Exploring shapes from the local trees at night. I painted a rectangle of ink, then applied pastel on top leaving the tree shapes behind. I added the moon, and some moonlight in the sky radiating out; then softened the edge of the trees.
I am interested in these beautiful shapes. As always, thank you for looking. You know I love your comments.
A friend was visiting from North Carolina this week. I was invited to a small gathering of women on the porch of her host. We had a lovely time catching up on each other's lives. It was a pleasure to sit in the company of these smart, interesting women in a beautiful setting. While we visited, the sun got lower and lower in the sky behind the trees, and eventually set behind the river. I wanted to recreate the feeling of the evening with the trees silhouetted against that vibrant sky. I painted a rectangle of ink. When it dried, I used gouache, almost without water, to paint the negative spaces between the branches. I like the feel of the chunky gouache, and without thinning it, the paint builds upon itself to enhance the feel of the glow. I chose each stroke very carefully in this extractive exercise, because my goal was not to reapply any of the black below. I like the effect. I certainly conveys the feeling of the evening for me.
As always, thank you for looking. I enjoy your comments as well.
Each summer we spend two weeks on Monhegan Island in Maine. It is 10 miles east of the coast of Maine, sitting in all its 1.5 mile by .5 mile gloriousness. Monhegan has a small neighbor island, Manana, which forms the sheltered harbor here. I have written about Manana many times, here, and again here, or here, here, or here, and again here. In fact, if you search my blog for "Manana" you'll have a lot to read, and/or see. This week I have added a number of Manana views to my sketchbook. Here are a few of them. I will add another post soon with some more.
I love painting Manana from above, below, through windows, beyond boats... just love it. The Monhegan Museum has a splendid collection of work, including fascinating paintings of Manana in all its personalities, seasons, and times of day. A couple of favorites are my Aldro Hibbard and Andrew Winter. As always, thank you for looking at my work. I appreciate your thoughts and your comments.
A couple of weeks ago I took a workshop on figure painting by David Shevlino. The supply list included primed boards. He asked us to use a mid-range gray as tone. I tinted Gesso with black, ultramarine and red acrylic to arrive at my gray. I prefer a little hue to my grays. The cool background worked very well with the color mixtures David demonstrated as his flesh tones; yellow ochre, cadmium orange and dioxine purple for flesh in the light and burnt sienna, dioxine purple and olive green for flesh in shadow. On the second day, we painted the model shown here. I blocked in the painting (see below) and began to lay in the light flesh tones. I added some blue in the background where a blue cloth was hanging. When I turned away, then turned back, I wondered how or why I had used the blue on the figure itself... and realized I had not, but the warm flesh tones acted as the complement to the cool gray background to make the background look like blue.
The illusion was startling. Look at the top photo, which I cropped down to hide most of the background tint, then the second photo in which you can see the blue in her forehead as you compare it to the background on the left and the blue cloth on the right. Each time I looked at it, my brain saw blue, not gray, though I had only painted blue in the background cloth.
Complements are powerful, we know we can use them to neutralize color by mixing, and to enhance color by laying them side by side. This illusion from the workshop is a great reminder.
This month's challenge for Girls Just Wanna Paint is "Maine". I spend two weeks each summer in Maine on Monhegan Island, and have been going to Midcoast Maine near Pemaquid for decades. The Maine coastal air has a beautiful crisp quality and sparkle. I decided to paint my take on Maine diner, which could be in any one of a number of coastal towns overlooking the local harbor. You can see the process photos below. My intention was to show the conversation of this couple inside, with the active harbor beyond the
windows in the bright of day. My initial design had two women, one younger, one older, having lunch, but I changed it to a man and woman having lunch. I liked the contrast of the interior against the general boat shapes and sky outside. Eventually I glazed everything inside with a warm to unify the interior. I moved a few things around, lowering the lantern to break the line of the beam, and removing one of the dock posts outside, which was interfering with the intimacy of
the conversation between the dating couple by obscuring the interesting profile of her face.
As always, thanks for looking and for your interest. You know I love your comments.
I continue to carry a few of my blank coasters with me each day. This past month, I drew on them in The Snug, as I watched two men have a conversation at the bar, and at Flann O'Briens the night of the ill-fated Bruins 7th game in the Stanley Cup Finals, and out to dinner after a movie one night with my husband. I enjoy drawing on the coasters in pen in any restaurant setting, then adding watercolor later from my head, using colors that suit the mood of the scene. I am going to try adding a finish to the coasters, and am amassing a nice-sized collection. They look wonderful side by side and tell a story.
These are my six hundred twentieth, six hundred twenty-fourth and six hundred twenty-sixth daily drawings. As always, thank you for looking and for your interest.
This is such a busy time at school. Students are catching up on missing work, studying for finals, and excited by the warm weather and promise of summer. I am working hard to keep students engaged, to review learned materials, to challenge the interested students, and to grade all the work. Today I stepped outside with my lunch, sat on a bench for a blissful fifteen minutes and drew the trees in the school's front yard and beyond. You can't see it, but the yard to the right was filled with kindergarten students laughing and jumping and digging in the dirt with twigs while they navigated their recently created social mores. It was peaceful, and a welcome break from the hectic inside atmosphere.
This is my six hundred twelfth daily drawing. As always, thank you for looking and for your interest.
I love painting Manana from above, below, through windows, beyond boats... just love it. The Monhegan Museum has a splendid collection of work, including fascinating paintings of Manana in all its personalities, seasons, and times of day. A couple of favorites are my Aldro Hibbard and Andrew Winter. As always, thank you for looking at my work. I appreciate your thoughts and your comments. 
A couple of weeks ago I took a workshop on figure painting by David Shevlino. The supply list included primed boards. He asked us to use a mid-range gray as tone. I tinted Gesso with black, ultramarine and red acrylic to arrive at my gray. I prefer a little hue to my grays. The cool background worked very well with the color mixtures David demonstrated as his flesh tones; yellow ochre, cadmium orange and dioxine purple for flesh in the light and burnt sienna, dioxine purple and olive green for flesh in shadow. On the second day, we painted the model shown here. I blocked in the painting (see below) and began to lay in the light flesh tones. I added some blue in the background where a blue cloth was hanging. When I turned away, then turned back, I wondered how or why I had used the blue on the figure itself... and realized I had not, but the warm flesh tones acted as the complement to the cool gray background to make the background look like blue. 
This month's challenge for Girls Just Wanna Paint is "Maine". I spend two weeks each summer in Maine on Monhegan Island, and have been going to Midcoast Maine near Pemaquid for decades. The Maine coastal air has a beautiful crisp quality and sparkle. I decided to paint my take on Maine diner, which could be in any one of a number of coastal towns overlooking the local harbor. You can see the process photos below. My intention was to show the conversation of this couple inside, with the active harbor beyond the 
I continue to carry a few of my blank coasters with me each day. This past month, I drew on them in The Snug, as I watched two men have a conversation at the bar, and at Flann O'Briens the night of the ill-fated Bruins 7th game in the Stanley Cup Finals, and out to dinner after a movie one night with my husband. I enjoy drawing on the coasters in pen in any restaurant setting, then adding watercolor later from my head, using colors that suit the mood of the scene. I am going to try adding a finish to the coasters, and am amassing a nice-sized collection. They look wonderful side by side and tell a story. 
