Larry Soine began painting in 2010 after retiring from teaching math and computer applications.
Looking for some new challenges and activities, he took up painting, enrolling in a class at the Hill Institute in Florence taught by Lindsay Fogg-Willits.
“She’s still my teacher, and a really good one at that,” says Soine, 74, of Hatfield.
He notes that he knew “nothing about oil paints, painting, or really anything else” when he started. His first completed painting was a picture of his wife sitting in the couple’s living room chair. Since then he’s painted a few other portraits but has mostly turned his attention to landscapes or still lifes.
His work offers rich color and gentle edges, with elements of folk art and a focus on pastoral beauty, from the sandy shorelines of Martha’s Vineyard and Cape Cod to the quiet fields of Hatfield.
Steve Pfarrer: What is your creative process like?
Larry Soine: I paint all my pictures from photographs. I may take several pictures of a scene, which helps me with the composition. I then decide whether I want the colors realistic or exaggerated. First I paint a rough sketch with little detail. Gradually I fill in more detail leading to a (hopefully) finished painting.
S.P.: Does it start with a “Eureka” moment?
L.S.: Almost never. Occasionally I will have a Eureka moment during the process.
S.P.: How do you know you’re on the right track?
L.S.: I don’t know until I’ve put several layers on. Sometimes I don’t know until months later whether or not I like a painting. The “right track” is really a very complicated question for me.
S.P.: How do know when the work is done?
L.S.: A very good question. Sometimes I just give up. That’s enough, I say! Or I may leave the painting for awhile to see whether I like it or not. I may come back to some paintings as much as two months later.
Other times it’s very clear when the picture is as good as I can make it, although that can also be quite complicated for me. Maybe it’s never done until I sell it!
S.P.: What did you do recently that relates to your art?
L.S.: Over the winter, if we didn’t have a lot of snow, I’d be in my art class. Otherwise I’d go to my studio in Easthampton and work on a current painting.
Selected paintings by Larry Soine can be seen this month and for part of May at A Notch Above hair salon, 200 Main St., Suite 2, Northampton.