peep

                     11x11

A western sandpiper painted in class with SaltyWaterArt.

You really can't beat blue and orange.

maine

                       8x8

.                    10x10

A couple of little paintings from one of my Maine photos. I painted these without drawing first, which wasn't so hard really since the scene has such strong shapes.

I had an idea to do a painting combining several of my cat photos. Started today ...

.                  14x20

old paintings

(10x14)
I found this abandoned painting, from a still life class years ago--must've been around 2007-9!--on a watercolor block in my closet. I always liked the poppy seedheads and those orange yoni-shaped things, whatever they are ...

.                   15x22

This one too. Didn't like how it was going, wasn't happy with how I painted the shells or the doily, So I tossed it. Now I think of so many ways I could fix it, or crop it.

It's funny how some old paintings, awkward though they may seem now. have a kind of charm sometimes. Makes me wish I hadn't tossed so many.

sunsets

.                     8x10

In order, paintings I did in an online workshop with Paul Oman. I took a couple of online classes with Paul a few years ago and really enjoyed them, so I was pleased to see he was offering another online class and jumped on it.

It should be all fun to paint a sunset but, as with so many other things, anxiety about doing it right creeps in. Which is kind of silly because, honestly, can it be done wrong? 

Paul's class I think has helped me get over my fear of painting sunsets, and I hope I'll paint a lot more of them. There's a new one everyday!

line into color

                       8x10

                         4x4

Taking a 3 week workshop at Winslow arts center with Abby Oler called Line into Color.

We are looking at watercolors by Cezanne, Marin, Dufy and Berthe Morisot, who all left a lot of white. 

Cezanne and Marin are two of my favorite painters so I'm looking forward to this chance to think about how they made their watercolors and how I can use some of their techniques.

wip

                       11x15

A little experiment: I have a photo of three trees and here I've overlapped them a few times. 

I'm worried I may have made the mistake beginning to fill in the background the way I have ...

I think I'll concentrate on the tree trunks and revisit the background later.

amaryllis

                      12x16

I waited and waited for my amaryllis to bloom, and then it did--in such spectacular fashion that it was overwhelming. 

I cut this one stalk off the plant to make it more manageable. 

Hoping to try a few more times before they wilt!

egret

                      11x11

No matter how dark I go, I always end up thinking I could have gone darker. 

I may give this another try ... And this time I'll leave more space in front of the bird: his beak's too close to the edge of the paper.

sketches

Perpetual problem I have when it comes to my painting is making decisions. Even the very first one: what to paint! When I first started painting I felt I had no subject; I was always looking for something to paint ... I painted my lunch; I painted leftover green beans in a pot on the stove; I painted cinder blocks piled in the side yard. 

Now I sometimes feel like I have too much to paint: there are so many subjects ... And not enough time.

This was the scene that I decided not to do last time I took a class with Susan Abbott. But I'm thinking about going back to it because I think it has a simple, graphic quality to it, and it also may tell a story. 

So these are just a couple of small, 3x3, sketches in my sketchbook.

color studies

New gamboge/cerulean/Winsor violet

Quin gold/cobalt/Quin purple

Aureolin/cerulean/ alizarin crimson

aureolin/cobalt turquoise/bright violet

                    11x11

For my class with Susan Abbott I wanted to explore different triads, mostly for the grays.

I think I need to go back and look at one of the first art instruction books I ever got, and one that is still my favorite, Jeanne Dobie's Making Color Song. Everything you want to know about gray--and green--is in there.

classwork

                   11x11

I thought I was doing pretty well with these two paintings but then I took off in a bad direction: I started using gouache to "correct" things. 

I'm not opposed to a little gouache here and there but I think when you use it to fix things you lose a lot of the transparency that is so appealing about watercolor. 

Anyway I'm thinking of these as rough drafts and hope to learn from them, make some adjustments, and paint them again more freshly. 

10 minute sketch.

Yesterday I was looking at some Cezanne still lives and noticing how he often at least partially outlined objects in them. Thought I'd give it a try to strengthen this kind of weak little sketch.

And today for Robert Burns day, sketch of cyclamen with a little piece of pottery I found on the beach in Scotland. 

alstroemeria

                 8x14

I went too far on this and lost the structure of at least one flower. But I do like the colors.

I added this bit of a border around it, luckily I had the space and I just felt like it needed some air.

Another 10-minute painting in my sketchbook, with a haiku. 🙂

fast and sloppy

            12x14 / 2 minutes

            12x18 / 4 minutes

.          18x24 / 4 minutes

I subscribe to Chloe Brigg's Patreon page, where she posts great material and runs an online drawing class every month based on that month's subject: this month, horizons.

I posted my two minute painting first because it's my favorite, but we did the 4 minute ones first to warm up. 

I painted these on pretty big, cheap watercolor paper. 

And all of this is just from the first half of Chloe's workshop! 

I hope to finish the second half tomorrow.

10 minutes

Day 2 of 10 minutes in my sketchbook: alstroemeria, aka Peruvian lily.

I spent 10 minutes on the drawing, then 10 more on the watercolor.

And day 3: two, for me,  way too expensive Japanese tea cups that I had to buy because they're just so beautiful. 

I keep them on my kitchen counter so I can look at them all the time. 

Days 3 and 4, where I added on to day 3.

classwork

                    12x12

Where I am on my painting for my Susan Abbott class: first layer of color over my underpainting, then a little work on the shadows and the kids' limbs, with gouache added.

I'm going for an analogous color scheme: yellow-green to blue-violet.

.                 8x10

I liked doing the ultramarine underpainting so much for Susan's class that I also did one from a photo I took at Otter's Point in Maine, then added some color later. 

I like the kind of impressionistic result.

10 minutes

10-minure sketchbook painting. I always have apples but I rarely paint them ... Probably because I'm usually unhappy with the results. Which is pretty silly. If I want to be pleased with the results, I have to paint apples! 

Anyway I'm going to try to spend 10 minutes a day doing something in my sketchbook. Maybe apples, maybe not. 

And today I did a drawing of my complex amaryllis: currently there are two blooms and five buds!

sampler

                  16x20

My sample sampler.

These are freehand paintings of pieces of fabric I own.

I wanted to practice working on fabric and then thought these pieces looked nice together. 

I'm going to be in an art show in May and I'm thinking of doing a few more samplers with other cloths I own. 

I just love how colorful it is.

"True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice." --Martin Luther King Jr.

amaryllis

My red amaryllis finally bloomed. This is my first try, without drawing.

This plant has several buds that haven't opened yet, which confuses the painting a bit, but would probably make a nice drawing.

Also made a few thumbnails to try to choose colors for these two paintings.

The cool one came out okay.

The warm one I'm struggling with. Maybe because there are big shapes and little shapes and no middle shapes?

.                        3x3

I think the third one is most satisfying. But still not quite right.