I'm back from a trip to Cuttyhunk Island in the Atlantic off the coast of New Bedford, Mass. It's near Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket and is the first of the three that I've visited.

Until this trip, I've always chosen to visit Cape Cod or Shelter Island for an immersion into beach landscapes and to be able to find wonderful scenes of the shore and surroundings to paint.

This year, my son and his family invited me to join them on Cuttyhunk, where they would be visiting with my daughter-in-law's extended family and friends who have been summering there for several generations.

This isn't an island designed to encourage hoards of visitors. Each day there is one ferry which leaves early in the morning to take you over to the island and another in the early evening which returns to the main land. Any other time for arriving or leaving requires hiring a water taxi or having a boat.

In order to make the 9 AM departure time, I drove up to New Bedford the night before and stayed in a motel. The ferry pier was right alongside a number of good sized fishing vessels that were setting out for the day's catch. I found the port and the activity fascinating and thoroughly enjoyed the  hour-long ferry ride to the island.

The island is usually cool and breezy, so islanders were unprepared for the heat wave that was baking the entire Northeast. Very luckily, I had specified that I must have a fan or would bring one with me. It turned out to be one of the few fans I saw during the week I was there. Walking everywhere on a very hilly island and having no respite from the heat, made the trip more challenging than it might have been otherwise. It was simply too hot to paint en plein air and often too hot to walk to some of the scenic spots along the coast to take photos and carry my backpack and heavy camera. I did manage to get some good shots in spite of that and this painting of beach roses along the path is based on a couple of photos I took of the scene--one for the scene itself, the other of clouds which I added to the scene.

I never had a chance to meet this adorable dog but when I was asked to do a portrait to commemorate her life, I jumped at the chance. It's not often that I find a really nice photo to work from when I haven't had the opportunity to take the photos myself, but in this case, I was lucky. Kecia looked as if she was ready to spring up and dash about and I worked to capture that animation in my painting.

My original intent in setting up this website was to focus on my fine art paintings and not emphasize the fact that I also paint portrait commissions. This year, happened to turn back in that direction enough that I felt I didn't want to keep it a secret. So here's another in a long line of commissions I've done through the years. I'm always touched by the love and devotion that people have for their animals.

I don't put many of my animal portraits and drawings on this site because I save them for my portrait website www.ptarlow.com and my Facebook Phyllis Tarlow Portraits page. I'm showing it on this site for a short while because it will be up for sale Wed. - Sat., June 23-26, 2010, during the Art for Animals/Animals in Art fund raiser for Pet Rescue and the Mamaroneck Artists Guild, a co-op gallery I belong to for the last 25 or more years. To get the details see my Events Section.

Animals rank right up there with landscapes as favorite subjects. Most often they are painted or drawn as commissions for people who love their pets or have lost a pet. This vizsla painting came about when I met a lovely woman at a dog show who raises vizslas and trains them for field competitions. This is one of her champions. It is available through www.fineartamerica.com/phyllistarlow as a framed or unframed print.

I have plans for new paintings which will include animals within the landscape.

Every few years it seems, a major challenge comes along that either changes the course of my life or puts a big stumbling block in the way of the orderly, gradual progression that my life had been following at that time.

That's been the case in the last two years with this year being particularly difficult. Not only has the economy had an effect on sales of my landscape paintings but I've been called on to set aside my work entirely a number of times to come to my daughter's aid as she deals with a life threatening condition. Usually, I can't wait to get outside in the Spring and paint en plein air. This year, I'm finding that I'm actually preferring to move back toward portrait commissions and studio work because of the many interruptions to my painting life and the lowered energy I'm able to set aside for art work at a time that I'm leaving for days at a time to be with my daughter.

I'm posting this painting that I delighted in painting last Fall at the Boscobel Restoration site in Garrison and hope to get back there soon. In the meantime, I'm working on two dog portraits in oil and enjoying the fact that I can work on them as time and energy allows and on any day with no concern for the weather. Since I love the wonderful personalities that shine through as I focus on animal portraits, I'm happy to work on these commissions. I'll post them as I finish them.

I've been participating in the Artists On Location event at the Garrison Arts Center twice yearly for the past 6 or so years. It entails painting en plein air in the vicinity of the Hudson Highlands that day, popping the freshly finished work in a frame, and handing it over for hanging by mid-afternoon.  Art enthusiasts show up a short while later to view the work, enjoy a wine and cheese reception, and decide whether to purchase a paddle so they can bid on the paintings at the Live Auction that starts at 5 PM. There's also another gallery showing previously finished work by the same artists and those are available through a Silent Auction system.

There's a palpable current of excitement in the air during a live auction. Artists feel a combination of edgy, excited, and anxious to see how the bidding goes on their painting especially, and also on everyone elses. Each time there are some paintings that go for a large sum, some priced moderately but within reason, and others that are a steal.

 It's not always clear how a particular painting will do and it's not necessarily a matter of how well done a painting is. Sometimes the auctioneer has a lot to do with the outcome. If he tires and isn't as enthusiastic about encouraging the bidding, it can falter. In some cases, an artist has developed a reputation and brings in bidders who want that particular artist's work. Sometimes it's the subject matter that's the draw.

The oil, May Morning, Boscobel, pictured here is the one I painted and sold in the Live Auction.

There's a lot to be learned by painting a scene over and over again, and this scene of Constitution Marsh and the Hudson River, which is found at the rear of park-like property housing the Boscobel Restoration, is one I keep coming back to.

It took me 2 or 3 years before I felt I really understood the complicated topography enough to start to really capture what I was seeing on a given day. The combination of receding planes caused by the mountainous terrain on either side of the river, the constantly changing marshland area which narrows and broadens with the tides, the colors of the land which change with the seasons, and the constantly changing weather conditions which affect the sky in particular but the whole scene as well, make this location a perfect choice for continuing study.

I look forward to this time of the year when Boscobel opens to see what another year as an artist whose skills continue to change and grow will bring to another season of painting visits.

What is it about a particular color that can be so enticing? There's something about finding purple in the landscape that I find irresistible. It always strikes me as a little unreal. The vibrance of purple against green is so dramatic that all my senses perk up at the sight. This is my second painting of the purple Paulownia blossoms that were in full bloom in June along the shore of the Hudson River at Nyack Beach State Park.

I've been visiting the park since way back when I lived on that side of the river in the late 60's and early 70's. In all that time, I've never seen those blossoms until this past year. Now that I'm so totally hooked on painting the landscape, I'm that much more tuned in to beauty in Nature and what I consider ideal times to visit particular scenes.

This painting and 4 others of mine will be on view April 18 - May 11 at Sullivan Library, Dominican College as part of the multi-artist show called The Altered Landscape. Read more about the show in the Events Section.

I started the painting that I've been calling Above It All on location and added the figure when I completed it in my studio. I came across it as I was scrolling through my paintings and added it to the Valentine's Collection I've put together with special pricing for the month of February.

 I thought about changing the title to more closely express my feelings about the scene. Maybe it would be more accurate to call it All's Right With the World because when I sit on those very rocks at Manor Park in Larchmont, NY, that's how I always feel. That's even when I've come there in the midst of crisis or unhappiness. Perched on Mother Earth, looking out at that tranquil scene, whatever is burdening me drops away for the time being and I'm filled with peace. If you think that solitary figure looks lonely, it's not the way I felt about adding her to the scene. Alone with Nature is very different from feeling lonely.

Nature can have the ability if you tune into it, or let it tune into you, to reach into your very soul. Maybe it's realizing how large it is, and how small we humans are, that I find puts everything in a different perspective.

Here's a new, 12"x24" studio painting, Summer Day, Garrison on Hudson, which I chose to paint in the long, horizontal format I've been loving. It bounces off information gleaned from an earlier,  9"x12" painting begun en plein air. I could see it becoming even more exciting by painting it still larger. Lately, I've been feeling the urge to move to a larger studio where larger works would be easier to accomplish.

The narrow format works so well with certain scenes, especially those at the beach or waterfront. It allows the eye to expand outward and into the distance, as it does when you are at such a location, and to be less involved with the foreground close to where you are standing.

Ripples at Garrison, the 9"x12" painting that inspired me to paint this one, can be found in the Paintings Section of this website in the Hudson Valley Collection. Take a look and see how different the same scene can look with a different emphasis.

Until last week, I had managed to avoid outdoor painting from the first really chilly days in autumn until it started to warm up in April. I would venture outdoors for a walk and photo shoot on a pleasant afternoon, especially after a snowstorm but then would scurry back to my cozy studio and paint indoors.

I attribute my new courage to try outdoor winter painting to becoming a member of Artists in the Parks and being informed that one of their events each year would be a silent auction art show held under a tent in the middle of the Knickerbocker Ice Festival at Rockland Lake in Congers, NY. One of the requirements for being in the show was that one work must be painted on location at the lake on the first day of the event. Today was the day.

Very luckily, today was a sunny, calm day around 36-40 degrees--colder, when I first arrived. Not daring to make my very first attempt on the day of the event, I decided two weeks ago that the next slightly warm day I could get there, I would head up to the lake and see how I fared. Last week after bundling up in many layers, I met an artist friend at the lake and we worked on a painting. I lasted about 2 hours on location before I was chilled through. That painting is shown in my New Works Collection and is called Cold, Crisp Day.

Today, I figured out some warmer head gear and had both fingerless rag gloves and insulated gloves so I could always have something on my hands as I set up and worked. I added more warmth to my legs but now have learned that I really need heavy ski pants with long underwear underneath to stay warm for hours. Luckily, it was a bit warmer today and, especially because I knew I had to completely finish, I kept going for about 3 or more hours before quitting. I loved the scene I chose to paint (Rocky Shoreline at Rockland Lake) and see that there are wonderful subdued colors in the winter landscape.

I'll be back for more now that I've "broken the ice."