some birds

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The last few weeks my yard has been full of active little yellow-rumped warblers. My attempt to depict one, above, is a little fanciful, though they are gray and brown with black and white wing bars and a streaky breast.

I painted this on some hot press paper I found. May try again on CP.

Below, a couple of similarly inaccurate wrens!

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wip

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Pecking away at this: it's from a photo of a holiday wreath I made last year. 

Not sure it's going to work, but I'm going to try to "finish" it, hoping I'll get some insight on how to do a better version.

Found a pile of hot press paper, which I gave up on using a while ago. Going to keep this around for now though; think it might be good for ink drawings or maybe watercolor pencils?

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bayshore scenes

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A couple of small studies of scenes near my house.

The idea was to simplify ... the only way I know how to do that is to paint wet and let the puddles do the simplifying.

I thought these were disastrous when I finished them but they are growing on me.

snowy owl

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Painted these last night in a Zoom class with Oregon artist Ronna Fujisawa. (Check out her website: SaltyWaterArt.com.) I like Ronna's approach: it's very direct, painterly, and stress-free!

I never would've attempted a snowy owl--all those markings!

I worked on two at a time because I have a tendency to paint too wetly and this way I can bounce back and forth. Though even so the paper was too wet sometimes ... but it's all right. Painting these owls was

very engrossing and fun.

Also beginning to work on making sketches of local birds-- wouldn't call the snowy owl local but they have been seen here!--that I can transfer to watercolor paper to paint with different backgrounds. 

First up: house sparrow.

assateague national seashore

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Spent last week camping on the beach with friends. Third year. Each year we vow to do art every day, but then we don't! The time is taken up with walking, biking, kayaking, and eating and drinking around the campfire.

a little sketching

A little sketching, trying to keep it loose and let the paints do what they do.

My Arya. Sleeping on the art books.

alice neel inspired

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I was able to get to the Alice Neel exhibit in NYC late in the summer. (Saw Daoud Bey and Cezanne exhibits on the same trip!)

And in one of my online art classes, we looked at Neel.

The Neel-ist thing about this painting is the subject. 

I did some outlining and left some parts unpainted, both things Neel would do.

I was working from a photo. And even though it's a photo of my mother and brother, I wonder if it's possible to get the engagement Neel seems to have with her sitters if you're not sitting with a person?

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Started a second--me and my brothers: a Neel-like subject but ...

double square

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I think I like this double-square format.

I would lime to get more color, or maybe more darks, into the grasses, but I think I'm done with this one. Cant explain it, really, just don't have the desire to keep working it.

But I do like the format and will probably revisit it.

bird painting class

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Taking a 4-session Zoom class with Ian de Hoog at the Winslow Art Center.

Week 1: Kookaburra.

Painted the blue one in class, and the brown one after, on my own. 

I have a tendency to prefer the not-so-colorful birds, but also I think the drawing in that one is better.

And what a difference that makes!

At this point I'm about two weeks behind in the class! Hoping to catch up soon.