Several years (just counted, more than several years) ago my daughter and I joined a school trip to southern Spain. It was a blast, and she got hit with the travel bug. It was her first flight, and a long one, as tour companies may sometimes provide more circuitous routes to a destination to save some money. We flew to DC, then to Frankfort, then to Madrid, with a delay or two along the way. Thank goodness she loves to fly, which we did not know until the moment we took off. Whew! We spent a few days in Madrid, moving on to Seville, Granada, Salamanca, Cordoba. It was a wonderful trip. This is from a picture I took within the Royal Palace of Madrid. It is lavish, opulent, with these airy curtains billowing while allowing a hint of the view across the courtyard. It's a nice reminder for me of our wonderful trip.
This is my two hundred seventy-fifth daily drawing. Thank you for allowing me to reminisce and for your continued interest.
This afternoon I was heading out of Boston and caught this image of a student hanging out, solo, in the window of this Northeastern University building. I loved the sun hitting him and bouncing around inside the modern building while reflections crisscrossed the large glass panes.
This is my hundred eighty-ninth daily drawing. Thank you for your continued interest.
In a neighboring town, there are lovely homes like these two, nearby one another and overlooking the bay. I love their cottage feel, mansard roof lines, and proximity to one another. The sun plays off their windows and dormers, making beautiful patterns. I love that these two houses have been standing for decade upon decade, watching people come and go, and I imagine them talking to one another about the changes they see.
This is my hundred sixty-fourth daily drawing. Thank you for your time and attention.
A couple of images from my visits to Monhegan Island, both painted in Cathedral Woods. There is a glade, in the woods where everything opens up, sun streams through the trees, and you are far enough (tough on Monhegan) from the water not to hear and sense its presence. All sounds are muffled by the trees, and pine needle carpet. It is a holy place.
It's very interesting for me to look at my choice of palette in both these images, done in different media a couple of years apart. I use more limited palette with my oils. Hmmm..
Thanks for looking!
What a wonderful show opening tonight at Thayer Academy in Braintree. Lots of friends (and new friends) came out to say hello. Lots of laughs and good conversation. The show is hanging through December 18th; hope you'll come by to the Gallery in the first floor of the Southworth building.
And, here is my completed "Thayer Skyline" 11 x 14; hanging in the show.
April's Girls Just Wanna Paint challenge was "white". I submitted the painting "White House", (to the right) a charming bungalow in a Quincy neighborhood, which I painted from the car while the late afternoon life in the small neighborhood unfolded. There were joggers, and children on bikes, and commuters walking the few blocks from the bus, and at least two pizza deliveries, and dog walkers, and after-work gardeners. It was charming. However, the painting needed some tweaking once I got it home.
Shown to the left are the original and then the tweaked painting. The original painting was too cool, and wasn't conveying the late afternoon light. The tree was too heavy and its branches stopped arbitrarily along the roof edge, creating unintended geometry. I spent 20 minutes making a few modifications, simplifying the tree, extending its branches beyond the roof, softening the tree shadow, and warming the sunlit pieces of the house including the brick foundation. I added some blue to the roof above the porch and added a warm indication of a window or door under the porch, made a few of the houses edges more crisp, and squared off. Finished. It reads better, conveys more of a sense of time of day. 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".
