North Beach, Fort De Soto

 

Another painting from a photo I took at Fort De Soto last winter.

All that brown stuff is supposed to be wrack, mostly dried grasses, washed up along the tide line. I don't think that's very clear ... but it doesn't really bother me! In fact, as I was painting it was the part I was most frustrated but now I like it the best and dislike the rest!

Fort De Soto

Back on track, trying to paint something 5 days a week.
This is this morning's effort.
Not too happy with it, but that's usually the case when I try to paint palm trees ... just never happy with the shape of the fronds, or the color, really: the lower fronds in these were dry, brown and light tan.
I should do a palm tree sampler; get them right before I try to make a painting of them.

Back to work ...

tomorrow, after a week of fun with visiting friends.
This is the beach at Cape May Point, with Atlantic storms on the horizon.

Hot hot hot

Crazy hot and humid here. Spending as much time as possible at the beach with my houseguests.
Tried to paint at the beach yesterday, but the paper went limp and spongy!

Benny's Landing

Painted here at the beginning of last year, with mostly disastrous results, and took the picture this is painted from.
There was a ton of largely indiscernible "information" under the house and the dock and I was trying to just indicate that there was something there ... not entirely successfully (got much too dark in some places), but success enough

Bird postcards

Also, very glacially, working on postcards featuring birds, using a gouache and colored pencil technique taught online by Val Webb. I like the results but find working with colored pencils somewhat laborious--so it helps to keep it small!

Higbee Beach

Plein air painting yesterday afternoon.
Was going to skip it because of the heat, but glad I didn't: there was no shade, but a lovely breeze, and I took a couple of dips too.

Today's efforts

Decided to try a little painting on the deck, such a perfect day. Until I got swarmed by mosquitos ...
The geraniums were painted without drawing. I've decided I like a loose approach to the leaves, just wobbly-edged ovals.
The sunflowers I drew. Perhaps too much as I felt very much that I was filling them in!

Ohio Ave and Delaware Bay

Took a few painting supplies on my bike ride this morning. By the time I stopped to paint, half the water had leaked out all over everything, including 5x7 block. Since the paper was wet I was going to just head home, but another voice in my head won out, the voice I'm trying to make louder.

Way back

I began to try to break out of my slump with these tiny imagined landscapes ...
Funny that of the few things I've done so far they're my favorite.

And introducing one of my four--started with two ...-- new cats, Arya.

Sunflower farm

Started this on location at a nesrby farm.
Now poking away intermittently at home!

In October I'll be in an Alvaro Castagnet workshop, so I've got to get comfortable with my paints before then.

3 days

Another ( nearly) year of no blogging and hardly any painting.
Going to try to change that-- no matter how awkward and disappointing these first steps are.
I spent about 15-20 minutes the last 3 mornings, before becoming overwhelmed by dailiness, painting a small, 7x10, sketch.
Going to push for 5 days a week.

a willet?

9x12

I'm not 100 percent sure what kind of bird this is ... a willet, perhaps?

more beachgoers

Another painting from one of my photos. And my completed homemade sketchbooks--two with Coptic binding, one with Japanese stab binding.

Beachcomber

From a photo I took last summer.
Didn't get to the beach much this summer, for some reason. Always regret not having had enough fun when summer ends!

Beachgoers

Another sketch of beachgoers. Feel it could use some punching up ... But I'll leave it and call it a hazy day.

Sunday project

 

Working on making a few little watercolor journals: two with Coptic binding, one with a simple Japanese stab binding.

Also, a little contour drawing. 

Not working ...

I set up a little still life that I thought looked so nice, simple and bright.
But I couldn't translate it to the paper (one mistake was using masking fluid).
So, inspired by Rhonda at Watercolors and Words, I decided to try to fill the space a la Shirley Trevena ... Easier said than done as I don't have her facility with shapes, among other things.
But, I figured it couldn't hurt to practice on a failed painting.
This is how far I got this morning.

Oysterman

From a picture I took of an oyster farmer returning to the dock.
Overworked the dark greens a bit--they kept drying too light. And I was hoping to get more variety in there; when I painted it, I thought I was varying them...not enough though.

photo refs

Yesterday was the last day of the summer flounder season.
Didn't catch any flounder, but got a couple of nice reference photos.

Bad paper :-(

Didn't finish this little sketch--struggled too long with it as it is--because the paper was not cooperating.
I have this problem with paper sometimes--too old? too much humidity? It becomes absorbent, flattening the color and making mixing on the paper and hard edges impossible.

Cloud study

Once in a while I get an urge to try painting clouds. There are so many watercolor techniques to practice: color mixing, hard and soft edges, wet-in-wet ...
And the subject itself is new daily

Eastern robin

Watercolor with black and white ink.

Outside Espanola, NM

I have numerous--beyond numerous, really--photos of NM: Espanola, Santa Fe, and my favorite, Taos.
They always seem too daunting to paint!
But this scene appeals to me so much--I am crazy for pinons!--I decided to finally try.

Jersey shore

First painting I've done in my revamped studio--a very pleasant experience!

Iris

Another abandoned painting!
I couldn't see my own underdrawing very well and wound up putting a petal where on shouldn't be.
On the upside, my glads are blooming ...

Unfinished ...

I've been seeing a lot of great portraits on FB lately, which inspired me to get out a photo from an "old Florida" site that I found a few years back. I just loved this woman's serene and sweet face.
So, I began ... But stopped.
The color's not right--too yellow?
And, I think there are too many hard edges...
Sometimes, for me, it's better to begin again than to try to fix.

Studio revamp

Though I haven't been painting, or posting, much, it's not far from my mind!
I've been redoing my studio--painting, reorganizing and winnowing, building shelves ...
I wish I had taken before pictures!
The current lack of clutter will, I hope, be conducive to spending more time in here!

Blue poppies

Painting in the darks behind the flowers I ran out of steam!

Benny's Landing, 2

A second attempt made in the comfortable, if hot, confines of my studio.
Houses are still too prominent! May do some lifting, under them especially.
Even with the dark undernesth, the houses seem to be floating!
I think I will pull some of the grass color up into them; perhaps that will integrate them better.

plein air group

Last summer a few friends and I started a plein air group; this summer we're folding into a larger group with a greater range.
We met yesterday afternoon at Benny's Landing. Beautiful afternoon.

 

Right off the bat, I messed up the line of houses: it's too big, and the rooflines were mostly at the same height. Also, I began by painting the shadowed side of the houses; should have started with the lighter side, I think--then I might have seen the drawing error and been able to fix it.

Since I wasn't happy with it, I decided to mark corrections on it with a marker, so I could try the scene again.

I changed the roofline, and added more dark shapes along the base of the houses.

When I paint it again, I'll much reduce the prominence of the houses too.