always comes into my mind, as an artist, while I'm painting in Duluth is the fact that the great American painter Albert Bierstadt painted on this same hillside. His veiw was further west (or off the right side of the canvas). There are virtually no buildings on his hillside view, just a straight shot down to the point. I"ve always wondered what brought him to Duluth, Minnesota. Was he visiting an artist buddy or relatives? Its such an odd side trip from his Yosemite and western painting locales.

"They Were All Yellow" 6" x 8"

2010-11-04T11:46:00.000-07:00

Shall Wonders Cease to Amaze, 16 x 20

2010-06-03T19:48:00.000-07:00

This painting was one that had been brewing inside of me for a while before I finally sat down and painted it. I wanted to silhouette the palisades against an early morning sunrise. I made an 8 x 10 study and then used that to create this painting. My friend was confused by the title and asked why I just didn't title it "Sunrise on Clearwater Lake". I'm getting tired of titles that state the obvious and trying to come up with titles that relate more to what I was feeling when I painted them. These types of sunrises are common in most parts of the world and I was wondering if I would ever become indifferent to them. I don't think so. They are always amazing.

It Must Be Amore, 16 x 20

2010-06-03T18:09:00.000-07:00

This is a memory painting based on cloud formations and moonlight over Lake Superior and the Sawtooth Mountains. I have a small plein air sketch of the clouds (on a sunny day) that I used for the shapes and light effect. I had seen similar light effects on a few different moonlit nights and thought it would be cool to have big billowing mass of clouds, so often seen in the summer, drifting across the lake lit up by a full moon.

Clearwater Palisades, 16 x 32

2010-06-03T17:55:00.000-07:00

Another painting done of my favorite Lake: Clearwater. This is a studio version of a smaller painting I did on location.

Cascade Falls, 16 x 20

2010-06-03T17:31:00.000-07:00

Brewing Storm, 9 x 12

2010-05-27T08:29:00.000-07:00

This is a view looking west (or down the shore) on the beach at Nanibijou Lodge on Lake Superiors North Shore. This beach is not far from my house and on an occasional Sunday, I'll enjoy the lodges infamous Sunday brunch with its blueberry sausages and planked trout. Its a great place to paint, too!

"Ice Over" 12" x 20"

2010-03-30T16:13:00.000-07:00

The veiw from the Pincushion overlook parking lot can be pretty benign sometimes, but when the weather is in flux there can be some pretty cool scenes. This was actually painted last winter when things were seasonally normal: cold, lots of snow and ice cover on Lake Superior. I never really feel like I live in a remote location dispite the fact that I'm 100 miles from any major city (Duluth or Thunder Bay, Ontario). In the summer there is more people traffic and its warm and its easy to move around outside. But these kind of winter days really makes it feel like I'm in the middle of ho-dunk nowhere! Note: My profile picture at left was taken the same winter on a painting outing about 2 miles from my house. I might as well have been camping with Earnest Shakelton.

"Hellooo Down There"

2010-03-25T11:49:00.000-07:00

This is the painting done during the Grand Marais Art Colony Winter Plein Air Festival. A few of us skied into Rose Lake in the BWCAW (and along the Canadian border) a few miles and then climbed up a section of the Border Route Trail, a hiking trail that follows the border lakes.
This location is becoming one of my favorite painting spots. I think in part because it offers a variety of views, particularly aerial, and because it requires a some effort through the wilderness to get there. These kind of excursion sustain my love of wilderness travel and love of painting the wilderness. I think of the Group of Seven, who ventured into the Canadian wild for their images and Edgar Payne, who would horse pack into the Sierras with his paints and set up shop for a few months to paint. With painting these days, there is lots of pressure to "produce" and there are other painters to compete against for the painting dollar and time=money. Consequently the easy and convenient routes (literally and figuratively) to making a painting are taken. To me, there isn't alot of potential for growth (personally or painterly) in the easy. I could have stayed home and made three paintings this day. They may have turned out really well. Instead I only made one, given the time spent skiing into and out of our location. But it was a good one. And it wasn't easy (ask my friend Holly about my ski's and the trek over the Duncan Lake Portage). But I did grow a bit that day. Personally and painterly.

"Here Fishy Fishy Fishy!"

2010-03-17T08:44:00.000-07:00

Ice fishing has so much visual imagery that you can't NOT find a painting on an outing. It was particularly comfortable this day. It was warm and there was no wind and we were on a favorite lake of mine (for fishing and painting), Clearwater Lake. My friend was sitting on a pale (classic ice fishing furniture) eating lunch between jigging for lake trout. We got skunked for fish but I got a nice painting out of the day.

8" x 10" Oil on canvas

The Leaving Storm

2010-02-18T10:29:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd show the "unfinished" part of painting outdoors. Sometimes artists are afraid of putting ugly or crude works in front of the public but the reality is that is where we often find beauty. This 6x8" study was done in a light rain and I spent about 15 to 20 minutes on it. I wouldn't call it a "finished" painting, though others commenters disagree, but it does have lots in it. Particularly the feeling of storminess. Capturing a feeling VS. objects goes way farther in a painting. You can always go back to the spot and get certain details but you can't get back that particular feeling of the moment. Watch for this scene to show up in a bigger painting someday.

Coming up on Stairway Portage

2010-02-10T09:05:00.000-08:00

This painting was done last winter on, or above, Rose Lake in the Boundry Waters Canoe Area on the Canadian border. It's about a two mile ski (one way) to get here and a bit of a hike up the Border Route Trail to get to this vantage. It was late February and the lake snow was crusty enough that skiing was effortless, even while pulling a sled with my painting gear. I painted a person pulling a sled (sort of a self portrait) to show scale and give a sense of remoteness. For those folks signed up for the Grand Marais Art Colony Winter Plein Air event, this is the location of the Friday ski/painting day trip.
For more infromation on the winter plein air event visit the art colony on line at : www.grandmaraisartcolony.org

Happy skiing!

Blue, Green and Grey

2009-08-06T14:36:00.000-07:00

These sort of days, still and foggy, are typical of Grand Marais in the spring. In the summer months this scene is full of visitors exploring the harbor and marina, fisherman unloading their catch and students of North House Folk School building boats and other things that people push, paddle or pole.

The Usual Parking Spot

2009-08-04T11:45:00.000-07:00

This is the LL Smith Jr. A tug operated by the University of Wisconsin-Superior Lake Superior Research Institute (LSRI). It usually shows up in Grand Marais every spring to give educational tours of water quality and other environmental issues regarding Lake Superior. It always ties up here, thus the name of the painting.

This is the feature painting for an exhibit of painting I'll be having at Sivertson Gallery in Grand Marais on September 5th. Visit www.neilshermanart.com or www.sivertson.com to preview the show.

The Old Dock at Hovland

2009-07-15T17:13:00.000-07:00

Johnson's Bay

2009-06-07T06:53:00.000-07:00

I really like this location, I just wish I could remember how to get back there. A good friend of mine took me there and all I can tell you is that there were a million beaver dams that we had to climb over. Plus the black flies were hidious.

Aparently during the fur trade, this lake was a good hiding place for maurading pirates looking to pilage rum and gun powder from unsuspecting voyageur canoes.

And what plein air painting trip would be complete without losing one of my shoes in a murky swamp hole and having to wrap duct tape around my foot as a make shift shoe. Thanks McGeyver!

Tug in Grand Marais

2009-05-12T11:34:00.000-07:00

You and I

2009-05-11T10:35:00.000-07:00

I hope my grammar is right on the title. Anyway, these are the chairs at Nanibijou Lodge just out side of Grand Marais. I had a hard time titling this 8 x 10 painting. I wanted to capture the feeling of relaxation, contmeplation, romance, invitation and beauty. And maybe longing. How do you sum up that into a few short words? An old friend ended up being the inspiration.

October

2009-04-17T14:36:00.000-07:00

This is a small sketch from the parking lot at the Pincussion Mountain overlooking Lake Superior at Grand Marais. I like how you follow the colors down the shore till they fade to grey and your nice and sleepy and then there is another slash of color to wake you up. To be honest, I really felt more obliged than inspired to paint this scene, but once I got the sky in and some good color down on the canvas the power of the day started taking over. I felt pretty fortunate to have captured such and incredible day. About a week later, all these colors were gone.

Back Yard

2009-04-09T12:50:00.000-07:00

This is a pretty typical scene in Grand Marais, MN. I painted this from the cozy interior of the Grand Marais Art Colony multi-purpose room during a painting work shop I was teaching (you're allowed a few comfortable witnter paintings a year). I'd go critque my students then come back and block in another section. If you are confused, its a trampoline at middle right.

2009-04-07T10:06:00.000-07:00

Another painting that deals with scale. My friend Richard is painting in the bottom left corner of the image. Winter is a great time to paint these palisades on Clearwater Lake because you can get vantage points you normally can't when the lake is ice free. There was a road plowed up to this point and there were other trucks out on the lake, but we decided not to take an chance.

A friend was telling me a story of an ice fishing event that happened on this lake a number of years ago. There were so many cars on the ice that the ice started to sag and water starting shooting up through the holes that had been drilled.

Smoke'n Clouds

2009-04-06T15:48:00.000-07:00

This is a studio painting composed from different sketches done along the north coast of Lake Superior. Scale is a huge part of living on the north shore. Things are massive sometimes and I wanted to give a sense of that with the boiling clouds against the little beach fire in the lower left part of the painting. I still need to add some one toasting 'mallows.

Winter at Clearwater Lake

2009-04-06T15:35:00.000-07:00

My intentions this day were to hike to the top of this palisade and paint the view. Assuming that there would be a packed trail blazed to the top, I dispelled the need for snow shoes and left them at home. Of course there had been no visitors and the 4 feet of snow a the trail head stopped me in my tracks. Fortunately I had been struck by this scene earlier as I skied in so my efforts weren't in vain.

Ice

2009-02-11T15:11:00.000-08:00

Blankenburg Lane

2009-02-11T15:08:00.000-08:00

Fog Lights

2009-02-04T12:48:00.000-08:00

Arctic Paradise

2009-01-31T11:50:00.000-08:00

This is Paradise Beach along the north shore of Lake Superior. I guess paradise is in the eye of the beholder, but I like winter and it brings it's own beauty to an area. I had started a painting facing a different direction when I turned as was captured by the lone pine tree. I think that happens often with plein air painters, start painting one thing and switch to something complete different because it strikes the heart harder. I like this quiet little painting and I'm glad I painted it.

Northern Lights-Grand Marais

2009-01-29T11:10:00.000-08:00

LL Smith Jr Returns to Grand Marais

2009-01-29T08:48:00.000-08:00

Fall in Grand Marais

2009-01-28T15:33:00.000-08:00