st mary's by the sea

                             9x14

The perpetual painting subject at Cape May Point. It's irresistible--the distinctive red roofline, the crosses againt the sky--but confounding somehow. I must've painted  it a dozen times over the years... it never comes out quite right.

This one is overworked--except for the foreground, which I painted early on then didn't fiddle with because I was happy with it!

Maybe I should pray.

I console myself with remembering that Charles Reid, when he taught a workshop here, seemed to struggle with his St Mary's painting. (And with the local monstrosity known as the Physick Estate: I refuse to even contemplate painting it ... In Reid's class I turned around and painted what was across the street.)

 I was able to get this photo of the inner courtyard--the building is U-shaped, the open side facing the bay--because it's currently unoccupied. The order of nuns who own it want to return this prime waterfront land to nature. I hope their wishes will be honored.

fishing boat

                                   5x7

A rough little sketch of a fishing boat on a misty morning.

shells

                             8x10

I have a few photos, somewhere, of all these whelk and conch shells on a dune fence. The light is so dramatic I always wanted to paint them. Made two attempts before this. I think I am getting closer: using a red-yellow-blue triad definitely has helped me get some subtleties without sacrificing color ... or so it seems to me.

cabanas

                                 11x15

From a photo I took a couple of years ago. I added the person.

I loved the yellow stripes on the cabanas. I started to get a little impatient painting them and wasnt too careful about accuracy! I wish I had done a few on wet paper or softened some edges ... but luckily they are yellow and therefore a bit weak. In a stronger color I think the stripes would be dizzying!

dinghy

                                  4x6

Took this photo several years ago (before red caps took on another significance) pand finally got around to doing a little sketch of it.

I needed a warmup after a week or so of not doing much.

The subject appeals to me so much largely because of Winslow Homer's paintings of rowers and canoers.

plein air: townbank

                                8x10

A little morning plein air on the beach: a value study and a color study.

Not a very good composition. Should have added my friend Robin!

trumpet vine

                             9x11

I am finally--finally!-- beginning to get how to paint glass without painting it: it's what you put behind it ... and how you light it. The more discrete shapes you can discern to paint, the better.

I photographed this setup at least a dozen times before I settled on this view.

workshop w/nora mac phail

 

Earlier this week I took a 2-hour workshop on eyes, noses and mouths with Nora MacPhail. Tremendous fun, and it was so nice to "meet" Nora after following her blog for years!

Painting just features, for practice and to try out new techniques, is not something I've ever done before, but I'm going to collect some faces and do it more often.

landscape class

                               11x15

I missed class last week and painted this following along with a recording of class-- it was hot and getting dark, and pretty soon after I started I realized I really do not like this paper!

It's from a Arches 140lb CP sheet but has next to no texture/tooth. It's very weird.

Recently I had ordered some Fabriano paper and though it came in Fabriano packaging it was watermarked "Kilimanjaro," the Cheap Joe's brand. Extra strange as I ordered it from Dick Blick!

This paper is watermarked Arches but it feels inferior. 

I was not happy as I struggled with grasses and the rocks!

It's not the disaster I thought it would be ... but I'm stuck with 4 more sheets of crap paper. 

shell

10x14

From a photo I took.

There used to be a dune-fenced path to the bay where someone, or someones, had topped the fenceposts with whelk shells. At certain times of day the light could be very dramatic.

Have painted this three times now ... still trying to find the best way.

plein air: cape may

                                7x10

                             10x14

I worked on these simultaneously ... and each has things I like and things I don't like.

The top one is further along, though I'm not sure either one is finished.

But I don't think I'll finish either one: in both cases I'm not happy with the boat's cast shadow, which looks like a blob!

The sun was behind the stern, casting a shadow just like the one in the paintings ... But "that's how it was" is no excuse.

beachcomber

                                  8x10

Elsa came through here last night with hours of a good soaking rain!

Also left a bit of dampness in the air.

The haloing effect doesn't bother me (though it admittedly caused me some aggravation as I was painting); makes me think of the shimmer of a hot day.

south jersey street

                               9x10

Took a photo of this street this spring on an outing with my friend Gina.

I just started a Zoom class on perspective for artist with Carolyn Lord (!), and thought I'd try this as a warmup.

Grabbed a piece of hot press that was on my table, did the drawing, then started painting ... and discovered, as happens too often to me, that the sizing on the paper was shot: so no moving the paint around or mingling colors.

Decided to keep on and just paint shapes: simply, and once.

Up close you can see the defect in the paper, but overall I like the effect, which reminds me of the well-known Cape May watercolorist Alice Steer Wilson's approach.

plein air: fisherman's memorial park

                              7x10

A little view of Cape May Harbor.

I'm trying something different this year and treating all my plein air work as practice. Trying not to have any expectations and just enjoy the experience of being out and painting with friends.I took a lot of pictures and may revisit the scene in winter in my studio.

As we were painting the kids' sailing class from the yacht club beached their sunfish in front of us.

yard bouquet

8x12

The hostas are in bloom and I just love them--I am partial to all cone- and bell- shaped flowers. And the rubbeckia: such a beautiful yellow.

The hydrangea are in bloom too, but I have no idea how to paint them!

wip: Cape May street

                                7x11

I drew this and painted the sky earlier in the week. Now I can't find the reference photo ... but I decided to paint a little more anyway. Why not.

plein air: north cape may

                                 6x9

Did a little plein air painting with my friend Gina yesterday afternoon.

My "value" sketch wasn't much help with the values here: there's not much to them. But it did help me simplify a riot of dune grass and scrub into some discrete shapes that I could handle.

Another still life from my first watercolor class: from a lesson on glazes. I rarely--hardly ever!--use glazes, but I kind of like the effect.

                                10x14

young woman

                                8x10

A face from Sktchy. A lovely face and pose but I chose this photo because of the hair: it makes me think of a suffragette.

I was going to add a background but couldnt decide if it should be warm or cool, so I decided to do without it!

landscape class

                               11x15

A scene from Gros Morne provincial park in Newfoundland, home to some of the oldest rocks on the planet--which was news to me. The reference photo was taken by the teacher, Bill Rogers.

Up until I was about 14 I wanted to be a geologist and was a rockhound. I still pick up rocks everywhere I go.

Gros Morne is now on my bucket list.

I struggled with this subject a bit and I was really surprised when I photographed it and saw the lack of variation in the greens! I thought I was varying them, using 4 or 5 colors. I think I may have been painting to fast, without stopping to assess what I was doing.

Putting this in the "try again" pile.

I was looking through my pile of paintings for a couple to submit to a virtual art show and came across a few paintings I saved from my very first watercolor class, at Cooper Union in NYC, circa 1996.

Here are my first two still lifes.

                               11x12

                              11x15

chica

                             11x15

Took a photo of this girl walking on the beach a few years ago ... finally got to painting it.

I have quite a backlog of reference photos!

I am considering adding some ripples to the water. But I'm going to wait and think it over.

coconuts

Did a little more to this, trying to add darks and move some of the warm colors into different areas.

I dont know if it's done--I feel it has places that need more definition, but I don't think I can go any further with it.

kayaker

                              7x11

We came upon this boy (about 8 or 9, I'd guess) and his parents when we were kayaking in Florida. Nice family, they were having such a wonderful time, it was great to see.

I love the boy's stance in this photo--looking out over all the places to explore.

I'm afraid I didnt do him justice!

But this is just a trial run ... really too humid to paint today, like painting on a paper towel.

And I made a few mistakes, which I, contrary to my mantra--Don't "correct"--I kept trying to fix.

delaware bay

                              6x8

Another sketchbook painting.

This one started out pretty good, but I kept dabbing at it--never a good idea but really not a good idea on cheap paper--because I couldn't get the values right.

I'm most disappointed with the sky; the upper left section works for me, but the rest? The cloud on the right mimics the shape of the land too closely. And, too dabby!

the meadows

                               5x8

This is a sketch on not-so-great watercolor paper, one of those spiral-bound watercolor sketchbooks, which I often buy and never use.

But the way I approach landscapes is changing. All my classes are finally sinking in and I find myself taking time to draw or paint a little value sketch and/or to do a little "rough draft" painting in which I can, without the anxiety I might feel working on a "painting," work out a few things: colors and value, composition, and approach--wet? dry brush? 

When I do a larger version of this, for example, I'll extend the dark trees to the right a bit.

Also break up the stripes of back-, middle-, and foreground on the right.

Maybe some other things will occur to me.

And maybe (I hope) having done this I will be more ready for happy accidents.

cape henlopen

                                   8x12

Cape Henlopen, DE, is across the bay from me. The state park there has beautiful dunes, and wonderful bike trails that President Biden rides his bike on!

I let this get a little choppy; I let some darks get too dark without really thinking about how I was distributing them around the painting.

I think it might've been better if I painted all the grasses in one shape, in one midrange color and then went back and added more color and darker values.

Next time.

Delaware bay

                              8x12

A scene from near my house.

Mostly trying to get the shoreline ... the wet sand, the shallows. 

As usual, I always think I should have left more white.

zoom landscape class

                                11x13

From a photo the teacher, Bill Rogers, took in the Algarve, Portugal (which is #2 on my list of places I have got to get to! funny that everyplace on my list is on the Atlantic Ocean).

I was about to start delineating all the ways my painting deviates from the reference-- my "mistakes," in other words--when I could hear my first watercolor teacher, Marge Chavooshian, saying, They dont know what the reference looks like, and it doesn't matter anyway.

I painted this in what felt like a rush, telling myself the whole time, shoulda done this, shouldn't done that ...

But it turned out all right.

birdwatchers

                                   7x11

From a photo I took while birdwatching. Was struck by these birders' poses.

This is just a sketch, not much detail ...

But now that I've done this, I think I'd like to try another, maybe a few iterations, with more detail or finish.

zoom landscape class

                                 10x12

Peggy's Cove, painted along with teacher Bill Rogers, at Chesapeake Fine Arts Studio, using his reference photo.

I probably could have gone further, adding darks to the rocks (the lighthouse is already overworked imo) ... but it's very rainy and humid here today and I really do think its affecting my paper. (See my other attempt from this a.m., below.)

So I'm going to say it's good enough.

Extreme humidity is making my paper very absorbent today.

coconuts

Went a little further on the coconuts. But I quickly got to that point where I was almost mindlessly adding paint ... Good time to stop!

From here on it's going to take more thinking and less painting to finish.

1) The main thing may be to bring some of the purple that goes up the middle into another sector. Logically it should probably go to upper right ... but I like that area and don't want to ruin it! So it'll have to be the upper left. (maybe something dark next to the right-most coconut...)

2) Will do a little more on the coconuts; they don't have volume--but with the shadows and light on them, I may not be able to accomplish that. 

3) Add a little, a very little, variation to the green in the lower left? But that wash is pretty clean, don't want to mess it up; may leave it as is.

plein air: townbank

7x10

More dune paintings. I could do one of these every day and never get the same result!