The Girls Just Wanna Paint Theme for September was "local". I painted late in the day out by our local scenic river, the North River. It was a gorgeous afternoon, and I shifted the sky from the blue when I began to the more muted, warm clouds that settled in as dusk approached. I have not been out behind my easel for awhile, and I loved it! There was a breeze, and boats navigating the water as they enjoyed a few last days of warmth. Tomorrow is October! I love this spot.
Our beautiful town has many gorgeous vistas, views of the South River included. The river and its tributaries create silvery ribbons that narrow in the distance. In this drawing, I laid down a field of black ink, and applied layers of pastel over it. I like some of the effect. This is my three hundred ninth daily drawing. Thank you for your continued interest and comments.
I have begun converting some of my daily drawings to oil paintings. You can see my reference drawing here to the left, and read its blog post here. It is an interesting exercise, using only the daily drawing as reference, and thinking about how to convert those renderings into an oil painting. Before I begin, there is some thought about how to begin the process. In this case, I covered the entire board with a neutral ground, about value 4 on a 1-5 scale. Then I carefully wiped out all the lights using a clean brush, clean towel and my solvent of choice, which is Gamsol. This is my two hundred sixty-second daily drawing, and only the second not using ink in some way. I will post the finished painting on my blog later.
Thank you for your continued interest.
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.
I tried a few watercolor washes tonight, to create the feeling of dusk with this house warmly lit from inside. I need to darken the sky more, but I like how the windows convey the interior welcome and warmth of the house as night sets in.
This is my two hundred thirty-first daily drawing. Thank you for continuing to see the world through my eyes.
What a beautiful spring day! We got a lot of things done, then zipped over to the Scituate Lighthouse to watch the sunset and the sea. The water was a beautiful purple under the darkening sky and clouds to the east while the western glow grew more rich. My eye was caught by the light coming through the window of the house at the water's edge. There are so many colors in the darks, I want to create an oil painting from this drawing.
This is my two hundred tenth daily drawing. Thank you for you interest.
I love Boston. I love its buildings and shadows and pedestrians, and the constant visual feast as I walk its streets. This is my hundred twenty-eighth daily drawing. I am enjoying the day-to-day discipline, and your support and reactions. Thank you.
We have a church across the street up a small hill. Tonight I looked out the window (the window with our crazy santas on the sash) and saw the church outlined in the last light of dusk. I completed a quick sketch, then blacked in the church silhouette with india ink, then laid in the blue dusk with pencil and pastel.
The crazy santas on the windowsill are made of a couple of silver christmas balls, some red felt, and white cotton and glue. I found them years ago in a bag in a consignment store. Someone put a lot of effort into their creation decades ago. I'm a firm believer that somethings are so tchotchke that they become beautiful again. Many times it has to do with the time and effort expended. The crazy santas are the product of a lot of time. I intended to put them on packages, but couldn't let them go... they are too sweet.
This is my 86th daily drawing. Thank you for looking.
I passed this house the other night, and loved its warm sparkly lights against the last blue of dusk. I experimented with a few different media, drawing in ink, then laying in some 50% gray for the shadows in the house. I added ink pencils for the blue, added water to enhance them, then used black ink for the silhouettes of the trees and roof, then laid in some pastel for the lights and a few other areas. Overall, I need to lower all the values even more so the lights can be the stars. I'll try again. This is my seventy-seventh daily drawing using ink as at least one component. Thank you for looking, as always.
Loved this image of sunset in the side mirror. Interesting angles and depth. I may make a painting of this one. It's a fascinating puzzle, which I like.
This is my sixty-fourth daily drawing. Thanks for your attention.
There is a special, quiet time by Monhegan's harbor as the sun sinks below Manana. Birds start settling down, people drift back to their houses, and the dark begins to descend quickly. It's a lovely time of day, and as I climb back up to the house we rent, the last glimpse of light disappears and the sky glows. Ahhhh.
This is my fiftieth daily drawing. Thank you for looking.
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| "Last Light" start |
I am experimenting with soft pastels. For "Last Light", I created a ground on canvas with gouache straight from the tube using a combination of ultramarine, burnt sienna and viridian. The ground formed is matte, and toothy, which I like. I built up the lights, leaving some of the ground showing in the darkest darks. Interesting effect, and completely counter-intuitive for me thinking about how to lay color next to other color, rather than using my limited palette of oils or watercolors to make the color I am looking for.
Thanks for looking.. we'll see what happens next.
The December challenge for Girls Just Wanna Paint was "intentions". December is a tricky time to think about intentions. Busy. Busy. I choose to think about being more intentional, choosing my path rather than reacting to what is on my plate. One of my goals during this coming year is to spend more time in the city. I love the streets, people, constantly shifting view as the juxstaposition of buildings and light is constantly rearranging itself. The city is so stimulating. I love it. My husband, daughter and I spent New Year's Eve afternoon, and evening in Boston, walking across the city, dining, watching the wonderful and eclectic parade and then fireworks. We positioned ourselves on Boylston Street across from the Trinity Church where we could see all the festivities. I loved every minute despite the cold. So, my intention is to treat myself to the stimulation of the city more frequently... sort of a gift to me! "Downtown Dusk" is my intention on canvas.
I often look at my paintings in black and white to see if the light and shadow pattern holds. It's a good way to pick up any value shifts that are breaking the pattern. I'm pretty satisfied with the results here, but may make a change or two in the coming days.
See the other interpretations of last month's challenge here.
Thanks for looking, Happy New Year, and see you in the city.
This month's theme for Girls Just Wanna Paint is "birds". Several summers ago, we met a gull on Monhegan. Of course, there are hundreds of gulls on Monhegan, but this one had a very distinctive square head, and markings, and showed up day after day on our deck. We named him Rupert (no idea why). Rupert has good lines, and looked lovely in the late afternoon sun. He spent one summer with some viridian green on his head, which I guess he found on an artist's palette on our deck. One of the things I love about Monhegan is watching gulls fly from east to the west side of the island each morning, a distance of about a half mile, then back again in the evening. I think they must nest in the nooks and crannies of the cliffs each night. Their cries are synonymous with salt, sea, sand...
See the rest of this month's challenge paintings here. As always, thanks for looking, feel free to share.
The theme for Girls Just Wanna Paint in April was "white". I debated setting up a white still life, painting boats, clouds, laundry.... or something or one named "White". Each Tuesday I take my teen daughter to an evening college class, and spend my time in the nearby library grading my math students' tests and quizzes or lesson planning for the 3 hours. This past week, I decided to paint. As we drove to the college-class destination, I had her look up "white" in the vicinity of the college. She found White Road, White Street, Grumpy White's Bar.. intriguing. I the end, I decided to do a little exploring after I dropped her off. I found lovely neighborhoods I had never seen, and decided to plant myself next to an interesting intersection where this lovely bungalow sat across the street, caught in the late afternoon sun. I painted from my car, amid the hubbub of the neighborhood, children on bikes, commuters walking home, joggers, walkers, mailboxes being opened, pizza delivery men coming and going... and I listened to NPR while I painted. Great way to spend some time. I love evenings in the spring. Thanks for looking.
The March theme for my painting challenge group, Girls Just Wanna Paint, was "sunlight". It has been dark, long winter here in New England. We had our first blizzard in a few years. Snow measured in feet rather than inches is doable. After all, we live in Massachusetts. However, this storm brought high winds that wreaked havoc on trees and power lines. We had a 4-day blackout (7 days for friends at the other end of town). We huddled around the wood stove, played games, read, listened to the oddly disquieting silence. It was a winter for hunkering down, in a good way. BUT, it was gray, and gray, and dark, and gray. Ergo, the sunlight challenge. I have a folder on my laptop named "Interesting". (Really). Sunlight was scarce this winter, so I poked through the Interesting folder and found some wonderful images of Newbury Street in Boston from a few years ago. "Don't Walk" is my interpretation of one of them. Newbury Street travels east/west and ends at Boston's Public Garden. Later in the day, sun starts to recede behind the buildings, but still illuminates the Public Garden where the adjacent buildings are a block away, or a little lower. I find my step quickening that time of day to catch the fleeting patch of sun. Thanks for looking and please check out Girls Just Wanna Paint's take on "sunlight".
