late afternoon sketching

                   fountain pen

.                     graphite

.                  watercolor

.           watercolor pencils

lemon bay sunset

a little sketching at sunset on the beach at lemon key last night

cranes

                       15x18

A couple of paintings I'm working on. 

Looking at them now I think I spent too much time drawing the birds, or drawing their feathers that is.

Maybe having work done these I can do another, 

looser not trying to concentrate so much on feather groupings

copy of Marin painting

Not much time to paint today so I decided to try something I've been meaning to start doing for quite a while: copy a John Marin painting.

On the top is his 1923 Movement of the Sea--Blue and Green.

On the bottom is my copy. 

This was fun and I definitely plan to try again; more dry brush next time, and better color matching.

another paint along

                         9x12

With Paul George via YouTube.

His colors were so much more subtle and also purer than mine.

He uses a lot of paint and a lot of water, but he doesn't get the fuzzy edges I get, like on my rocks ...

More practice needed!

On my way this morning to Florida for a few days to see my brother and to take a little road trip to parks around Sarasota with my oldest friend, who lives in FL now. We're hoping to hike, kayak, 

swim if it gets warm enough, 

And of course draw and paint!

painting along

                      9x12

With Paul George.

If you haven't checked him out on YouTube I can highly recommend it. I like the way he paints and his subjects. 

He often comments on a particular problem I have of not using enough water and not using enough pigment. You can really see when he paints the need for thick and juicy pigments. 

He also does in person workshops; he has one in Maine this summer. I hope someday I can paint with him in person.

still life

                     8x10

Another still life for my class at Winslow art center with Abby Ober. It's freeing and fun to paint this way ...

sketchbook

My friend Gina came over yesterday and we spent a couple of hours doing some painting in our sketchbooks.

in the style of

                       8x10

A still life in the style of Raoul Dufy.

cats wip

.                     16x20

This is homework for a class. I'm trying to put together a painting using various reference photos of my cats. 

Now I see why people always say to work on the background at the same time you work on the subject ... I've got this big blank space and very little idea how to resolve it! 

I have an idea but I'm kind of afraid to start.

cezanne

I took a London Drawing Group class on Cezanne watercolors, a 2-hour one-off. But I hope they'll do more. 

The top sketch of seven apples is a copy of a Cezanne oil painting from 1878.

more wip

I went a little further on my wip, and also started another. Stopping to consider what to do next.

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!