Monday, October 28, 2024

                              8x8
Another from my Molly Hashimoto class.

Sunday, October 27, 2024

classwork

         8x12 moleskine, 2 page spread
.     7x11 stillman & birn, 2 page spread
.                             5x7
I signed up for a 3- hour sketchbook class with Molly Hashimoto at Winslow Art Center, where I take a lot of great classes.
Molly's sketches are really beautiful: fresh and colorful.
The reference photos she provided for us were of Yosemite and other places out west. I have to add Yosemite to my list of places I want to go to paint!

Saturday, October 26, 2024

classwork

                               8x6
An exercise in the interiors class I took with Susan Greenstein. Tonight was our last class. There were only three sessions but I feel like I learned a lot; I enjoyed Susan's exercises and her demos.
One of the best things for me was realizing there are "interior" subjects everywhere! I used to think an interior had to be, idk, picturesque? Cozy chair, pretty lamp, Victorian wallpaper ... Not so. If I look around I can find something to paint.

Friday, October 25, 2024

classwork

                            8x10
A couple of flower paintings from my expressive watercolor class that I wish were more expressive.
It's weird how you can get caught up in trying to replicate what you're looking at even when that's not what you want.
In my case I wonder if it isn't because no matter how unhappy I may be the results, that's the process I'm comfortable with. 
If I were actually to get expressive I'd have to go somewhere I'd be uncertain.

Thursday, October 24, 2024

plein air

in the order I painted them, small studies of the bay, late afternoon, low tide.

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

classwork

.                              9x16
Homework for one of my classes. I'm not sure I understood the assignment! And these probably aren't "done," but they were due ... Curious to find out what my teacher says!

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

still life

                                  7.5x11
I love these two little jugs I picked up at secondhand stores. 
Had to go back in several times to get the darks, but I think it's done now.

Monday, October 21, 2024

interiors

                                12x8
This week in my interiors class we worked on using complements.
This painting of two of my cats, Gilly and Sansa, was painted using blue and orange. And a touch of yellow and pink.
And below a yellow and purple painting from a photo I took in a restaurant.
Hoping to get a red and green painting done, but that is the pair I have the most trouble with.
                           8x14

Sunday, October 20, 2024

interiors

                              7x11
Homework for my interiors class with Susan Greenstein.
Tried to keep it simple and painted fast.
And, below, a quick painting done in class, using cobalt blue and transparent orange. The drawing could be better.
And I cropped out the bookcases-- you didn't know they were bookcases, right?-- because they're not readable.
From where I was standing, I couldn't see the base of the shelves, but if I do this again, I'll be more careful to draw the"box" the books are in.

Saturday, October 19, 2024

oyster shells

.                             10x14
I scattered some oyster shells, a mix from NJ and ME, and drew them where they landed. A good strategy for me as I often feel that when I arrange things, they are too arranged.
And, below, a quick drawing in my sketchbook of a street in Nairn, Scotland.
.  

Thursday, October 17, 2024

classwork


                                                                         10x14
Trying to get soft feathery edges painting wet in wet. Like the edge at the top of the mountain: amazingly difficult. Must have the right wetness on the paper and on the brush; the right amount of paint; the right timing. Maybe the weather matters.
Even if I practiced, and I will, and got better at it, could be possible, I have a feeling it's the kind of thing I'll never be able to replicate on demand; will always be a "happy accident."
Below are my first two attempts.

Wednesday, October 16, 2024

classwork

.                               5x7
Classwork from Expressive Watercolor with Susan ONeill.
This week was about making notans, then altering them to get better compositions.
I wasn't able to manipulate the reference (maybe because I was trying to do it on my phone), but I did what I could.
.                              7x11
The last painting was based on a notan of a photo Susan took in upstate NY.
.                                7x11
And my palette.

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

sketchbook


.                                 4x6
A couple of monochrome landscape studies.
I like doing these ... I can't get too detailed and I feel like doing them helps me with a problem I often have with landscapes: how to paint things you can't really discern. I'm increasing my comfort level with filling in space.

Monday, October 14, 2024

open studio

I participated in an open studio Sat and Sun. My friend Gina let me share her space.
While waiting for people to show up I drew some things I saw in Gina's garden.

Friday, October 11, 2024

new class: interiors

Started a new class today: interiors with Susan Greenstein. Just worked in my sketchbook today.
I have always enjoyed interiors and wanted to do them myself but I've had a difficult time finding compositions in my own space.

Thursday, October 10, 2024

carolyn's group

.                              14x20

A few years ago I met some people at an art studio and they invited me to join their still life group, which met weekly in an artist named Carolyn's basement. The basement was lined with shelves stuffed with things to put in still lifes. 
It was a great group in a lot of ways--the painters were all pretty ambitious, accomplished, and serious, and were wonderful critiquers; whenever I got stuck, one of them knew the answer. I painted these in that group and I don't think I would have ever done such crowded still lifes without their encouragement.
Before I'd been in the group a year, though, Carolyn passed away and, despite our intentions, the group broke apart.
Carolyn's children very kindly asked us all over one day and invited us to take a few things from her shelves, as a remembrance.
I took the blue vase on the left and the white vase on the right in the top painting, and the remnants below, which I still love.

Wednesday, October 09, 2024

classwork

                              10x14
A landscape painted in class with SaltyWaterArt last night.

And below are the four sketches we did first; mine are 7x10 and presented in order, 1-4.
The idea was to get more abstract in each version. But as you see. I couldn't do it. 
I think the relentless horizontality of the subject stymied me. That's my excuse anyway.
Nonetheless, I think this is great way to proceed.

Tuesday, October 08, 2024

studio tour

The annual Artists' Guild of the Cape (Cape May, NJ, that is) is this weekend.
This will be the 3rd year I participated, with my friend Gina Fullerton (Dirty Feet Art on Instagram).
It's two long days--10 am to 5 pm: a long time to meet and talk to people for a recluse like me. But the people are very nice ... and some of them do relieve me of this backlog of paintings.
I'm getting ready, last minute of course, and came across the winter scenes. 
I love winter scenes!