Twists and Turns

A couple weeks go I was asked to substitute for two weeks in the watercolor class. I love going to the class - I always learn something and it gets me out of doing all the other administrative things that seem to keep popping up. I do need to be in my right brain. (Now that's another story, if you are left-handed - as I am - do I go into my left brain to find my creative side? Am I usually already in my right brain? Too much thinking...)

Anyway, that day in class I just couldn't get into a grove. I painted an awful painting of a fawn that had been sitting in our yard for a few days. I thought it would be good to do something 'cute' - it wasn't... In fact, even my teacher suggested that I just wash it off! She was so right.

On to week two of subbing - I was determined to come to class with an idea that would excite me. Looking back at recent paintings...there were all those ropes. Could I do another in my rope series? Actually, it was my watercolor instructor who suggested that a series would be fun. After googling several ideas: maritime, ropes, cleats, ships' wheels...I began to sketch. I was just going to make up something and purposely NOT paint from a photo.

This is what I took to class:

Sorry about the photo quality, but hopefully you can see a rope and a ship's wheel. It is a little different - I thought it might be interesting. Barbara (my teacher) did not like the shape that the rope made in the upper left hand corner.

Here it is after I re-drew that area:

I got to work with my watercolors and it began to take shape:

Here are the basic shapes and colors - now to add some shadows for a more dramatic effect. By the end of class this is how much I had gotten finished.

When I got home, I put it on my easel and looked at it for a few days to see what else it needed. It also helps me if I put a mat around it  - interestingly that helps to see what else to do. A lot of staring and tweaking later... I added highlights to the wheel and played a bit more here and there with the line and its shadows and... voila!

"Twists and Turns" matted 16x20 watercolor $200

It's ready to go to the SMAL gallery in St Michaels. We will be hanging new artwork for the month of August. Stop in and see what's new - 106 Railroad Ave in St Michaels.

Happy Fourth!

Since this new painting is mostly red, white and blue . . .I thought it would be fun to post it today - the 4th of July.

This painting is a re-paint of one that I blogged on June 16, 2013 for the Red, White and Blue Exhibit last July.

I always particularly loved the light and shadow on the girl on the left - that's granddaughter, Graeme, a few years ago. I thought I would crop this painting and just paint her. 

So, I began with a sketch and a watercolor underpainting.

When I do a pastel I use masking tape on the corners of my paper and attach it to a piece of foam core as a backing while I am working.

After the watercolor paint dried, I began working with my pastels. When the original photo was taken Graeme had a cast on her arm - it's hiding behind her leg - and she was helping her sisters dig in the sand. You can just barely see her shovel. 

I thought the shovel needed to be more visible after I got this far. Here you can also see the many colors that I use creating skin tones. It's amazing to me that the greens, blues, oranges, pinks, reds, purples all go together to make up the illusion of skin! I haven't done much with the water yet.

So now the shovel is positioned better, but standing back and looking at the painting on the left I could see that her shoulder blade was too low. I corrected that and spent some time on the water. In the original photo there was that little wave on the left - I put it in and kept looking at it. It was somehow distracting. So I took it out. That is one lovely thing about pastels - I can make changes like this.

I think it's about finished. Maybe a little more work on the shadows . . . ? I need to look at it from across the room for another few days and then I'll be sure. There is something about working on a painting too long - I just can't see it. A little time off and I'll come back at it with fresh eyes.

Time for a swim - Hurricane Arthur's winds are dying down where we live and it's a beautiful day!

Another ROPE!

Yup, I warned you in my last post that you might be seeing more ropes . . . I got so intrigued by those other lines (sailor talk for 'ropes'), that I went looking for more. I had imagined a rope sort of coiled on a piling. . .

This is a time when living on the water has its advantages. Of course, that is the case most of the time for me. I feel blessed to be able to look out on Broad Creek any time, any season and have a lovely view.

Well, I walked out on the dock, found some line and put it up on a piling to give me an idea what it might look like. (Yes, our water here really is green)

I still liked the idea, but knew I needed to tweak it a bit. For one thing, I wanted a heavier line - this line is for my husband's current boat, a little 18' sailboat. I wanted something sturdy. I liked the water and the piling in this photo. I could use them.

I began my sketch, trying different line configurations. Remembering the other painting and all the knots, I thought I would add some interest with a knot.

This photo isn't that great, but you get the idea. So I was ready to begin painting . . .until I really looked at what I had drawn. I liked all the coils and the knot, but when I tried to follow the line it either went nowhere or ran out. I could not actually follow it around and around.  Now I am laughing at myself and trying to figure out how to make it work! After some very confusing attempts, I finally made it work with lines on top of lines. Now - time to begin painting . . .

It was coming together at last. Lots more layers of color needed, but getting there. The last thing I added was the nail stuck in the piling to hold the line. My husband suggested a fancier way to hold the line, but I love the casual nail and the not so neat coil.

I really like the strength in this painting. The strong color in the piling and the lines contrasted with the softness in the water, shoreline and the sky. I think it may be time to sign it and let it go.

ROPES!

For the past few weeks I have been in the watercolor class again. It is really nice when I can go several weeks in a row. I can begin to work on a project and get follow through advice from the class. My first week there was playful warm up exercises - trying to loosen us up. Then we worked on some flowers that were blooming at the time. That is always frustrating for me - I get lost in all the petals!

Last week I found out that this class will be showing at a gallery on the Annapolis waterfront later in the summer . . . so we are now working on paintings to go in the show. Annapolis waterfront - yeah, that means boats, marine 'stuff' and bay scenes. I couldn't get very excited about any of that until I looked through my picture file and found some pictures that I had taken when some tall-ship type boat had been in the St Michaels harbor a few years ago. She was tied up at the maritime museum and had welcomed locals aboard. I had taken lots of pictures that day and had never looked at them again.

I found a picture of lots of ropes . . .hmmm. Last October I challenged myself by painting Buoy #1. (See Blogs Oct 26 & 29, 2013) I remember thinking at the time that doing the ropes was interesting. Once I figured out that each rope is just a series of 's' shapes, it was great fun putting in the shading and some color here and there. So, why not try lots of ropes? I'm just multiplying the fun, right? (Remember, I actually wrote the word 'fun.')

I spent one whole class on my sketch which turned out to be way out of proportion. I took it home and used that sketch to practice painting the ropes. Then I redrew the whole thing.

Lots of ropes. huh?

In class, my teacher had suggested that it would be a great study in negative painting, so I began by putting in the background. The picture had all sorts of boat things in the background, but I simplified it to be just color.

Now that's kinda cool. Then . . .I started painting the ropes. I began on the right side of the painting (because I am left handed, I work right to left). It was not long before I realized that I had chosen something that was not what I bargained for.  Remember my saying that we had done an exercise to loosen us up? It was not this! What was I thinking? This was going to take me all summer . . .

I had gotten this far - I was not going to give up. Well, what I discovered, is that the more I painted, the more I was enjoying it. It really did become fun. Unlike painting flowers and getting lost in the petals, I was figuring out where the ropes went and putting in knots.

I could probably pick at it all day, but decided to stick it in a mat for now and just look at it for the next few days before I frame it for the show.

You are not going to believe this . . .I am now looking for other ways I can paint ropes - coiled on a piling, around a cleat, lying on a dock . . . more to come.

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!