warmup

                              6x8

My goal for plein air painting 2025 is to be more painterly and to simplify, see the shapes and omit the details.

Practicing a little to try to find the zone.

And, weirdly, I've decided to take the opposite tack on daffodils (at least in this painting): less loose, more deliberate.

This is as far as I got today.

marshes

Couple of small, quick marsh paintings.

I love this subject: the big shapes, the colors.

London drawing group

.                            5x7

Watching a videotaped class about Van Gogh; the instructor, Laura Smith, is leading us in trying to paint watercolors like Vincent. The very idea is scary ... But too intriguing to pass by.

I'm about halfway through the video and did these 2 15-minute interpretations of details from his paintings. I'm sorry I don't have the titles.

Check out London Drawing Group; the have a lot of online offerings.

daffodils 2

                            10x15

A little morning painting.

Still haven't figured out how to paint shadows on the petals. Could be because I'm very timid about it!

I think I may need to do some swatches.

tulips

Attempt to paint wet in wet tulips a la Gail Speckman.

Her book, Wet into Wet Watercolors, is one of my favorites.

Ewa Karoinski's book, Wet on Wet Watercolor Painting, is also great.

Though I was just playing around. I enjoyed doing this: I painted one tulip, the added another, then a little negative painting, then a leaf ... A very enjoyable process.

warm up

Picked a bunch of daffodils this morning, then sat down in the studio withy friend Gina for two hours and practiced. 

We tried to just observe the flowers and explore ways of painting them.

Back at it tomorrow morning!

nyc a.m.

                             8x10

Pulled out my big folder of unfinished paintings this weekend.

I started this one, painted from a photo I took one early morning on a visit to NYC, and, for some reason, stopped after painting the figures, and their dogs, on the left and in the middle.

I must have thought it wasn't going well, though now I think the figure on the left is quite good.

The one on the right is the worst! Messed up her face ... But I will lift and give it another go. Also need to add more darks to the underside of her hair.

European starling

                            10x14

I started this a few months ago. I was trying to come up with a name for my "studio" and a friend suggested Starling Studios. I wasn't sure about painting a dtarling--all those dots! But then I found some photos of European starlings-- fewer dots.

I love the variety of cool browns. Interesting to me too how plain the head and shoulders compared the the fancy underside. Pretty bird.

landscape

                                6x9

Painted this on Baohing paper.

I can't decide if I like this paper or not! It's very textured and seems to stay wet a long time. I seem to struggle with it while I'm painting but then end up not unhappy with the results.

Maybe there are no bad papers? You just have to figure out what they're good at?

Don't use Boahing paper if you want hard edges.

a la turner

                                6x8

I watched a London Drawing Group video about JMW Turner.

I love his Margate watercolors and did these little studies trying for the mode of Turner.

Funny how when I want to paint light I can't get light enough!

I pulled out this tiny palette of colors that didn't fit on my main palette-- there are warm and cool grays, a couple of schmincke granulation colors and Daniel Smith shadow green and shadow violet, which separate into their component colors.

Was thinking if I added a couple of yellows and a red, this could be a Turner palette.

daffodils 1

Daffodils are coming up!

My first attempts, 2025.

oyster shells

                             6x8

A mix of NJ and ME shells.

Haven't painted in a bit and these are fun to experiment with.

I start wet in wet and try to refine them as they dry.

I used 4 colors: raw sienna, burnt umber, indigo, and lavender.

skies

                              8x10

.                                8x8

Wanted to get the paint wet today but I wasn't compelled by any subject in particular ... Good time to paint skies, which I feel I haven't done in a while.

These were both painted on Saunders Waterford cp, which is more bumpy and stays wetter longer than Arches, it seems to me.

Tried a copy of a Turner: he does so much with just the primaries. I painted this with just blue, red and yellow. And I think there's a good variety of color but I am far from achieving the subtleties of color and temperature in the original!

Inspired to pull this book off the shelf and give it a go.

And more paint tubes ...

Painted these along with Watercolor Fanatic, who I just came across. He paints wetly and strongly! And has a lot of free lessons on YouTube.

chimneypots

                             8x11

Haven't done much with my Chimneypots of Scotland idea ... I was just so taken with the Chimneypots everywhere we went; a great graphic element I thought/think.

I have some good ref photos to work from.

practice

Blind contour of a tube of paint drawn with a paintbrush; washed and details added after.

Would like to try to draw with the brush more.

sketches

.                           8x8

Trying to paint these in a wetter, freer way.

The pepper is actually better than I thought, tho I wish I had indicated the stem. I've always found pepper hard to paint. It's not so much the shape as it is the shiny surface, which ends up confusing me!

plein air

my friend Gina and I said as soon as it got to 60 degrees we'd go out painting. So the other day it was 57 but seemed so nice, so we decided to go to Hereford Inlet and paint. Well, the wind shifted and we froze our butts off! But we stuck it out for nearly 2 hours!

classwork

                            11x15

The preliminary studies are always better than the "painting."

Two more paintings following along with a Lois Davidson demo on YouTube.

Good practice for me using a big flat brush, I think.

roots pt 2

These are from the 2nd half of the workshop.

The exercise below was interesting: Chloe had 5 ref photos, a couple were the same root turned sideways, and we drew one after the other on the same piece of paper. So the first image below is what I had after 2 photos; the last after 5.

roots pt 1

I have not been diligent about keeping up with it, and I think that's okay, but I am going to try harder because it is such a wonderful resource: these drawings were done in a workshop with Chloe Briggs. You can draw with her--and it's a great experience--every Monday at drawingisfree.org. for free. Just log in.

I follow Chloe on Patreon and she really provides great content: thoughtful, meditative, expansive.

These drawings are from an online workshop.

sketchbook

Quick studies from photos I took in Maine.