facades

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Just playing around. Trying to paint a subject without the anxiety of trying to get it right or making it look good.

locust leaves

I picked up some yellow locust leaves on the walk recently and put them in my flower press to dry. When I checked on them they had all fallen off the stems. I thought I'd make a painting of them just as they appeared there; that's the painting below which, I don't know, lacked something.

Then for some reason I decided to make a collage in my phone of two photos of the painting, which is above, and which I kind of like ... 

This is another collage of the two photos which is not as successful. It reminds me of one of those Pennsylvania Dutch signs.

classwork

                                                  10x12

From my seascape class with Patrick Visser. Overwork did a bit and then lost patience. I need to train myself to stop when it's too wet ... I usually just keep adding paint which is pointless; it just diffuses into the paper. I am going to try to make an effort to let the paper dry. I could probably go back into this one when it's completely dry and refine some of the rock shapes and the shoreline. Maybe I will.

My value study: definitely need to make the water in the painting darker. I decided not to add seagulls to the beach because I felt I couldn't get their scale right. 

day 2

The figures on the top photo are from my own photos.

These are all watercolor, with white gouache.

Even though these figures are, to varying degrees, off or wonky, I think they still work. 

I learned a lot on the class, maybe most importantly to just go for it ... Don't try to make it perfect just try to get the proportions those of a human being!

I look forward to practicing this more, and maybe next summer I'll get to the beach more often!

day 1

                    18x24

Took an online class with Peggi Kroll Roberts. I love her paintings, especially of people: they have a simplicity and a convincing solidity about them. 2 days, 2 hours each day: here's what I did on day 1.

green man

My friend Gina and I watched the London Drawing Group video about the green man. 

II wish I had done a little preparation before class, observed some different shaped leaves and such. But I didn't and so I started just sketching some possibilities, above.

Then we worked on these paintings; I still have some work to do on these. 

Was thinking a green man painting might make a good holiday card ...

Then we finished up with some 1 to 2 minute blind contour drawings of different sculptures of the green man to use as a jumping off point for further paintings. 

As usual the contour drawings are my favorites.

seascape 1

                       10x14

.                     6x7

I'm taking a four-session seascape painting class with Patrick Visser. I missed the first class because it starts at 9:00 a.m. Sydney time and I apparently can't get it into my head but that's 5:00 p.m. the day before here. So I think I just missed the second class too!

gulls

.                         .                           7.5x11

Got a couple of nice pictures of gulls the other morning. 

Was trying here to paint the darks to find the shapes.

classwork

                  4.5x6 studies

Studies in SaltyWaterArt's class using quinacridone gold, sap green, and quinacridone purple. And the overworked larger painting.

Why are the studies always better? Are they objectively better or is it just that the expectations are different?

                    12x16

keurner's barn

                     7.5x11

I've been wanting to paint this picture I took at Keurner's farm; this is the first, quick go at it ... Over did the texture on the wall and made it too colorful I think ... But it's a good photo and I'll try it again.

Couple of quick exercises in a London Drawing Group class. I like these classes because they ask me to do things I normally wouldn't do!

classwork

A couple of paintings from my expressive watercolor class with Susan O'Neill.

I don't think the top painting is "done," but I'm not going any further for now.

Trying to think about design more. Also: more water, more pigment.

Robert joyner videos

I think I may have mentioned him here before, nut there's a painter named Robert Joyner who has some free videos where he demonstrates how to paint loosely. You can find some at craftedbyRobert.com.

The lessons are short and quick and great to do when you don't have a lot time.

melo

Another of my cats, Melo.

Added some color in the background and a hint of a tail.

yucca pods

                        8x8
I grab a few of these dried pods every year, intending to paint and/or draw the. I love their shape. And their colors: black, brown, gray, wheat.

I think I prefer the drawing to the painting 

another Sargent copy

I'm not sure of the title of this one, one of his paintings of Tommies bathing. Really interesting to see how expressive his brushwork is. And in the original--a bit too much color bleeding in my copy--jow the pale blue violet shadows on the bodies enhance their whiteness amid all the green.

Sargent was not afraid of strong greens!

Sargent copy

                   10x12

A copy of one of my favorite Sargent paintings, A Tent in the Rockies.

This took me three sittings to complete and I regret 1) that, for some reason, probably because my sketchbook was right there, I painted this on hot press paper and 2) I now see that the left hand tent pole isn't as long as it should be ...

But I was delighted as I worked on this to notice that one of the things inside the tent, on the lower left, appears to be a French easel. 

I also found looking at Sargent's trees very interesting: there seems to be a blue underpainting; then greens are added on top, some passages of sienna and of violet; topped off with red where he wanted them darkest.

arya

                      8x8

Had time this morning to take my time and relax while painting one of my cats, Arya. She's my tiny cat and she remains the most kitten-like, even though she's about ten now.

monochrome

Monochrome studies for a class I'm in.

After trying with Payne's gray and indigo, I wanted to paint this cluster of leaves I picked up with transparent orange but quickly found I couldn't get a range of values with such a light color. So I added a little Prussian blue.

more littles

So busy with work and end-of-summer tasks and work on the house that I haven't had time to really "work" on something, so I'm just knocking out these little studies.

I have a project or two in mind and hope I have time for more sustained effort soon.

small studies

These were all painted from the same reference photo 

marshes

                     5x7

I have a small pile of photos I've taken of the marshes here in southern NJ. They're endlessly interesting, like clouds--different colors, changing shapes.

Maybe I'll try to devise a marsh challenge for myself ... 100 marshes in 100 days!