revisiting, 2

Trying to salvage this painting of ibises. The darks really helped.

This loose little sketch benefits from cropping, especially as I wasn't really interested in painting the space in the background!

american kestrel

                             8x10

                            6x8

First bird of the fall session with SaltyWaterArt, an Amercan kestrel.

Sometimes I look at my paintings and think I go both too far and not far enough.

A new practice I'm trying out: painting before coffee!

I had these small Notans in my sketchbook--made from photos I took in the Virgin Islands some years back--and I used them to directly paint small studies, meaning no drawing first.

sketchbook page

I'm liking this practice: draw the subject, then paint it below, without drawing, using the sketch as a reference.

This sketchbook isn't watercolor paper, and there was a lot of bleeding, but I don't mind.

I drew it in landscape format then painted it in a square ... no idea why!

My cat Gilly took a selfie while playing with my phone.

drawingisfree.org

I don't always remember but I try to join Chloe Briggs's 1 hour online drawing session on Mondays: she selects a participant who we all then draw for the length of a song.

It's challenging-- I usually don't make it through the whole hour!-- but also kind of exhilarating and calming!

Using it as an opportunity to try different mediums and methods, and also trying to give myself room to react to each new face.

NYC scenes

A couple of smallish, 7x11, paintings I started from photos I took this spring in NYC.

I think they both have potential; the strong shadows drew me to both.

revisiting discarded paintings

Going through a pile of paintings I wasn't happy with or that are just unfinished.

I always liked this photo I took, but my first attempt to paint it was weak. 

I added more darks to some wings and also added a few streaks of pure cobalt.

It's an improvement. Sorry didn't think to photograph it first!

This is an abandoned painting that I can maybe salvage.

Planning to extend the dark rock on the right.

Also need to clarify that all the negative space is water, that is, that it is one plane-- which it definitely doesn't look like now!

sketchbook explorations

A sketchbook page.

I like this photo I took of a boatyard, the shapes were almost abstract.

I think I can zoom in and crop and get more abstract.

I drew two rectangles, divided them into 4, and divided the photo in four too.

First I drew the pen version, going quadrant by quadrant.

Then I wanted to try building the scene by blocking in colors, which seemed like a job for gouache.

I don't have much experience with gouache and thinned it out too much, I guess, not getting the opacity and covering power I expected.

But I can see its use as a sketching medium and as a tool to maybe simplify shapes and values.

May do it again in black and white!

barn

Here's one I attempted on my own at home, using a limited palette: a triad of Winsor red, cerulean, and raw sienna, with a little ultramarine blue and Winsor orange.

I think there may be more I can add to this, maybe a little glazing too, when the humidity drops! Currently 89%.

more VT plein air paintings

The good, the bad and the ugly from Susan Abbott's excellent VT workshop.

I hope to go again.

VT workshop exercises

This first exercise we did in Susan Abbott's studio was a lot of fun. She gave us a black and white photo and, turning it upside down, we painted only the darks. Essentially creating a Notan.

Then we chose analogous colors to paint the light and midtones.

Amazingly it did not matter what colors you chose!

They all looked great but I especially loved the pink ones!

This one was harder.

We chose a triad, mixed chromatic neutrals and painted with them, trying to keep a play of warm and cool going.

We retained a few spots in which to use one or more of our triad colors in its pure state-- which I think is a great idea.

I can't remember the exact assignment for this one. I think it may have been to select one or two complementary pairs and use them pure, unmixed, adding analogous color to bridge the shapes and hold the painting together. I don't think I did exactly what Susan asked but I was really trying to just break free from local color.

plein air, vermont

Vermont plein air paintings.

I loved the blocky geometry of farm buildings--I have tons of ref photos of old barns. Enough to keep me busy trying to figure out how to use everything I learned in Susan Abbott's workshop for a long time.

And below, desaturated versions.

You can see where, for example in the first one, the darks need to be extended to the edge, a suggestion of Susan's.

VT sketchbook pages

I often forget how pleasurable drawing is.

I always start with a contour line. I like line. I fill the shape in with shading if needed.

But I'd like to try to develop the ability to draw without the contour, using value shapes instead.

view from the ridge

                            8x10

                             6x8

A couple of small watercolors, done at home.

Trying to heighten color, think of warm and cool, and values. It's a lot! 

In class, Susan Abbott suggested we de-saturate photos of our paintings to more clearly see the value structure.

Can't believe I wasn't doing this!

It's also helpful to desaturate reference photos to better see where they do and don't work.

And now, another farm cat!

back from vt

Just back from a beautiful and stimulating week in Central VT painting with Susan Abbott: a superb teacher in a sublime setting.

Living at sea level as I do it was exhilarating to have green and blue mountains as a backdrop.

This is just a little colored pencil sketch of the view from our airbnb.

More to come when I've had time to absorb it all!

Here's a kitten I fell in love with at the farm where we painted!