Today was a day off although I went out to paint which is pretty much what I am up here to do. I think everyday in Maine is great day to paint. I returned to Clam Cove and painted two pieces, it had rained in the morning so it was important to take advantage of the wonderful sunny afternoon. I tried to capture two very light filled subjects and really get the warm afternoon light in the trees. I spent about 2 hours total on the two paintings and that is about the typical time I put into transparent watercolors. Better to do a few than to labor over a painting too long.
I changed the light on this piece to get a better shadow pattern and a little more light in the form shadow. When I painted it the house was totally back lit and was not too interesting. I invented the path and the flower symbols in the foreground. I used a varied yellow underwash to start the trees and carefully cut around the house I then ran blues and greens over the yellow and I think arrived at some pretty nice trees. I am not happy with the three stinker trees on the left they really are not great. I hope you will forgive the focus I shot this image and I wasn’t really paying attention to the focus. The painting itself works pretty well but my photograph is not too good. 
I had a lot of fun with this painting, cutting around the boats and sail covers, scraping out the lines and getting reasonable reflection in the water of the land mass. Again I started the trees with a big varied yellow wash and then came over it immediately, don’t let it dry, blues, greens and browns. I left light on the shoreline for the indication of rocks and this helps balance the boats. I like the big boat but I didn’t get the far away boat quite far enough away. Those things happen when the painting is put together really fast. Oh the travails of watercolor, not much I can do with it now.
Artist Studio
