Spring Break Sketches

Today I am looking at my computer desktop which is crowded with pictures. All this means is that I am in 'doing too many things at once' mode. I drag files and pictures that I am working on to the desktop until I am finished with them (and am reminded that I am not done) and then they hit the trash. . . they disappear from view.

So, today I am looking at all the photos and notice that some of my sketches from Spring Break are still there. Oh yes, I was going to post them after I posted the ones that my granddaughters did . . .a month or so ago!

Well, here are a few - I love doing rough sketches. The quick, pen and watercolor images remind me of the fun vacation times and also reflect the easy lifestyle of laid-backness. No attempt to get it all right - just capture a memory.

This is the beach house where we stay. It really is on the beach and has this great deck overlooking the gulf.

This is another page of the sketchbook. This the front of the house  - surrounded by plantings. On the right is a sketch of one of the flowering 'things' - I confess, I do not know what it is, just that is was really colorful and had a nice shape!

And here are some of the shells that the girls found on the beach. I love the crusty, barnacle-y ones.

Ahhhh, until next year.

A Quiet Moment

Several weeks ago, my nephew's wife posted (on Facebook) a wonderful picture of her husband and little four year old Nate. Nate was happily sitting on a pier with a fishing pole in his hands. His daddy looked like he had just come home from work. Shirt sleeves rolled up, he was kneeling on the dock - probably encouraging his son to wait just a little longer.

You have to know that daddy Mark lives to fish and I have seen some amazing pictures of his catches. So here he was with the next generation, waiting for a first fish.

The moment I saw the photo I was hooked and wrote to Olivia right away to ask if I could paint it. (Painting someone else's photo is a huge no-no in my world) She quickly gave me permission and I have loved trying to capture this moment.

Being an artist  - having 'artistic license' - is such fun. I can change things around that are fixed in a photo. I moved Nate and Mark a little closer together and fiddled with the background a bit. After all, this is about relationship not about what is on the other side of the lake.

I have worked on this off and on - in between all the art league 'stuff' that has been calling me - and decided that I just needed to package it up and send it off. One big question that is always looming is "When is the painting finished?"  Yesterday I was watching a video of Albert Handell (renowned pastelist)  and his answer was, "It's finished when you get tired of working on it!" I think for me, it was finished, because I kept picking at it - time to let it go.

The Post Script on this is, that the next day, there was another photo posted of Nate with an enormous fish and equally big smile! Hooked another one . . .

Spring Break

For the past several years we have been invited to join my daughter and her family for "Spring Break." We fly to Florida to enjoy the warm sunshine and beach. The four girls are so full of energy and laughter - it is really a delightful week together.

I always take a sketchbook and some of my watercolors with me. I will sit and sketch while others are playing lacrosse, running on the beach, or balancing on the stand up paddleboard. There was a time when all the girls wanted to paint a picture and my sketchbook holds some wonderful paintings of other trips.

This year, just the 'littles' (what my daughter calls the two youngest ones) wanted to paint in my book. They take this very seriously and I always promise to post what they have done.

This is Winnie's work:

 We were sitting outside on the deck and she was drawing everything she saw. The table and chairs where we eat all our meals. (There were 8 chairs there, but we thought drawing 2 was enough), the flag on the deck railing, and a pot of flowers. She thought it would be fun to put a pair of sunglasses in the flowers - you can see them peeking through.  And then, of course, she signed her work  - as every great artist does when they are finished. I love it!

This is Hildry's creation:

I do not know where this idea came from. . ., but she painted a barn! Off to the right you can see the pig pen (lots of mud) with a fence around it and a tractor just behind it. "Tractors are always green," she told me. (Her uncle is a farmer, so she would know this.) She put flower boxes in the windows and the big X on the barn door. Then she started painting the sky and put in big thunderbolts and words like 'aabam,' 'caboosh wosh,' and 'crash boom!'

Both girls had a great time . . .and I love it that I can show them off!

Update - a 'touch' of color

The more I looked at the peach painting - which I am now calling "The Value of a Peach" - the more I knew that something was not right. I experimented a bit with it . . .thinking the 'touch' of color was more a slapped on glob of color which overwhelmed the gray values. I toned down the brightly colored peach.  The color is now sort of emerging as if it had been 'touched' by the color god and encouraged to ripen into peach fleshness.

before

 after

The original watercolor is currently hanging in our living room. I have now hung the B&W version next to it. (awaiting the hanging of the exhibit on Thursday) It's fun to see them side by side.

The Pumpkin and the Peach

It has been a busy month - ARTfest (see my last post) is launched with all it's many pieces planned and ready to go: classes, workshops, FREE talks, art gallery, posters, brochures . . .and the list goes on.  The 2014 banners are now hanging on the poles along Talbot Street in St Michaels  - sigh - I finally have a little time to paint!

Next week the art league is exhibiting in the St Michaels Library gallery. The theme of this exhibit is "Black & White with a Touch of Color." My challenge to myself several years ago was to enter a painting in every exhibit that the art league sponsors. So, I have been thinking about what I wanted to paint - had lots of ideas, but just hadn't had a chance to do anything . . .time is running out. Oh my, I do need a deadline to get anything done these days.

I looked through lots of old photos and came up with a few things to try. My thinking was that this really is a value (black, shades of gray and white) study with a spot of color. I printed out several color photos as B&W studies. Interestingly, when they are printed in black & white only, you can really see the gray scale.

I chose this one first. I love painting the grandchildren, so knew that one of paintings had to be that subject. This is Leighton (now almost 13) at age 2 or 3. She had curly blond hair and her mother always put wonderful big bows on the girls when they were little. What I discovered in painting this is that it is VERY HARD for me to do this in just black, grays and white! I was dying to put in that blond hair and wonderful skin color and the color of that big bow!

Sorry about this photo - I do not know why this has such a yellowish cast to it  - it really is a black, white & gray pastel painting.

We can enter two paintings . . .so I then repainted a watercolor that I had done some time ago. I had always loved the way it turned out then. If you are interested, you can find the original painting posted July 29 2011. And, again I had a tough time NOT using color. This exhibit is quite a challenge for me!

Voila - a pumpkin and a peach!  The exhibit will be hanging for the month of May. Drop by and take a look if you are in the area!

ARTfest

I can't believe it's been over a month since I last posted! Of course, that also means it's been that long since I painted . . .actually it's been even longer than that.  Since we have been home from our winter vacation I have been caught up in planning ARTfest - 100 days of ART.

The St Michaels Art League has recently been the beneficiary of a very generous grant from AT&T. We are using the money to promote the arts in our community by offering: Adult Classes, Children's Workshops, FREE evening Art talks, an ART hunt and opening a Member Art Gallery - all going on this summer.

I can not even count the hours of planning that have already gone into this - it's been fun to imagine and let our creative juices run wild. . .

I have been working on the poster and the brochure. The poster began with some committee ideas and has developed into a rather wonderful piece of art.

We are really excited about the variety of offerings this summer. There are three master classes - one in acrylics, one in using your phone to create artsy photography and the third one in watercolor.

The other adult classes are Travel Journaling, Collage, Batik, Acrylics and Watercolor. The children's offering are "Creativity Boosters - Finding the Art in you Heart", "Painting an Eastern Shore Landscape in Watercolor" and "Sweet Scenes" (Creating with jelly beans!) There will also be 2 children's Art Days - painting plein air.  All the supplies for these workshops/classes are provided!

So, those of you who are local - or you may who want to visit St Michaels this summer - take a look at the website and find out more.  Registration forms will be posted soon. The FREE talks are listed there, too.
stmichaelsartleague.org

The official check presentation takes place this coming Tuesday, April 1. You know, I had this awful thought . . . what if they come and say "Happy April Fools Day" and there is no check after all!

Home again

It's snowing. It's beautiful. I am at home for the day. Ahhhhh.

Having spent the past several weeks on our winter vacation - which was WONDERFUL and WARM -  I am now back home. Actually, I have been home for a week and today is the first day that I have nothing on my schedule! It's a real catch-up-at-home day. (thus the 'ahhhhh)

My past few blogs have been all about zentangling  - it seemed a great way to put aside all my other art interests and really take a vacation. As I 'tangled' I could feel stress melt away. I escaped into another gentler world. I did not have to produce a great work of art. It was just fun.

On the four-plus hour plane ride home I did a few more tangles. I didn't have my paints with me - these are just done with ink and pencil.

Zentangling at 40,000 feet!

I can't promise that I will never post another zentangle, but I know I need to at least get into my studio soon!

Hope YOU are trying this out, too!