plein air: assateague

My brother and I camped at Assateague National Seashore in Maryland for a few days this week; this was our fourth year. Camping--especially tent camping--is some work, but what beats sleeping on the beach; looking up from your sleeping bag and seeing the stars; seeing the sun rise over the ocean?

I had intended to paint more, but there's never enough time! 

I managed these two sketches of a view from our campsite.

seabirds

A tern in flight and a few gull shapes that I painted without drawing. I'd like to gain the kind of familiarity and facility with seabirds in flight that would allow me to sweep a convincing shape in freely.

plein air, parrsboro, nova scotia

Gina and I got back last night from our 3- day plein air workshop with Bill Rogers at the Art Lab in Parrsboro, NS, on the shore of the Bay of Fundy.

What an incredibly beautiful place! I really hope to go back, and to see Prince Edward Island and Cape Breton next time.

Bill is a wonderful teacher and just a lovely person. We learned so much ... For me Bill's emphasis on planning was very useful. 

We visited two beautiful spots to paint: Partridge Island and the Five Islands. Both days the high winds made painting outdoors a challenge, but we did it and had a great time.

We also ate some superb seafood and enjoyed locally brewed ales, and, of course, met a lot of terrific people.

The third day it rained. So I did a few cloud studies.

The view from our AirBNB

The view from my bedroom window:

seaward

Painted from a photo I took while kayaking. I have a few more-- like a tern on a "no wake" marker-- that I'm looking forward to painting!

bumper

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These bumpers always attract my gaze ... must be that orange color. In this case, there were also the nice shadows cast by the line!

Melo in the entrance to the catio:

plein air week 8

Sketching this a.m. on the grounds of the Fishing Creek School. It's a pretty and historic building, but today the trees were more eye-catching!

Next Friday we'll be painting in Nova Scotia! 

miscellaneous

Adding a few colors--hematite, quinacridone purple, and quinacridone burnt scarlet--to my palette because I like the mixes they make! (See left side.)

Also: Going to try to start each plein air session with a little, quick value and color study. I remember Angela Fehr once recommending doing a little warm-up painting, and I thought it was a great idea! These will be my warmups!

And, finally, tidying up my studio, I found a picture I had taken of a few gulls in the snow and did a little study of it. I think next time I'll add feet!

some birds

A few recent bird paintings. The waxwing and kingfisher were painted in Zoom classes with Ronna Fujisawa at saltywaterart.com. I really enjoy her classes! She shows me different ways to approach the painting.

The killdeer, below, I painted after seeing one at the Delaware Bay among all the sanderlings.

Flipping through my sketchbook, I came across this back-of-the-pageimage of a house sparrow.

And the flyer for a show I am in this month with another local artist!

plein air week 7

This week we painted in a pretty little pocket park in West Cape May, Wilbraham Park. The entire 2 hours we were there a small army of volunteer gardeners were working watering and weeding. Their work has really made the park beautiful--so quiet and shady, a great place to paint.

We're going to go back to paint the white barn/shed, which is in the backyard of a Victorian "summer cottage," aka mansion, and is going to be torn down.

more plein air

My friend Robin was visiting this past week, and along with birding, bike riding, and kayaking, we also tried to get out for some plein air sketching, and on this particular occasion we were not run off by insects!

plein air week 6

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Cape May Point was the location, and it was hot! My little umbrella didnt provide enough shade.

At home my friend Robin, visiting for a few days, and I worked on a project suggested by Chloe Briggs of drawingisfree.org: we made stencils of leaves and used them to paint overlapping transparent layers. Time consuming but fun.

double crested cormorants

When I visit my brother in St Pete FL we love to kayak at Fort de Soto. Often we're  followed by cormorants who dive under us to catch fish, sometimes so many it's hard to paddle.

Haven't quite got it yet, but these are painted from photos I took while kayaking.

plein air week 5

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Tried out some new paper, a block of Hahnemuhle. It's  cold press but has very little texture. I liked it but I don't think it'd stand up to repeated washes, which worked out for this week's plein air as I had planned to do quick paintings.

There were so many great compositions-- water, dunes, rocks. I did a couple of quick sketches, then two small paintings.

Stopped at No Frills Farm on the way home for a couple of their beautiful bouquets!

plein air, week 4

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It was bound to happen. Off to a bad start when we decided the location we'd selected just wasn't, for various reasons, working for us. Quickly looked at a couple of other possibilities, settled on one ... but, in my mind anyway, it was too late.

Maybe if I'd done a 2nd version, it wouldve been better ...

Did this little sketch at home.

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Oh well: we got out, we got the paint wet.

On to week 5!