fort zachary taylor state park

(6x8)
My best friend from high school, Robin, will be turning fifty next month, on the first day of summer, the happiest day of the year.
Robin lived in Key West for many years and I visited every year. Robin and I are ritualistic sorts and in Key West a never-missed ritual was to ride bikes to the waterfront market, stock up on cheeses, bread, and beer, then spend the day at Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, reading, talking, eating and drinking; sitting in the sun or the shade of the cypresses, and swimming.
This is not my first attempt to paint scenes from the park ... I want to give them, when I get some good ones, to Robin as a memento for her birthday. I think I have to try again.
Judging for their website, the fort, like much of the Key West waterfront has suffered from a lot of sprucing up ... I miss dilapidated old Key West! Now that I'm old and dilapidated too it's an especial affront. I'm sure Robin (now living in Wisconsin) would agree.

(6x8)

A frame made from boards from an old Key West house that Robin gave me as a housewarming; it's hanging at the entrance to my art room.

another virtual paintout scene: prague

(8x10)
This month's Virtual Paintout location is the Czech Republic. Of all the places I've virtually visited for VP, I found the street scenes of Prague the most appealing to date.
I actually have several scenes I'd like to paint, but I've been too busy engaging in not-unproductive diversionary tactics: painting the art room, clearing out the closet and sorting through papers, paints and palettes; choosing colors to fill two new palettes ... (next project: sand and varnish the art room floor).
If it weren't for trying to avoid doing other even-less-appealing things, I'd never get anything done!

Virtual Paintout: Prague

(4x6)
Sometimes the paper's just not big enough!
I found a lot of great street scenes in Prague using Google's Streetview that I hope to paint ... But I just noticed when I came home today, after being away for a few days, that there's one beautiful iris blooming in my yard waiting to be painted.

more irises

(7x10)
Didn't have time to paint yesterday (though I did get a coat of primer on the dining room!), but in the evening I looked at my vase of nearly-dead irises and made this quick study.
I see though that last night's rain has perked up the irises in the yard, so I may have another chance.

back to school

(12x16)
Yesterday I brought some irises from my yard to my class with Marie Natale (I'm hoping to get in a few refresher classes before summer activities fully consume my life). She had us paint the setup--there were a couple of colored-glass bottles too, which I left out--1)without drawing, 2) using a triad, and 3) "inviting," as she says, the colors to run into one another, which necessitated keeping it all pretty wet.
I always have trouble sticking strictly to a triad; here, cobalt, magenta, and new gamboge. I didn't manage it here, but it is a helpful jumping off point: when you only have the three colors to chose from, I think you can paint with a little more abandon?

I enjoyed this exercise: not drawing removed the anxiety I would normally have trying to capture all the ins-and-outs of an iris. Instead, I just tried for shapes and colors. Naturally, there are things I would change--and I think I will add one or maybe two flowers leaning over into the empty space at the right.
It was also strange painting this size--I've become accustomed to a 5x7 or 7x10 size, so easy to "complete"--and on Arches paper (i'm trying to use the paper I have and pulled this block out of the closet). I usually use Fabriano, which I find so ... amenable--the paint just floats over it; with the Arches, I really had to use more paint and more water and force it onto the paper!

I wish I had thought to bring a camera: my classmates, Elaine and Dolores, did beautiful paintings with glowing color!
No class next week.

As I painted I kept trying to think of Hazel Soan (you'll remember the great paintings Cathy did in a workshop with Hazel!): she says that the subject of a watercolor is always the watercolor itself, not the thing you're painting.

(12x16)
This is the two-year-old unfinished painting that was on my block ... I ran out energy contemplating finishing off the fence. I think I may just stick a hedge in there and call it done.

p.s. Renovations continue with new drywall in the kitchen and dining room this past weekend. You wouldn't believe the dust sanding spackle creates; it gets everywhere--and gets tracked everywhere! Now I understand why Peter's so adamant about his workmen removing their shoes when they come in the house! My evening project this week is to get the rooms painted. Sticking with white for the kitchen but trying out yellow in the dining room--I can't wait to see how it turns out.

(4x6)

(4x6)
A little more playing around trying to absorb Charles Reid's advice.
I had some time to paint this weekend--and lilacs (another perennial challenge) blooming in the yard--but I also had utter chaos at home this weekend as Peter and Paco installed a hardwood floor in my guest room; in the days and weeks ahead they'll be putting down a hardwood floor in my room and totally renovating the bathroom--new walls, floor, fixtures, window.

Almost the entire contents of my downstairs are now piled in the living room, which I know is temporary, but still makes me anxious: I do like order. When I feel the anxiety I go into the guestroom and look at the floor.

One of the women who sends me work will be going on maternity leave to have her first child soon; I painted this card and envelope to wish her well.

charles reid dvd

(5x7 hot press)
Last night I watched the first disk of Charles Reid's new DVD, which I read about on Rhonda's blog, and couldn't resist painting along.
It amazes me how right after I watch a demo I can implement certain ideas from the demo, but then, later, I just revert back to what I always do!
These are from Reid's lessons on local color, greens, and edges.

(11x15 sheet)

the year of unburdening

(4x6 hot press)
I missed the magnolia blossoms and have nearly missed out on my irises. Actually I've been avoiding them because I find them so very difficult. The picture at the end shows my first go, which I thought suffered from too much drawing and fussy concern about the color.
In response, I did the freehand painting above, and then painted over my first one, below.
Not perfect, but definitely more fun. (4x6 hot press)

Since I turned fifty in December 09 I've been in the hospital twice, never having been hospitalized in all the previous years. It's not "serious" but it is worrying, primarily in how it's impacted my sense of myself. What do you know, I'm not indestructible! The realization's been a blow but, after a few weeks of sulking and thinking and avoiding thinking by painting walls, I'm ready to stop focusing on my newly discovered frailties and rededicate myself to the idea of myself as a fortunate (and healthy) person.
The rest of this fiftieth year is going to one of unburdening, materially and emotionally: I'm casting off for fifty-one.

last daffs

(7x11)
I've been busy painting rooms and "spring cleaning," which has resulted in a big mess everywhere that's not conducive to painting.
I completely missed out on the chance to paint my magnolia tree this year: the blooms came and went.
The last of my daffodils are starting to wilt so yesterday I tried ... I may get another day or two out of them. Then, I hope, I'll have some irises.

(11x15)

inspiration all around us

(5x7)
These were done from a reference photo on the challenge blog Inspiration All Around Us. It's a nice photo: the single white flower is a great subject--one that seems to hold special appeal for watercolor painters; like koi. Some of the leaf shapes were a little indeterminate; I tried to keep them that way by softening the edges.
(5x7)

daffodils again

(8x15)
Sometimes something intangible just "makes" a painting.
After being pleased with my previous daffodil painting, I thought I'd better begin another one right away. This one isn't done--I'm kind of stuck* and don't really know what to do next (other than stop futzing with the flowers). I like the jar and the Diebenkorn postcard, but I can't help feeling that the arrangement of the daffodils just doesn't work as well as in the earlier painting; but maybe I can fix it.
I noticed (after the fact, really) that there was one flower in the earlier painting that I thought was just right, and that became my focus: I need a just right one here.
Below is another daffodil start, with Van Gogh this time.

(8x12)
*I'm debating whether or not to do something to the background: the little Diebenkorn postcard area is so densely painted it seems to throw the picture off balance. And yet, I'm mindful of a teacher I once had who said if you're unsure, don't do anything!

the garland briefer

(detail)
Here's a side-benefit of taking challenges: I had this vase of daffodils to paint and was looking for something else to put in the picture; Botticelli's youth was fresh in my mind.
I'm going to shock a lot of people when I say, I'm pleased. I love daffodils but usually feel my attempts to paint them are unsuccessful--I try to do it as if I were Emil Nolde, but I can't get anywhere close. So I took another tack and did them like Laura: somewhat methodical, not quite finished. This time instead of trying to draw each flower, I drew the outer edge and selected just a few throats to delineate.
Also I used Winsor & Newton's Turner's Yellow, which is a soft, mild yellow, akin to Naples but more transparent. (11x15)
I hope to get another painting or two out of these daffodils before the ones in my yard open--this year I'm expecting some with bright orange throats!--and before the magnolia tree blooms, which I think may be only days away: then it's nothing but magnolias until they're done.

more following the masters

Copy of Raphael's St. Catherine of Alexandria (5x7)
This is the other painting I selected for the Following the Masters challenge; what first attracted me to it was the gesture, her contrapposto. As I copied it I was struck by the opulence of her drapery and all the colors I could see in it the more I looked.
I had to wash out and repaint the eye several times: I got the upward-looking gesture but, in the original, something in the whites of her eyes makes me think of terror; perhaps Raphael meant to suggest she could foresee her martyrdom?

following the masters

Copy of Botticelli's Portrait of a Youth (5 x7)
On her blog, Late B(l)oomer Sherry has very cleverly and thoughtfully made a blog roll of challenges; this is in response to one, Following the Masters: the current challenge, 11, is to copy or do something in the style of the Italian Renaissance. I was going to wait for a more amenable challenge--Cezanne? Matisse?--but in just two minutes of browsing Renaissance images I came upon this well-known youth, who looks, right down to the golden-brown waves and curls, very like my brother John at around twelve or thirteen.
I overdid it just a bit--losing some Botticellean delicacy in a wrongheaded pursuit of volume (he didn't think it necessary, why should I!)--and wish I had stopped way sooner ... I kept smudging around trying to get this or that "right": always a mistake!

march virtual paintout

(4x6)
One of the many beautiful scenes I came upon while wandering around Stavanger, Norway, on Google Streetview for Bill Guffey's March Virtual Paintout.

Below, I started painting before realizing that I had (impulsively, how else?) cut a piece out of the paper that was above this one without removing it from the block first!

(4x6)

life drawing

2-minute poses/pencil
Last night I went to a life drawing class. The model didn't show up, so the woman who organizes the group posed for us (in her long johns!).

5-minute poses/marker

10-minute poses/water-soluble pencil and watercolor pencils

20-minute pose/pencil and watercolor

monochrome

A lot of people don't like them and it's true, if you're trying to eat something on the beach, they're a nuisance (and a hazard to your hair). My solution is to not eat on the beach.
We can be twenty miles out to sea fishing and the minute you pull a minnow out of the bucket, seagulls appear in the sky; then they come swooping down and you worry about them taking your hook or getting caught in your line. It's never happened to me and I really hope it never does. I think they're amazing, and beautiful, with their white, gray and black markings--they make me want to get out my sumi set.
And I love their cawing which even in a cacophony sounds lonely.


I was leafing through some art books and saw the watercolor below. It's funny how different things strike you at different times--I've had this book for years, but had never been so struck by this painting as I am now ... now I can't take my eyes off it!
 

Frank W. Benson, Eider Ducks in Winter (1913)