Day 260 "Commercial Street - Dusk" 9 x 6 ink with pencils

My daughter spent a few days in Provincetown recently and brought back this photo of the street at dusk.  By the way, I love the way Provincetown's skyline is punctuated by power lines.  It adds an intimacy to each street scene that I enjoy.  The wires can be designed to support the picture, as long as they are believable. When I leave them out, I miss them.  They are part of the landscape to me.   
This is my two hundred sixtieth daily drawing.  Thank you for your continued interest and comments.  

Day 261 "Dusk Over Commercial" 9 x 6 ink with pastel

Yesterday I posted a pen and ink drawing of Provincetown's Commercial Street at dusk, taken by my daughter a few days ago.  Today, I looked at the same image, in reverse, laying down a rectangle of ink, and adding color on top of it with pastel to convey the dusk.  You can see the two drawings side by side, below.  
This is my two hundred sixty-first daily drawing.  Thank you for your continued interest.   

Day 258 "Bouquet" watercolor 12 x 9

Each week, we have our choice of flowers from church.  I brought home this bunch, laid in some broad watercolor strokes, intending to refine the painting with some pen & ink... but then decided to leave it.  The flowers are angular, and tell some of the story.  
This is my two hundred fifty-eighth daily drawing, this time with paint.
Thank you for looking. 

Day 259 "Sunflowers - Six Views" 12 x 9 ink & watercolor

Each week, there are bundles of flowers for the taking at our church; plenty for all.  So, each week, I bring home whatever strikes my fancy.  This week I brought home a bunch of sunflowers.  Yesterday I painted the whole bunch as a watercolor sketch.   Today, I taped off the page into six boxes, rotated the arrangement six times, drawing from a different angle each time.  You can see the painting in progress in the following photos.  I drew the view, turned the vase until something else caught my eye, then turned again.  It is interesting to study a subject so many ways. This is my two hundred fifty-ninth daily drawing. Thank you for your continued interest in the world through my eyes. 

Day 257 "The Tower" pen&ink 5 x 6

This cupola/tower caught my eye at a local private school campus as I was driving by on a side street.  It's important to observe the little vignettes that are available to us every day if we pay attention.  I love how buildings shift and change orientation as we pass, whether walking or driving.
This is my two hundred fifty-seventh daily drawing.  Thank you for your continued interest and comments. 

Day 255 "Maine Porch" 5 x 9 ink, markers, pastel

A few years ago, I joined some artist friends in New Harbor, Maine in a lovely Victorian house for a week of painting and friendship.  I went two different years.  The area is very familiar to me as my family has been visiting there for several generations.  Here is a drawing of the porch at dusk, just as the interior lights were coming on.  It's a sweet place. 

Day 254 "Garden Sheds" 9 x 8 ink, watercolor, pencils

I painted in the Clift Rodgers Library Garden tour the other day. The garden was relaxed, well-tended, welcoming, just beautiful.  It was a lovely day.  I liked these three sheds lined up in the sunlight.  The third is a chicken coop.  At some point in the afternoon one of the chickens got very vocal.  The owner said the chicken had laid an egg and liked to brag about it.  After about half hour, the owner went down to the coop and chatted with her hen, "What's going on?  Everything okay?".  Then the chicken quieted.  It was sweet.  This is my two hundred fifty-fourth daily drawing.  Thank you for your continued interest.

Day 253 "Garden Tour" 9 x 6 ink, watercolor, pencils

Our community has a small public library, the Clift Rodgers Free Library and Consignment Shop.  It is open to the public, and totally self-supporting, through the consignment shop upstairs and its fundraising efforts.  Today was the annual garden tour to benefit the library.  I painted in this particular garden.  It's always nice to hear the gardeners chatting away about plant varieties and techniques.  It was an absolutely gorgeous day.  I sat in a vegetable patch in the garden, looking at beautiful lettuce, chard, strawberry plants, overseen by a cherub and an active birdhouse on a post. The main house was in the background with lots of visitors, lemonade, and cookies.  As I said, a lovely day. To the left you can see my painting without the garden fence where I sat.  I decided it needed the barest hint of the wire fence for context, else the column was detached and didn't make as much sense.
This is my two hundred fifty-third daily drawing.  Thank you for your continued interest in my view of the world. 

Day 252 "Garden Contour" ink and pencils 8 x 9

These peonies and iris make beautiful shapes against the backdrop of warm and cool greens.  I love the negative spaces around and between the bloom, so many intricate shapes and angles.  
This is my two hundred fifty-second daily drawing.  Thank you for your continued interest in my view of the world.  

Day 251 "Fore River Bridge - Waiting" ink and pencils 9 x 9

Yesterday I waited on Quincy's Fore River Bridge for a beautiful orange tanker to be pulled from the river through to Boston Harbor.  It was a sweet 20 minutes, cars stopped on the bridge, families getting in and out of cars to watch in the beautiful late afternoon sunshine.  Yesterday I blogged another view from the bridge.  I waited for the ship to get closer to the bridge for this angle, which I like, especially with the man in the foreground.  Adding sound to the adventure, there were five men below the bridge heading a soccer ball to one another while laughing and teasing each other in Spanish.  
This is my two hundred fifty-first daily drawing.  Thank you for your continued interest and your comments.

Day 250 "Fore River" ink and pencils 6 x 12

I spent a lovely afternoon with my teaching colleagues celebrating the last day of classes this year.  Next week is a field day followed by final exams.  On the way home, the Quincy Fore River bridge signaled it was opening.  A few cars bailed out, turned around, and headed for an alternate route. It was a beautiful afternoon, so I shut the car off and walked over to the side of the bridge to watch.  Two tugs pulled/pushed a large orange tanker up the Fore River into the harbor from the river.  It was beautiful in the sun.  We all hung out for about 25 minutes, then back in the cars and on with our evenings.  What a nice way to end the afternoon.
This is my two hundred fiftieth daily drawing.... a quarter of a millennium, (and a few other synonyms for 1000); millenary, chiliad, millenial.... excited to be 25% there.  Thank you for your continued interest in the world through my eyes.  

Day 249 "Counter Seat" pen & ink 6 x 9

Had a nice evening out with my daughter where we went to see "Ocean's 8" and then went out to grab a bite to eat at the local burger bar. I expected the movie to be a bit of a rip off of the Ocean's 11 movies, but didn't find it that way at all. 
 There is similarity in that a thief pulls together a team, each expert in their con artist field, to pull off a heist on the grandest scale.  It was dramatic, suspenseful, visually stunning, with some wry humor, with men only in very supporting roles.  We loved it.  Afterwards, she and I sat at the bar locally to grab a bite to eat.  We had a nice evening, and the view from the bar can be so fascinating, glittery, intricate, functional.  Great evening.
This is my two hundred forty-ninth daily drawing.  Thank you for your continued interest in my view of my world. 
 

Day 247 "Less Hating Mo Living" 6 x 9 ink and pencil

Today we waited a little bit at the T-station to pick up our daughter.  We parked under the garage in the pick up area.  I decided to sketch the scene, all angles and geometry and structure and man-made materials. As I looked up, I saw the graffiti on the column next to us, "Less Hating, Mo Living", a good message for these days where it seems so many are quick to hate, and/or to promote hate.  
On the other side of the coin, I stopped by my school today for the first time since knee surgery 5 weeks ago.  I love the kids, and it was wonderful to see them today... lots of love going around.  
This is my two hundred forty-seventh daily drawing.  Thank you for continuing to look at the world through my eyes.  

Day 246 "Ready the Fleet" 6 x 9 ink and watercolor

 This morning I spent a little time up by the Hingham yacht club watching teens preparing their fleet of boats for sailing.  It was a very calm morning, and the boats look like fish out of water laid out on the dock.  Behind them, a couple of boats moved slowly out of the harbor in the almost windless morning.  The boats are so graceful in the water, and so ungainly lined up on the dry dock.  I liked the sense of pending action.  By the way, that's always what I found funniest about the Far Side cartoons... something was often about to happen. Action pending... Here's an example:

And, here's a photo on site this morning.  What a nice way to begin my day.

 

Day 245 "From the Garden" 12 x 9 ink and watercolor

This morning, a few of us met up at my friend Gail's house.  Her gardens are lovely.  We spent some time hanging out on her porch, chatting and drawing this bouquet of peonies.  It was a lovely way to spend some time.  I drew the flowers while there, then added watercolor later from my memory.  
This is my two hundred forty-fifth daily drawing.  Thank you for looking.  

Day 244 "Incoming Tide" pen & ink 6 x 9

Today we headed over to the Scituate Lighthouse, and took a walk around the loop.  The road is flat, and good for my new knee.  We walked .8 mile, a good distance for today, and had time to sketch the harbor.  It's a beautiful time of day, families walking about, some bringing take out dinner to eat on the benches overlooking the water, boats returning into the harbor from a day out, the smell of salt, and sound of soft waves.  

This is my two hundred forty-fourth daily drawing.  Thanks for your continued interest and your comments.  

Day 241 "Value Study of The Desk by Fairfield Porter" 9 x 6 ink and marker

"The Desk" oil Fairfield Porter 1963

I have been thinking about Maine this week, so looked up some Fairfield Porter paintings.  His color and design are inspiring.  On initial inspection, his color application seems simple because he often painted in flat shapes with little modeling.  However, I look to his work as masterful in use of design, color and value.  I chose a 1963 Porter painting, "The Desk", to study.  It is a strong interior, with an open desk just off of the center of the composition.  There are papers and books scattered about as if someone just got up and  took a break from a lot of deep thinking.  I love the painting.  Here is my value study of this Porter interior. Look at how he handled the light outside, through the gauzy curtains, across the wood floor and along the coffee table, and skipping along the scattered paper on table and floor.  There are hints of interest.. on the desk, on the desktop, paintings on the wall... so subtle.  
This is my two hundred forty-first daily drawing.  Thank you for taking a look at my thoughts expressed visually.   

Day 240 "Juried Fine Art" ink and colored pencil 6 x 9

 The North River Arts Society Festival Juried Fine Art Show ended today. It was a strong show.  I usually work the pick up, always a pleasant time to connect with fellow artists.  We generally have a big crowd, because people show up a little early, and get a chance to look at the intact show for the last few minutes of its display.  Here is one view of the gallery.  The front wall facing the front door and street is red, looks great with a lot of the local art.  Here's a photo of the front wall.  One of my paintings is on the lower right.  The inside walls are a green/gold/neutral which shows work very well, too. It was interesting to observe how warm that green/gold/neutral is away from the windows and how cool it is when influenced by the windows.  Big shift in temperature.
This is my two hundred fortieth daily drawing; thank you again for taking a look at the world through my eyes.

Day 239 "Morning Color" mixed 8 x 9

Each morning I sit on our porch with my coffee and fill my senses with the sounds, smells, and sights of our yard.  The sun pours through the trees from the east, birds are busy among the flowers, and our gold fish pond bubbles away.  This week, these small iris popped open.  They last briefly, but are so beautiful.  In the morning, they are backlit by the sun, and they sparkle against the green blue of the shaded trees.  That was a challenge to capture, but I laid in the yellow and green in watercolor, then the purple/pink of the iris.  Then I ramped up the darkness of the green blue with a series of colored pencil layers, darkened the yellow with pencil and added some yellow pastel in and among the greens.  
This is my two hundred thirty-ninth daily drawing.  It is my take on the theme "home" for our Girls Just Wanna Paint challenge for the month of May.  Click through the link to see all our takes on the theme "home".  Thank you for looking at the world through my eyes.