Artist Studio
I have found that doing quick 45 minute plein aire demonstrations in oil is too difficult and not as focused as I like my lessons to be. Enjoy the paintings and come and paint with me next September in Rockland Maine.
Today the rain forced us indoors to paint in a lovely little art room reserved for kids after school art programs. So not only do we get to paint our own work we get to look at all of the creative pieces by the artistic minds of local school children. I worked from images today
I had some image problems and wasn’t happy with my blog’s appearance, the camera shot too light too dark bad color oh wait that was me pushing the button. Anyway here are the images and I will clean them up tonight. These 4 I painted the last two days, I also did some oils but
Continue Reading “Here are some images of the last few days”
It was a lovely sublime day with lots of surf and the rolling bands of thick to moderate fog. It is always a challenge to paint in these conditions because the value range is so close and it is very hard to stay within these values. Plus the colors are very muted and cool and it is easy to try and amp things up to get more contrast and more drama and that is not fog.
I was painting at Merry Springs a lovely park in Camden Maine today and painted these three watercolors. I tried to keep the focus really simple but tried to capture the early fall colors and dramatic light in the trees. Again I massed my shapes together to get a solid composition and then put my focus where the best light shapes were contrasted with the strongest darks. Think about where you want the viewer to look and then make that your goal in the painting.
I tried to have a well concieved center of interest and I started with a good idea of where and how I was going to use white paper to really give a crisp feeling of light. Remember a good starting thought is white is light in watercolor. I know there are tints and other solutions but it is a good starting point. Here are my 6 paintings all of them are painted on 200 lb cold press Waterford paper.
Today we started the workshop at Pemaquid Point and it was a fabulous day with light winds and cool temperature. As one of my long time students said it was the best day ever at Pemaquid. I definitely agreed. My lesson was to take the complicated and simplify everything down to 4 to 5 value
Continue Reading “In The Studio: Day 1 of Rockport, Maine Workshop Pemaquid”
The focus of this painting was to capture the lovely greens in the trees and their reflection in the water. I invented most everything to make the painting happen, what a joy to paint when the subject matter evokes a feeling of intimacy.
Today we went to Birch Point State Park and dodged short spells of light rain. It is a wonderful place with fabulous light, and it has become one of my favorite places to paint. The light is always ephemeral and cool and the colorful rocks have perfect weather worn shapes. I have painted this scene
We went to the Curtis Island Lighthouse today and had a much calmer day than yesterday. The temperature was mid 70’s and the skies were clear. I did 2 demonstrations on in opaque watercolor and 1 transparent. I am not sure I like either one but you can judge that for yourself. I try not
Yesterday was a beautiful blue sky day in Maine. We painting down at the Rockland City Marina and had a marvelous day. Of course that is if you enjoyed fighting the late afternoon 30 plus mph winds turning our painting spot into a wind tunnel. Some nimble movement was required to keep our paintings in
Today was another day of just getting myself ready for the workshop. I painted with a nice group of painters in Rockland, Maine at the city marina and I painted multiple pieces. The painting I am posting is a nice example of concentrating on the foundation of the painting, the contrast of lights and darks.