laura's watercolors

1-day workshop

2012-02-19T09:40:00.001-05:00

(11x15)
I did a 1-day workshop yesterday with my Monday teacher, Marie Natale, She has a showing hanging in Hammonton, NJ, about 90 minutes from me, of paintings from her trip to Italy last year and the workshop focused on Italian scenes, specifically on painting aged stucco facades, which is fun since they have so many colors and irregularities.
I started out a little apprehensive since--although I have no problem painting other people's "challenge" photos--I don't usually paint places I haven't been; I don't know, I think I worried it would feel inauthentic ... But then, it's just shapes and color on paper ... and it was fun.
Also, I had a fabulous lunch at a wine bar across the street from the art center. Typically contrarian, I had beer, Ommegang, and a fabulous little plate of three fried polenta triangles topped with tomato brushetta, black olive tapenade, and mushrooms sauteed in butter and sherry.
I got lost on the way home trying to find a Greek restaurant that I thought was on the way and had to go home without the taramasalata I'd been looking forward to all day.
Painting makes me hungry.

(11x15)

Practicing stucco: each square has blue, red and yellow (some have "foliage" at the bottom), with a different predominant color in each vertical row.

glad

2012-02-17T13:22:00.000-05:00

(5x9)
Last summer a white gladiola bloomed next to my deck. I had no idea how it got there--I had never much cared for gladiolas, but I started to draw, paint, and photograph this one and became a convert. Last fall I planted bulbs for several varieties, including some flaming orange ones that I hope come up.
I think I confused the structure here a bit, but I had fun painting it.

Where I stopped last night:

Thank you for the great suggestions re finishing the dinghies painting: I'm going to work on it today.

a nos pinceaux challenge

2012-02-16T12:45:00.001-05:00

(10x12)
From a reference at A nos pinceaux . I love this pitcher, so Cezanne-ish. I spent much of last night trying to acquire one like it on eBay. No luck there, but I will be scouring the consignment shops.

(in progress)

I'm going to be included in a group show in Cape May in April and have begun to draw and paint some boat- or shore-related works in hopes of selling and being asked back.
This one is nearly done, I think, but it needs something ... Right now, I don't know what!

white daffodils

2012-02-15T11:34:00.000-05:00

(7x11)
More white on white. I found this one, which was more subtly lighted, more difficult that the magnolia. But I am enjoying the white on white problem.

DPW challenge

2012-02-14T10:01:00.001-05:00

(4x8)

I painted this for the Daily Paintworks's White on White challenge using Mary Van Arsdel's photo at Paint My Photo. "White on white" seems to be cropping up everywhere I look ... As usual, there are some really great interpretations of the challenge at DPW.
My own personal spring challenge, every year: daffodils. I started this without planning or drawing, just painting the flower shapes. I felt I had to add the darks, and now realize I need to bring them (or some other color, a background?) out to the sides ... and also to break up the line of flowers on the left: that's what happens when you don't plan!

(7x11)

practicing

2012-02-11T13:22:00.000-05:00

A little practice just putting down paint, trying to remember to press down on the belly of the brush.
My art room is so cluttered I can't settle down to do anything ... so today will be devoted to tidying in hopes of, tomorrow, painting.

slow starts

2012-02-05T14:44:00.003-05:00

(11x15)

Two paintings I've been nervously dabbing away at ... I wish I could just sit down and keep at them until they were done, but I keep hesitating. On the portrait it's pure fear: I'm just afraid of making mistakes. On the boats, although the water may already be overworked, there isn't much left to do ... I think I'll make it.
My teacher Marie Natale has asked me to contribute a couple of paintings to a show in Cape May in April-May and I have been planning to complete a couple of paintings of boats, hoping they'll find a (buying) audience.

(11x15)

dpw challenge

2012-01-23T12:36:00.001-05:00

(9x4.5)
Last week's Daily Paintworks Challenge was to paint something using Pantone's "Color of the Year," Tangerine Tango.
I did the painting below, on hot press paper, first; then the one above, on cold press.
The hot press one is a bit overworked, I think--hot press can be deceptive: you can push the paint around so much, but it turns out to not be a good idea!
In the cold press version, I used more quinacridone colors, and also thought about what to do more, based on things I wasn't pleased with in the first version.

(9x4.5)

value study

2012-01-19T12:40:00.001-05:00

(8x10)
My teacher, Marie Natale, brought value scales to class for us. I have had a value scale (or two) laying around my studio ... but I never used it!
I did the quick study above using the scale, and even though I still have a hard time getting to the darkest value, I found using the scale really helped.

scattered

2012-01-15T13:53:00.003-05:00

(11x15)

Two works in (barely discernible) progress: the boats are from a photo by Ruth Archer at Paint My Photo; the tropical foliage from a photo I started painting in New Mexico in October.
I'm feeling too mentally scattered to really commit to anything right now. It happens sometimes: I've been reading too many watercolor books, looking at too many watercolor DVDs; there's so much I want to attempt that I can't settle on anything.
It's even affected my baking: I made an apple upside-down cake this morning--what an elaborate recipe: three bowls, a saute pan, the standing mixer were all called for!--which came out dreadful: the sugar didn't carmelize, the cake didn't rise ... All that effort for something that looks like the apple desert in a frozen dinner.
Baking, like watercoloring, requires a certain quality of attention. For now, back to knitting, which, since I can, at this stage, only do the simplest garter-stitch projects, is wonderfully automatic.

rookie painter challenge, 2nd go

2012-01-08T21:36:00.000-05:00

(8x10)
My second go at the Rookie Painter challenge. There are some overworked bits, especially the base of the bottom bowl ... just cannot get it right. But I like the grayer (it's "palette" gray--a diluted mix of the colors in the palette mixing areas) background: it seems to make the white bowl look whiter, which I lost a bit in the first version.

(7x11)
Here is my first version, with a few more darks added and a light green glaze over the background.

rookie painter challenge

2012-01-07T21:00:00.000-05:00

(7x10)
The current (until 1/16) challenge at Rookie Painter. There are a number of really beautiful interpretations of the reference photo on the blog. I'm not entirely happy with my color choices.
In reply to Renate's comment:
I think it's because, in the reference photo (not that it matters exactly; you could make the bowls any color) the two darker bowls are a more neutral color: but beautiful neutrals with color in them ... so that, when I look at them, I can't decide what color they are.
Maybe it's more the values than the color? I need to darken some parts of all the colored bowls.
I admired in some of the other interpretations how the bowls looked ceramic. I have to work on that.

wip birds

2012-01-06T11:01:00.000-05:00

(5x7)

I seem to be running out of steam on my birds, so maybe it's time to find a new subject for a while.

(5x7)
My friend Cheryl is going on vacation and asked me to recommend a couple of poolside reads to her, and I realized I hardly read any fiction in 2011. I think it's like with comedies, which I don't like to rent or go see, always afraid I'll be disappointed.
Starting this month, I'm going to read one nonfiction, one literary fiction, and one genre (mystery or sci fi most likely) fiction title every month. For January:
The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt
Parrot & Olivier in America by Peter Carey
Flower Net by Lisa See

drawing

2012-01-04T16:33:00.000-05:00

(10x14, pencil)

Feeling very unenergetic lately and unable to get to the paints, but from now on when I feel that way, I'm going to try a little drawing.
The pencil drawing is my blanket: I enjoy just starting at one end and working my across.
Below is my cat Smilla sitting on the railing in various poses: it's a challenge for me get her contour as she is never still for long.
Drawing it turns out is a pleasure in itself and not solely a substitute for painting.

(10x14, black pen)

from the kitchen door: photos

2011-12-26T11:23:00.000-05:00

On a whim, I moved my birdfeeders from the sideyard to the back, where I can see them from the kitchen window and door ...what a good move; I see so many more birds now. This morning robins, sparrows, mourning doves and a tufted titmouse.
I've been taking pictures through the door, which, at first it seemed to me did not yield the best pictures, but these near-silhouettes have a sparingness that appeals to me.

happy holidays

2011-12-25T10:00:00.000-05:00

(5x7)

Happy Holidays.

bluetit & nuthatch

2011-12-24T10:00:00.000-05:00

(5x7)

(5x7)

For these two I decided to tackle the background first ... since it always seems to be a problem later.
The bluetit is adorable, but not native to the U.S. and I've never seen one; both are from photos at Paint My Photo.

chickadee & robin

2011-12-23T10:00:00.001-05:00

(5x7)
Neither of these is quite finished ... In the chickadee one I want to add something to the upper left area and for the robin, calm down the branches a bit with some snow!

seagulls in the sand

2011-12-21T11:45:00.000-05:00

(5x7 each)
Painted alla prima, all in one go, on some 90 lb. paper I have had for awhile ... I used to use it for quick sketches in life-drawing classes, but I haven't taken a life class in awhile. It won't hold to much (any?) working, but is good paper in case you accidentally do something you like!
The photos I painted the seagulls from were taken by my teacher Marie Natale.

Below is a photo of my cat Smilla being adorably cat-like. She makes me smile everyday.

backyard birds

2011-12-18T13:22:00.000-05:00

(7x10 each)
I could not get the shape of this sparrow right and had to keep adjusting his outline, which necessitated the use of some opaque white, which I also used in his throat. I try not to use opaque colors, or white, but, when it comes to painting, whatever's necessary! I also added a wash of quinacridone gold over the background at the end and tossed on a little salt.

winter scenes

2011-12-16T21:13:00.000-05:00

(4x9)

(4x9)

A couple of little winter scenes done before I went to Chincoteague last weekend. As usually happens, since I've been back, Tuesday, I have been too busy catching up to paint!
It was pretty cold in Chincoteague, and Peter and I surf-fished for striped bass nonetheless. We didn't get any, but on Sunday I got a few pictures of the Saltwater Cowboys as they rode their ponies on the beach. This wasn't one of their pony roundups; they were just out for a rare pleasure ride, as one cowboy told me. I'll do a post on them soon.

I found out--too late!--that my birthday, 12/12, is also the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe. I took this picture of her in Santa Fe in October and have been wanting to paint it.

chickadee

2011-12-08T11:30:00.000-05:00

(8x8)

Chickadee without snow overlay and with ... the snow has the added benefit of covering up the (not so great) pine cones!

I'm going away for the weekend--down to Chincoteague, Virginia, where I'll have nowhere to go and nothing to do. Heaven.

making winter scenes

2011-12-04T11:56:00.000-05:00

(7x11)
the original

My teacher Marie Natale, who makes a living from her art and teaching, taught us this trick for turning a painting into a snow scene.
Lightly secure a piece of workable acetate over your painting with tape then paint "snow" on the acetate using bleed-proof white or Aquacover liquid paper (available from various online artshops); add a little color for shadows or volume.
Then photograph the scene and print it out.

the snowscene

the painted-on acetate

a daily paintworks challenge

2011-12-03T13:53:00.000-05:00

(7x11)

Last week's Daily Paintworks Challenge (which is still active, if you want to participate) was to paint in the style of an artist you admire. The first hurdle was choosing which of the many painters I admire to emulate; my friend Mike suggested Cezanne, whom I hadn't thought of and realized immediately was perfect.
I started looking through my Cezanne books at still lifes; when I first began painting and drawing again after graduate school and before I started taking any classes, I drew and painted many apples on white cloths.
But I kept being drawn to the many portraits of Madame Cezanne: her solidity and placid expression.
The woman in these paintings isn't Hortense, but I borrowed the general pose, the hands, the skirt, and the wallpaper from Cezanne.

First (right) and second attempts

winter is a'comin in

2011-12-03T12:00:00.000-05:00

(4x6)

Preparing for winter by making shortbread, getting out the crock pot, planting spring bulbs, stocking up on red wine, and looking to winter-themed painting subjects. It's been a very wet fall. and so maybe we will have snow this year. I hope so!

(7x11)

virtual paintout: arles

2011-11-29T12:30:00.000-05:00

(11x15)
It's been awhile, but I joined in this month's Virtual Paintout of Arles, France. I found many charming streetscenes using Google Streetview but found them harder to paint than expected. I thought a streetscene, with it's succession of receding box shapes and flat planes would be "easy" to paint. Not so.
The scene above was my third attempt.

ornamental

2011-11-27T11:24:00.000-05:00

The last couple of years I haven't been home at Christmas, and so didn't put up a tree ... I always miss having a tree more than anything. This year I'll be at home, so I've begun unpacking all the boxes and looking over all my ornaments.
When I worked in the Flatiron building in NYC I was just a block from a huge ornament wholesaler that would open its doors to the public during the holiday season--I accumulated, or maybe hoarded, a nearly insane amount and variety of tree ornaments.
The last few times I've put up a tree, though, I've found myself gravitating to gold and silver.
But the themes are the same: birds, trees, stars, snowflakes, pine cones, reindeer, Santas, fairies, and boats.

knitting factory

2011-11-26T11:22:00.000-05:00

My friend Lisa taught me how to knit last year, and so, this year, everyone gets scarves for Christmas. I've already given a few, which I wish I had photographed, and I'm working on one for Peter, where I purl as well as knit and which is taking forver as I find purling very awkward. I call the scarf I'm kitting for Peter Take Five.
And these are, from left to right: Atlantic, Bluebird, Lollipop, Magic, Bandelier, Blonde, and Abby.
A name seems to pop into my mind as I knit: I wish the same would happen for paintings.
Below is the tag I've made to attach to my offerings.

ken hamilton workshop

2011-11-24T11:30:00.000-05:00

from a photo (11x15)

Saturday before last I went to Millville,, NJ--a nice small town with an artsy main street and a great Irish pub!--for a one-day expressive figure painting workshop with Ken Hamilton. Ken did really wonderful demos, and if you visit his website you'll see his landscapes too: I hope he'll do a landscape workshop soon.
He started by asking us to quickly sketch a generic face and paint it using a limited palette: don't agonize, he said, but of course we did. I thought it was a great way to start--to jump in and vault over the usual nervousness.
Then before lunch and before the model, who was coming from 12-3 p.m., arrived, we painted from photos. I used a photo of Ken's for the painting and determined, once again, to improve my photo taking! (I was going to paint the dress, but decided against it--for now!)

Jamie, from life (11x15)

After lunch, which I had at the Irish pub, of course, stew and ale, the model, Jamie, arrived: a lovely young woman with the most translucent blue-green eyes--and a fabulous beret.
I enjoyed drawing her very much and marveled at, again once again, how much I enjoy drawing.
This was my last painting of the day. Jaime's sweater had a big ruffle, which was fun to draw and paint. I've decided to leave this one just as it is.

not quite finished NM

2011-11-19T13:03:00.000-05:00

Behind Mabel Dodge Luhan's, Taos (7x11)

The last of my New Mexico paintings; these two are not quite finished, but I won't be working on them anymore now--I'll wait until I go back.

View from somewhere, Ghost Ranch (11x15)

indoors NM

2011-11-18T12:54:00.000-05:00

(7x11)

In New Mexico I painted from photos of tropical flowers. Sounds a bit absurd, but for the first several days that we were in NM, it was cold, cloudy, and rainy. When the sun came out on Thursday, everyone spilled from the studio of the Espanola fabric arts center--a very cool space filled with giant looms--where the workshop was held into the weedy driveway and yard: it was hard to paint indoors after that.

(11x15)

(7x11)

outdoors NM

2011-11-16T11:24:00.000-05:00

Ghost Ranch (11x15)
I've been back from my New Mexico trip for just over a month and may be finally getting back to some semblance of routine ... though I still have not made it back to spin or yoga: tomorrow, always tomorrow.

A couple of the paintings I did in NM and a couple of the subjects from NM I am hoping to paint: tomorrow, maybe the day after that ...

Near Echo Amphitheater (11x15) unfinished

Unsent postcards

Virgin of Guadalupe, Santa Fe

Ristra, Chimayo

Ghost Ranch

gratitude and nonattachment

2011-09-29T11:20:00.001-04:00

(9x12)
My friend Shelby does beautiful paintings of horses. Having only been on a horse once in my life, I never gave them much thought, but her paintings were so expressive, they made me look. This is my first attempt, from a photo at Paint My Photo. I hope to have some opportunity to photograph horses in NM.
I had to paint something to post this morning just to say thank you for all the comments on yesterday's post: when I woke up this morning my inbox had so many comments to moderate in it--I was, and am, really touched and grateful. You inspire me.
Giving more thought to my "reasons" for not painting, I think that the real root of it--in spite of tiredness, time constraints, and the very real necessity, which Melinda noted, of having time out to let ideas percolate--is attachment to outcome: my original sin. Sometimes I feel I've overcome it, but then it creeps back: I guess that's just one of struggles we face.
I do think just keeping the paint wet is a good strategy for keeping the focus on the doing, not the outcome. Maybe if I paint a simple object every day--an apple or a flower--not an arrangement, not a scene, then just toss it aside I can re-cultivate nonattachment. ...

premature anticipation

2011-09-28T22:32:00.001-04:00

(7x11)
It's been awhile. I don't know why ... Well, I haven't been painting; there are always so many "reasons" I can come up with, but I guess they don't matter really, since it seems to happen periodically, unavoidably.
My excuse this time is just being busy making money. I'm self-employed and have a compulsion to finish whatever I'm working on; so that, even when I put it away for the day, I either can't relax or my brain is too tired. Also, I have so many things I want to paint--too many, especially my Chinese lanterns, the one success of my garden this year--which leads to paralysis.
But, I'm going to New Mexico later this week, for ten days!, to paint. So maybe I've just been saving my energy?
So, back 10/13, with, I hope, some new work.

end-of-summer crunch

2011-08-17T11:23:00.000-04:00

(5x7)
A quick (unfinished) sketch of some backyard trees is all I've been able to manage lately.
Every year the end of August is a mad dash to do everything I'd been planning to do all summer; and it's usually a busy time for me with work too.

Below is a little painting I donated to an auction to raise money for ALS research; the auction's on Labor Day: I hope it brings in some money!

tug

2011-08-04T19:25:00.001-04:00

(7x11)
I painted this from a reference photo at Paint My Photo where this photo by James Swanson is posted. Paint My Photo, unlike some other "reference photo" sites, really has photos you want to paint!
I'd prefer to use my own photos, but I have to get out there and get some good ones!
In my haste to post this, I see I've forgotten to put in some little details--like the captain's belt!

Robyn asked me in her comment to name my favorite watercolor books. I have had so many, but the ones I look back to whenever need inspiration are Jeanne Dobie's Making Color Sing for color mixing; Janet Walsh, Watercolor Made Easy, and Gail Speckmann, Wet-in-Wet Watercolor, for technique; and any book by Charles Reid or Lucy Willis for something to aspire to.
And see the fabulous and erudite Katherine Thomas's post on art books at Making a Mark.

bumpers

2011-07-30T16:03:00.001-04:00

(4x9)
From a reference photo at the Painting Loft; I zoomed in on the bumpers.
I finally opened up a block of Kilimanjaro paper I've had for awhile and tried it out. It's okay, but, for some reason, I think it responds better is you use a lot of pigment ... I think I could have painted this more lightly, transparently, if I were using my favorite, Fabriano, but I could be wrong--maybe it's just the heat and humidity!
I used a triad of bright violet (Holbein), new gamboge, and ultramarine. Added a bit of azo orange too, which mixed nicely with the bright violet.

peaches

2011-07-21T10:58:00.000-04:00

(5x7)
A challenge from the Painting Loft, a supportive community of artists with numerous groups and challenges.
I did a rather elaborate drawing of this first time around: and painted it so weakly and tightly--I immediately tore it up (sorry now: wish I had saved it to post!).
This time, I worked smaller and did not spend much time drawing. I turned the reference and my painting upside down and started with the peaches; after I put down color, I'd flood it with clear water. It helped me not get too involved with what turned out to be a surprisingly complex subject.
Though I wish I had stopped sooner: the unfinished version below is brighter and has more of a focus.

beach day

2011-07-18T07:49:00.000-04:00

(4x6)
Went to the beach yesterday and it was lovely; nice rolling waves to float on.
I made this little sketch in my Strathmore journal, attracting the attention of a few little girls who were shyly fascinated.
Also surreptitiously took a few photos for later paintings.

brandywine shoal light

2011-07-13T16:54:00.000-04:00

(10x15)
A lighthouse in the Delaware Bay, one of the prettiest.
Now that I've photographed I see I need to darken the values in the foreground a bit.
As I did to Negotiator, below.

one for two

2011-07-10T16:28:00.000-04:00

(7x11)
Two seagull paintings I've been working on today: one works, the other not so much! In the second one, I can't really see the eyes in my photo, but I went ahead and tried to paint them anyway: bad move.
I'll let it dry and see if it's salvageable, if not, redraw it and try again.

(7x11)
Marnold commented on the fishing boat name, Negotiator, in my last post: it's fun to look at and think of boat names. My kayak is La Estrellita Amarilla; I wanted to call one of the boats Spuyten Duyvil (Spitting Devil, or literally, "devil's spout" in Dutch) but no one else can remember it.
There are two fishing boats down here whose names I like, the Instigator and the Agitator, in large part because that's what we used to call my two younger brothers when they were little: they were forever at each others' throats--one instigating and the other agitating. I was always put between them to keep them apart: call me the Separator.

negotiator

2011-07-06T08:00:00.001-04:00

(11x15)
I think I need to make the water darker on the right, but I'll wait a few days.
Tomorrow, back to Smilla paintings, but today I'll be trying to retrieve all the photos in my Picasa file, which turned up empty this morning: that's what I get, I suppose, for letting other people use my computer: Never again!

Afternoon update: By doing a "system restore" on my computer, I was able to retrieve my 1000-plus photos!

(11x15)

Independence Day

2011-07-04T13:02:00.000-04:00

(5x7)
Happy 4th of July from the Delaware Bay.

(5x7)

smilla and roses

2011-07-02T11:37:00.000-04:00

(11x15)
A small numbers of details to finish here, but I can't be sure I'll get to them this weekend!
Yesterday I did another drawing of Smilla, this time with gladiolas and hostas. I'm going to keep this series with Smilla going as long as I can, and as long as Smilla cooperates with new poses.
Spending some time this weekend planning a bulb garden in an about 4x8-foot patch just inside my gate: the irises and daffodils were so beautiful this spring, next spring I want many more, and allium, lilies, and anemones too!

my little backdrop

2011-06-29T11:16:00.000-04:00

(7x11)
I was always reluctant to paint my black cat, Smilla--too many nuances in that black ... until it occurred to me: forget the nuance, just make a shape. She's turned out to be the perfect backdrop for florals!

(11x15)
Smilla's next assignment: backdrop for white roses.

(4x6)
Inspired by Cynthia of Galerie46's all-yellow palette, I've decided to begin making a study of yellow. I'm very comfortable with the red-violet to blue-green spectrum, but not so much with yellow, which I always think of as "difficult." But yellow is so important: when you choose the right one, on its own or to mix, it's so gorgeous; choose the wrong one ... yuck. I am going to make a concerted effort to learn my yellows.
And, for my New Mexico trip in October, I bought Daniel Smith's quinacridone set, which, with a couple of additions (mixes made with quinacridones), I'm going to put in two of Cheap Joe's "piggyback" palettes, one for me, and one for Robin, so we can play around with them.

gestural florals workshop, day two

2011-06-28T10:00:00.003-04:00

(7x11)

The second day we made our own little setups.

The day flew by!

(7x11, unfinished)

(11x15)

(11x15, unfinished)

In the comments on yesterday's post, OnTheRoad asked if I found the palette of colors I brought to the workshop worked for me ... Yes, on the whole, but I found myself wishing for a more transparent orange and regretted the Daniel Smith apatite genuine, which I substituted for sap green but which seemed grayer and more opaque. Quinacridone magenta and aureolin yellow were indispensable. Also, it turns out indanthrene blue is no substitute for Antwerp, which is a beautifully transparent blue that makes lovely fresh greens.

floral gestures workshop, day one

2011-06-27T11:07:00.003-04:00

(5x7)
I'm back from a wonderful two-day workshop with Jackie Saunders.
When we walked into the studio there were buckets and buckets of fresh flowers: Jackie very sensibly had us start by spending the morning painting individual flowers, looking at their shapes and colors. The peonies were gorgeous, but I especially enjoyed the snapdragons--I wound up painting all types of flowers I would never think of even trying to paint and learned that an arrangement needn't be beautiful or perfect to produce a good painting.

(11x15 sheet)

(5x7)
I experienced a little exasperation with my Fabriano hot press paper, which was much too "soft" and didn't really allow me to do much adjusting or moving of the paint once I'd put it down. (The next day I used a piece of Shelby's Arches hot press, which was much better.)
In the afternoon we made small arrangements. Jackie emphasized that we should move from one flower to another making connections, allowing the colors to fuse. Her demonstrations were inspiring and really made everyone paint enthusiastically!
Jackie also teaches life drawing and I really hope to take a life class with her sometime.

(7x11)

unexpected

2011-06-24T08:00:00.002-04:00

White gladiolas are blooming in my yard: I have no recollection of planting them, but was happy to see them.
I made a backdrop from two cloths I picked up at the secondhand store: I'm always looking for lace or cut-out patterns that are not too complex for me to paint.
This is on about a 16x20 sheet of paper. I had intended to include the jar (below), but now I'm not sure ... It's still unfinished so I may change my mind.

(detail)

I'm on my way to DC to paint flowers with my friends for two days: bliss!
Have a wonderful weekend!

hydrangeas and peonies

2011-06-23T07:56:00.000-04:00

(10x14)

(9x12)
I should have titled this post "Things I Can't Grow." They're two of my favorites (actually, it seems whatever's in bloom is my favorite: love the one you're with) but my hydrangeas always wilt and my peonies never bloom.

Friday I'm heading down to DC for a two-day florals workshop ... I'll finish these peonies when I get back!

francisco de asis

2011-06-22T08:00:00.000-04:00

(8x10)
A statue of St Francis of Assisi in front of a restaurant in Chimayo, New Mexico.
I took a picture of this bronze statue when I was in NM four years ago and I think it may have been made by Marco Oviedo, who is one of the owners of the inn where Robin and I will be staying when we go in October.
I'll have to have another go at it ... I should have stopped last night after the second glass of wine.
I started college as an art history major. The Rogier van der Weyden Crucifixion in the Philadelphia Museum of Art first got me interested in the Northern Renaissance, which was to be my specialty. I'm not a believer, but found myself drawn to iconography, which is a kind of language, and to the lives of the saints, a kind of biography ... So I guess it's not surprising I wound up an English major instead.

I made a little watercolor journal to bring to NM and wanted something characteristic for the cover ... it was either pinons, ristras, or vigas: I went for the simplest!

Feliz cumpleaños, Petirrojo, amiga de toda mi vida ... y mucho mas!

"it's a beautiful ride"

2011-06-21T12:05:00.000-04:00

(7x10)
"It's a beautiful ride" is the slogan of the Cape May - Lewes ferry, and it's true.
I've been accumulating a number of unfinished paintings and decided to try to "finish" this one. I like this subject but there are two, for me, insurmountable mistakes here: I cannot get the glasses right, and the more I try the worse it gets (something a watercolorist should know!) and I regret making the railing so prominent; I have tried to subdue it, in vain.
I do like the nose and lips and will try this one again and see if I learn from my mistakes!

expedius tempus

2011-06-20T08:00:00.026-04:00

(10x14)
Found myself with no company and without any (paying) work to do (I could have worked in the yard) ... and with these already-cut lilies: so I made the most of it and spent part of the afternoon painting.

Also spent more time playing around with my palettes: it's such fun. I've had this Winsor & Newton set for more than twenty years, I think (and good thing since it costs a small fortune now). It's such an ingenious little device--I have the same admiration for its design that I do for boat cabins, which always are so well-thought-out, a place for everything. Every time I attend a boat show I wish I had been a boat designer.
But, I haven't used this kit, which still had the original colors it came with, much of late. To make more use of it, I updated the selection of 12 colors it holds. And then realized I could squeeze in two more using glue dots--cadmium red light and cobalt violet. I had to forgo burnt sienna, which I actually use a lot, but figure I can mix a reasonable approximation of. Or I hope I can.

And here, for Father's Day (and, in the tradition of my father, a day late ...), a picture of my dad from 1975 standing in front of the house he built: he cleared the lot, designed the house, laid the foundation, did the framing, electric, plumbing, the roof ... My brothers and I helped with the drywall on weekends, and we'd sleep on lawn chairs in the house, which had no windows or doors. We got breakfast from Dunkin Donuts and built fires in the front yard and cooked hot dogs on sticks we picked up in the woods for dinner. Coming from NYC, we thought we were the Swiss Family Robinson. If the house is ever torn down, they'll find drawings of the Beatles on the back sides of the wallboard.
This is how I always picture Dad in my mind; he was 43. At 79, though, with pure white hair and well-trimmed Vandyke, he's still a handsome devil.

smilla saves the day

2011-06-19T09:00:00.006-04:00

(10x14)
I was on my third go round of trying to paint these very delicately pink lilies when my cat, Smilla, left her customary spot in the hammock to obligingly provide a nice contrast (she's watching the bird bath--I need to find a much bigger bell for her collar). I have a bit more to do to bring out the lettering on the Ball jar.
I painted this on a just-opened block of Arches hot press, and even though this was the third sheet in, I found it annoyingly absorbent; it was a struggle to get the paint to flow on the surface.

Mineke Reinders and I had a discussion not too long ago about the best way to respond to the comments our Kind Readers leave for us. Long ago I stopped responding in my own comments section and instead would respond on the commenter's blog if the comment seemed to call for a response. As you know, sometimes it all gets so time-consuming and yet reciprocity is the heart of blogging. I've decided to adapt the policy of the Painter's Loft, where when you post a picture you are asked to comment on one. Whenever I post I will commit myself to comment on 5 other blogs, those on my blog roll or those I find in others' blog rolls, which is always a great way to be introduced to new artists. (I could browse blogs all day, really, but I have to work--I get paid by the hour!)
Also, in the past, if someone asked me a question in their comment, I would email them an answer. I think, in future, I will answer any questions in my next post, in case the answer may be of interest to others.
That's the plan ... for now.

upcoming workshop

2011-06-18T13:18:00.001-04:00

Next weekend I'll be in Washington DC with my friends Shelby and Lori to take a two-day "gestural florals" workshop with Jackie Saunders at the Torpedo Factory.
Today I put together this palette with the colors she recommends and a couple I can't do without, cobalt violet and ultramarine violet. I always make a little diagram of the colors to tape to the lid:

These are a few additional colors that I think I may want (the little tubs sold for the Possum Palette are perfect for colors that won't fit on your palette; the snap-on lids keep most paints moist indefinitely):

And I'm out of Antwerp blue, which Jackie recommended, so I tried out these dark blues looking for a substitute and decided on the W&N indanthene blue (on the far left).

Now to try out my new palette on some pale pink lilies.

WsIP

2011-06-15T20:35:00.000-04:00

(detail)

(11x15)

There are a lot of white lilies in bloom in my yard right now and I couldn't live with myself if I didn't try to paint them! I decided to use the pattern from a pair of capri pants for the background (yes, I love to wear flowered pants). First I drew the lilies in lead pencil; then I realized I'd be very confused if I also drew the fabric pattern in pencil and drew it instead with an ochre watercolor pencil ... I still got confused, but not so much!

In my house everything is blue--blue and white, blue and beige, blue and brown--but I really like the black-white-green color scheme here.

And, below, I began to try out a photo I took at the Ocean City Arts Center--a little girl waiting for her music lesson. This WIP, I think, points up the problems inherent in taking not-so-good photos: without a strong source of light, even though the subject appeals to me so much, I feel adrift. I should do it again after rethinking and re-creating the light.

playing with food

2011-06-13T18:30:00.001-04:00

(5x6)

A little (as-much-as-I-can-manage) unself-conscious playing with paint: shapes, colors ... not overthinking.

(4x6)

(9x12)

little practice

2011-06-12T09:52:00.000-04:00

(3x5 Strathmore journal)

A view from a window in Pennsylvania. These evergreens, with branches that grow straight out from the trunk, break up the space nicely.

(3x5 handmade journal)

I'm going to be practicing with my little travel kit more in preparation for a return visit to New Mexico in October. Four years ago I met my friend Shelby in Jan Hart's workshop; this fall we're going back, and my bff from high school who just started watercolor painting, Robin, will be coming too!
Robin and I plan to stay in Chimayo, a center of weaving, and to stay for a few days after the workshop to visit pueblos and hike Ghost Ranch. Finally taking a trip together. Next year: Victoria, BC?

labors intensive and not

2011-06-10T11:44:00.000-04:00

First the "not": a little book I made of Arches 90lb. paper, with a scrap from an unfinished painting as the cover/accordian binding that holds the signatures in place.
The directions for this "Flat-Style Australian Reversed Piano Hinge" book are in Gwen Diehn's excellent Real Life Journals: Designing & Using Handmade Books.
You make an incision in the fold of your signature, then slip the accordian pleat through. Glue down the covers and voila.
This a small test-run, 3 x 5 inches; I'd like to make a larger one.

This book appealed to me because it doesn't require sewing and because individual pages can be removed and/or replaced simply by removing the "hinge pin" (a strip of paper slipped through the accordian fold, below).

For intensive labor I have a wheelbarrow full of plants that I bought on impulse--I cannot resist, no matter how many times I end up regretting it later--to plant ... but first I have to make a bed for them. Oh, and it's been 100 degrees here for two days. Luckily for me, and the plants, that doesn't stop my mother, who was over here yesterday and today, bright and early, shovel and hoe in hand!

stand aside

2011-06-07T11:20:00.000-04:00

(7x11)
I love this woman's nautical-themed sweater. I feel I put too much in the eyeglass lenses--it's not too bad, if you don't look close! And, now that I see the photo, I intend to soften the shapes and tone down the sienna on the right. I had planned to do more in the hair ... but why muck it up?
On the other hand, this poor lady looks like she's convalescing from a fall down the stairs. I may be able to save her though.

(7x11)

And here's a painting I just began, based on a photo by my friend and teacher, Marie. This is my point of mental exhaustion. I've noticed that lately I often stop rather than painting right on through to the end.

Sue and I had a brief email exchange today in which I verbalized something that has been poking around the periphery for awhile: I was thinking in relation to three of my teachers whose paintings, even when they "fail" on some level, still "succeed," that if you 1) get the paint:water ratio right and 2) go at it with a lack of anxiety or fear, you are bound to produce something pleasing because you are not getting in the way of the watercolor itself.

That's my new goal: to stand aside!

faces on the ferry

2011-06-03T19:44:00.000-04:00

(7x10)
I have had these two photos since last October when I took them on Cape May - Lewes ferry, still in the thrall of September's Ted Nuttall workshop, which was so great that you came away wondering why you ever bothered to paint anything but faces.
No doubt I've forgotten a lot, but these two photos continued to appeal to me, so today I made a start on them.

(7x10)

kitchen table still lifes, lewes

2011-06-01T10:17:00.000-04:00

(7x11)

Unfinished roses.

(5x7)
Shelby's little yellow cream pitcher.

more from rehoboth and an aha!

2011-05-31T10:14:00.000-04:00

(5x7)

(7x11)

(7x11)
More scenes from Gordon's Pond, and, below, from around Silver Lake, Rehoboth.

(8x8)

The last day of the plein air competition, at Shelby's, I drew a bouquet of blowsy roses, and yesterday, in between baking, setting up for a bbq, and watching the Star Trek marathon on SciFi, I kept dabbing away at it, adding a wash then putting it aside; adding another ... This is not my usual method--which is a kind of mad rush--and I wondered why I was being so circumspect. Not that it's a bad idea for me to be more deliberate, but I was feeling stymied, uncertain.
Then I realized that the reason I've been painting so little and struggling so much is that somewhere along the way lately I have gone back to being too attached to results.
Everyone has goals when they paint, and, from the beginning, one of mine was, and has been, to privilege the process, not the outcome. Putting the paint on the paper, seeing what it will do, that excitement of discovery IS the point, not the painting that results: or at least that's the state of mind I strive for.
Blogging--making paintings to put out there and seeing other people's paintings and processes has been a tremendous help in getting there. And now two of my best friends have been delving into watercolor and their enjoyment and experimentation has made me realize what I am currently lacking.
So it's back to square one, if I can get there!

rehoboth

2011-05-27T13:43:00.000-04:00

(7x11)
WWII gun tower, Gordon's Pond

Last weekend I participated in a plein air painting event in Rehoboth, Delaware, with my friend Shelby. There were 30 painters: 26 oil painters and 4 watercolorists. At the show Sunday, oil painters took the three ribbons, as well as two of the three honorable mentions: the third went to Shelby for a beautifully simple small painting of untouched washes of Gordon's Pond.
I liked my two submissions--which I forgot to photograph!--a small marsh painting and a larger one of rooftops; they'll be on display in Rehoboth for a month.
The weather mostly held out for us--though we got a soaking Friday afternoon--and we met some nice people and wonderful artists, including Shelby Keefe. of Milwaukee, who won 1st place.

Gordon's Pond

Shelby's street, Lewes, DE

My cat, Smilla.

off to Rehoboth

2011-05-18T12:50:00.000-04:00

(6x11)
Loosening myself up with some of the multitude of irises I have this year: best year ever. For next spring I'll have to plant some white and yellow ones too.
Tomorrow I go to Rehoboth for the first of two plein air competitions I'm participating in the summer. I'm so busy worrying about the weather, which has been gray, windy, and rainy, that I can't stress about my painting!
The event's supposed to go off, rain or shine, though I'm not quite sure how that's supposed to work.I may come home having learned a lot about gray.

(4x6)

more gulls

2011-05-16T14:10:00.002-04:00

(7x11)
Here's one that I'll definitely have to paint again--and faster: the lines in the water that are supposed to be ripples (!) are too hard-edged, defined. Also, I think I have to intensify the reflected color on the gulls themselves.
It's weird to me that my mind hampers me from painting things it knows to be white in other colors! Perhaps if I did one of those things they recommend to break the mind's hold on your perceptions, like turning the paper upside-down? Or maybe I should just tell my mind to butt out.

the painting loft

2011-05-15T12:50:00.000-04:00

(7x11)
Have you visited the Painting Loft? I painted this from a reference photo posted there. I have tried magnolias many times ... I just love the overlapping, cupping petals, and of course the color.
The dark background caused me some frustration. I have a hard enough time with darks,but this paper--Winsor & Newton--was most uncooperative: the paint just kept being absorbed, wash after wash, leaving little white pinpricks and a dull surface.
I took what W&N paper I had left straight out to the trash!

gulls

2011-05-10T13:27:00.001-04:00

(6x8)
Way too much fussing with the reflections in the water ... I wish I had just painted it all in go and then left it: which is what I'll do next time. I am pleaseed with the grays in their wings though, considering how I am usually unable to make gray! This gray (I know Robin will want to know) was made with cobalt blue, aureolin, carmine.

white egret

2011-05-07T12:13:00.000-04:00

(4x8)

I've been wanting to try painting birds, especially shorebirds, for some time.
This first attempt was helped greatly by my teacher, Marie Natale, who has to keep telling me to go darker!

past love to mania

2011-04-20T11:09:00.000-04:00

Two more, one on hot press, the other on cold.
Time to abandon the daffodils; the lilacs are in bloom! The Fist by Derek Walcott

The fist clenched round my heart loosens a little, and I gasp brightness; but it tightens again. When have I ever not loved the pain of love? But this has moved past love to mania. This has the strong clench of the madman, this is gripping the ledge of unreason, before plunging howling into the abyss. Hold hard then, heart. This way at least you live.

"what pleasure, what joy"

2011-04-15T12:46:00.005-04:00

I'm sorry to say I'm a hopeless gardener: a rushed, confused, procrastinator ... But I did something right a couple of years ago and planted daffodils and grape hyacinths, which are now in bloom in little clumps here and there all around the otherwise barren yard.

I picked this little bouquet for the table when I had my mom over to dinner last night; I couldn't take my eyes of them all through the meal. Which makes me not a great host either!

This is my practice run at it. Seeing what doesn't work for me here, and studying the setup a little more, I think I can do better. Tomorrow.

Ithaka
by C. P. Cavafy translated by Edmund Keeley

As you set out for Ithaka hope your road is a long one, full of adventure, full of discovery. Laistrygonians, Cyclops, angry Poseidon—don't be afraid of them: you'll never find things like that on your way as long as you keep your thoughts raised high, as long as a rare excitement stirs your spirit and your body. Laistrygonians, Cyclops, wild Poseidon—you won't encounter them unless you bring them along inside your soul, unless your soul sets them up in front of you. Hope your road is a long one. May there be many summer mornings when, with what pleasure, what joy, you enter harbors you're seeing for the first time; may you stop at Phoenician trading stations to buy fine things, mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony, sensual perfume of every kind— as many sensual perfumes as you can; and may you visit many Egyptian cities to learn and go on learning from their scholars. Keep Ithaka always in your mind. Arriving there is what you're destined for. But don't hurry the journey at all. Better if it lasts for years, so you're old by the time you reach the island, wealthy with all you've gained on the way, not expecting Ithaka to make you rich. Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey. Without her you wouldn't have set out. She has nothing left to give you now. And if you find her poor, Ithaka won't have fooled you. Wise as you will have become, so full of experience, you'll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

spring and all

2011-04-14T11:39:00.000-04:00

(9x12)

Spring and All

William Carlos Williams

By the road to the contagious hospital
under the surge of the blue
mottled clouds driven from the
northeast—a cold wind. Beyond, the
waste of broad, muddy fields
brown with dried weeds, standing and fallen

patches of standing water
the scattering of tall trees

All along the road the reddish
purplish, forked, upstanding, twiggy
stuff of bushes and small trees
with dead, brown leaves under them
leafless vines—

Lifeless in appearance, sluggish
dazed spring approaches—

They enter the new world naked,
cold, uncertain of all
save that they enter. All about them
the cold, familiar wind—

Now the grass, tomorrow
the stiff curl of wildcarrot leaf

One by one objects are defined—
It quickens: clarity, outline of leaf

But now the stark dignity of
entrance—Still, the profound change
has come upon them: rooted they
grip down and begin to awaken

frail duration

2011-04-11T10:54:00.003-04:00

The Wild Honeysuckle

by Philip Freneau

Fair flower, that dost so comely grow,

Hid in this silent, dull retreat,

Untouched thy honied blossoms blow,

Unseen thy little branches greet:

No roving foot shall crush thee here,

No busy hand provoke a tear.

By Nature’s self in white arrayed,

She bade thee shun the vulgar eye,

And planted here the guardian shade,

And sent soft waters murmuring by;

Thus quietly thy summer goes,

Thy days declining to repose.

Smit with those charms, that must decay,

I grieve to see your future doom;

They died—nor were those flowers more gay,

The flowers that did in Eden bloom;

Unpitying frosts and Autumn’s power

Shall leave no vestige of this flower.

From morning suns and evening dews

At first thy little being came;

If nothing once, you nothing lose,

For when you die you are the same;

The space between is but an hour,

The frail duration of flower.

dpw

2011-04-09T11:26:00.001-04:00

Third and final go at the Daily Paintworks challenge to paint a white object on a patterned ground.

(6x9)

I do love patterned fabrics and papers, but, while I've accumulated a number of each, I rarely paint them ... Must be laziness: the idea of putting in the work to reproduce the pattern puts me off, or maybe it's the time it would take--I think that's it. I'm shorter than usual on time lately: I work for myself and so work a lot (and when I have no work then I spend all my time worrying about having no work!) ... the dog's old and sick, the yard's a wreck, and I'm tearing up the living room and dining room floors.

challenges, challenges ...

2011-04-08T16:12:00.001-04:00

Hey, thank you everyone who took the time to write me with various solutions/fixes to the problems I've been having: I'm now overwhelmed with solutions instead of with problems, which is progress ...

This is my first attempt at a solution.

Normally I post directly to Blogger from Picasa--that is the only way I post, in fact: it's easy--I upload and edit my photos there.

These photos are from the photos file on my computer, which, in all honesty, I hardly ever look at--I don't know how to edit the photos there, and they're stored all haphazardly (or perhaps I should say I have stored them all haphazardly ...)

So here they are, unedited, my first two tries, both unfinished, at a deceptively difficult challenge at Daily Paintworks: paint a white object on a patterned cloth.

problems ...

2011-04-02T12:35:00.000-04:00

Hello. Thanks to everyone who's written to say my images haven't come up in my last two posts; I'm sorry about that!
Right now, I have no idea what the problem is ... I've exhausted my small arsenal of computer fixes: i.e., I rebooted, which didn't work.

If I can't figure it out soon, I may just begin a new blog ... I've been thinking of abandoning Blogger anyway.

sunday on the porch with mike

2011-03-14T14:59:00.001-04:00

My painting

Whenever I visit my friends Lisa and Mike now, Mike and I set up a little still life to paint. We paint, Lisa knits, and we talk and drink Mimosas. Not a bad way to start the week.

The setup this time consisted of a pewter vase, a pepper mill, a red bell pepper, and a leek. In our first drawings we both included all of the still life (and then some), but for the second try, both sensibly edited.
I love Mike's bell pepper, but am really impressed with the vase, which he has endowed with a luminosity it doesn't possess! Mike's painting

It also just works better in the composition than mine did; mine is dominating and boring. I may try to fix it by adding the pepper mill, but may also just move on!
My first start

touch of spring

2011-03-12T10:35:00.002-05:00

The last two days--sunny, 50 degrees--have brought on spring fever. I had to stay in and work, but I went to the store and bought a small bunch of daffodils from Ireland; mine aren't up yet.
I painted these without drawing first, which helps me from getting too rigid ... although I did overdo these just a bit, as you can see from the in-progress one, below.

The daily poem from Poets.org:

The Uses of Poetry
by William Carlos Williams

I've fond anticipation of a day
O'erfilled with pure diversion presently,
For I must read a lady poesy
The while we glide by many a leafy bay,

Hid deep in rushes, where at random play
The glossy black winged May-flies, or whence flee
Hush-throated nestlings in alarm,
Whom we have idly frighted with our boat's long sway.

For, lest o'ersaddened by such woes as spring
To rural peace from our meek onward trend,
What else more fit? We'll draw the latch-string

And close the door of sense; then satiate wend,
On poesy's transforming giant wing,
To worlds afar whose fruits all anguish mend.

thinking v doing

2011-03-08T15:25:00.001-05:00

(8x12)
An imagined marsh: practice showing distance.
I want to do some paintings with skies that are not blue.

Ever since I found out I was accepted to Easels in Frederick, I have been thinking a lot about landscape painting, which is no substitute for doing landscape painting but which will be a good break from what I have been thinking about for the last month: decorating! I've been gathering paint swatches, flooring samples, and fabrics ... (Now I just have to teach myself how to sew ... and varnish floors and do mosaics ...)

But first, the requirements for Easels in Frederick: I have to write a short bio, which is something I really hate to do, or even contemplate, since I haven't done it. Do you think "Laura Starrett lives, works and paints in South Jersey" will do? Perhaps I can ask someone else to write it for me?

And I must submit a photo of myself, "preferably painting." These are my two choices: a photo my friend Shelby took of me painting at the Santuario del Chimayo three (I think) years ago or a painting Shelby did of me last fall when we attended the Charles Reid workshop together.

another fine mess ...

2011-03-01T11:51:00.000-05:00

A friend and I entered the Easels in Frederick plein air competion: 30 artists would be selected to paint in Frederick, MD, for three days in June and then show their work and compete for prizes.

These are the three paintings I submitted with my application: all painted en plein air.

The artists who were chosen were announced today and I'm one of them! I'm stunned, and terrified.

Most of the artists have websites where you can view their work, and the ones I've looked at are very professional ... and all oil painters.

I think they may have wanted to throw a watercolorist into the mix.

Anyway, I better get busy practicing my drawing, painting, and setup, and getting my legs and arms in condition!

feathered inspiration

2011-02-15T09:48:00.000-05:00

(7x11)
Chickens and roosters are a popular subject among painters; I decided to give it a try. They are a good subject: not hard to draw, and interesting shape, and they come in a lot of colors!
The background color was inspired by Don's barn at A View from the Green Barn--which is also a great place for feathered inspiration.

happy valentine's

2011-02-14T10:16:00.000-05:00

(9x12)
It's been so long, I don't know what to write ...
I've good intentions, once again, to get back on schedule with my painting (and posting).
This is a painting I did from a photo about a week ago, trying to get my darks darker, forcing myself to use more pigment and less water ...
Started another, below, but wasn't too committed. I think one difference was that, for the first one, I chose my colors before painting and mixed them on a scrap sheet, to see what I would get; for the second, I skipped this step and then found myself unsure where to go with it.
(9x12)

happy holidays

2010-12-24T23:59:00.003-05:00

Happy Holidays to you all. I hope they're merry and bright.
I'll be away on vacation for a bit. See you, with new paintings, I hope, when I get back!

An excerpt from one of my favorite songs from the 1970 musical version of A Christmas Carol, Scrooge, starring Albert Finney as Scrooge and Kenneth Moore as the fabulous larger-than-life Ghost of Christmas Present, who sings this song:

I like life
Life likes me
Life and I fairly fully agree
Life is fine
Life is good
'Specially mine, which is just as it should be
I like pouring the wine and why not?
Life's a pleasure that I deny not

I like life
Here and now
Life and I made a mutual vow
'Till I die
Life and I
We'll both try to be better somehow

melyssa

2010-12-17T14:02:00.000-05:00

(11x15)
An unfinished painting of Peter's daughter, Melyssa. I kept fussing and fussing with the eyes, especially her right eye, until the paper had become quite exhausted with it: me too.

"the darkling thrush"

2010-12-13T15:53:00.001-05:00

(5x7)
County Mayo scene for this month's Virtual Paintout. I found a few lovely scenes that I'd like to paint, though, like others, I wandered further afield than the locale chosen for the paintout, Galway, into Clare and Mayo too.

Below is another poinsettia; the final version of one of the ones started in class.

And a poem emailed to me by Poets.org that seemed just right for this cold, windy, gray day:

The Darkling Thrush
by Thomas Hardy

I leant upon a coppice gate
    When Frost was spectre-gray,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
    The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
    Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
    Had sought their household fires.

The land's sharp features seemed to be
    The Century's corpse outleant,
His crypt the cloudy canopy,
    The wind his death-lament.
The ancient pulse of germ and birth
    Was shrunken hard and dry,
And every spirit upon earth
    Seemed fervourless as I.

At once a voice arose among
    The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
    Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
    In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
    Upon the growing gloom.

So little cause for carolings
    Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
    Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
    His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
    And I was unaware.

poinsettias in the making

2010-12-11T11:30:00.000-05:00

(12x16,
detail)

In out last class of the season, our teacher Marie encouraged us to try another method to paint our poinsettias. We started with loose (as loose as we could manage) wet washes of poinsettia shapes (below); when that dried, we started to pick out the shapes with negative painting (above).
I haven't finished mine yet, but I'm finding the method very relaxing!

(7x11)

(12x16, detail)

"lonely, or if you prefer, self-sufficient"

2010-12-08T18:00:00.002-05:00

(7x10)
I find myself always admiring grays in other people's paintings, but can never seem to get to gray in my own. This seemed like a good subject for trying out some neutrals.
I also used watercolor pencils for the twigs in the foreground and bleed-proof white for the snow.

“The snow itself is lonely or, if you prefer, self-sufficient. There is no other time when the whole world seems composed of one thing and one thing only.”

Joseph Wood Krutch quotes (American Naturalist and Writer, 1893-1970)

Dejda

2010-12-07T18:57:00.000-05:00

Dejda
(11x15)

I started this portrait of my friend Shelby's eldest, Dejda, from a photo taken when she was a little girl. The features are all off, but in the photo I like the backlighting and Dejda's expression, which I have not come near to capturing here and can't even really think of words for, so I think I'll try again, being more careful with the initial drawing.

Here's a poem I found in my inbox:

Sonnet
Billy Collins

All we need is fourteen lines, well, thirteen now.
and after this one just a dozen
to launch a little ship on love's storm-tossed seas,
then only ten more left like rows of beans,
How easily it goes unless you get Elizabethan
and insist the iambic bongos must be played
and rhymes positioned at the end of lines,
one for every station of the cross.
But hang on here while we make the turn
into the final six where all will be resolved,
where longing and heartache will find an end,
where Laura will tell Petrarch to put down his pen,
take off those crazy medieval tights,
blow out the lights, and come at last to bed.

those who wait

2010-12-05T19:56:00.002-05:00

(9x12)

I visited with my dear friends Lisa and Mike this weekend: there's no one like the friends who love you and who you love for getting you back to yourself.
I haven't painted, except for a little very unsatisfying mushing about, for nearly three months, but Mike insisted we paint. So this morning we set up this little still life, clementines and a ceramic pitcher with a gorgeous coppery glaze and a wonderful shape.
Mike's limited-palette painting, below, has imbued the objects with a beautiful humility and earthy sensuality that makes me think of Chinese brush painting.

(9x12)

Fortuitously, the day before I went on my visit, Rhonda kindly sent me a great link, which really helped me think about what was keeping me from painting and how to get back to it: http://clicks.robertgenn.com/fighting-blues.php#113. Thank you again, Rhonda!

Continuities
by Walt Whitman

Nothing is ever really lost, or can be lost,
No birth, identity, form—no object of the world.
Nor life, nor force, nor any visible thing;
Appearance must not foil, nor shifted sphere confuse thy brain.
Ample are time and space—ample the fields of Nature.
The body, sluggish, aged, cold—the embers left from earlier fires,
The light in the eye grown dim, shall duly flame again;
The sun now low in the west rises for mornings and for noons continual;
To frozen clods ever the spring's invisible law returns,
With grass and flowers and summer fruits and corn.

out of alignment

2010-11-09T21:54:00.000-05:00

(11x15)
Hello! Sorry I've been incommunicado. I don't really know what happened ... You'd think after two great workshops I'd be painting nonstop but being temperamentally perverse I stopped painting altogether. (I've also been trying to get a lot of work done, and my nineteen-year-old nephew has moved in with me which has been, and is, a learning experience. He's young and can learn; it's been a bit more fraught for me. You know how when you introduce a new cat into your household the cat you had suddenly becomes an old grump? I'm the cat you had ... ).

This is the last painting I attempted after my last post a month ago.
I'm consistently having a problem getting eyes to align; the farther one is always droopy: very disconcerting.

This procrastinating has got to stop though and for the coming week I'm setting myself the goal of finding something that I really want to paint, that I can't possibly resist painting.

student

2010-10-01T14:28:00.000-04:00

(9x12)
Painted this today from a photo Shelby took one day when we were out painting with Charles Reid. Shelby and I were still in thr throes of our Ted Nuttall workshop and, while Charles demonstrated, took a lot of pictures of our fellow students (on the sly).
I worked on this intermittently this morning in between little bursts of cleaning out the garage, very gingerly, on the lookout for crickets.

what now?

2010-09-30T18:30:00.001-04:00

After my intensive two weeks of paintings, I find myself here at home wondering what to do now!
Yesterday I took a little break to try to loosely fiddle around with the faces from the Unhappy Couple.
Each face is about 3 inches high.

By the way, did you know this is National Banned Books week? I was looking at a list of books that have at one time or another been banned from schools in the U.S. and trying to see if I could find a common denominator. Nonconformity or any taint of "outsiderness" seems to be a red flag. Oh, and sex!
Banned Books weeks ends October 2, but I'm heading to the library tomorrow to get a banned book I never read, Fahrenheit 451. Apparently, after the book was banned from schools, the publisher sold a sanitized to schools for years--without Ray Bradbury's knowledge or consent!

wip: mia, day 2

2010-09-29T16:16:00.000-04:00

I can see in this side-by-side how getting just a few lines a bit wrong can thros off the whole likeness, like the outline of the left side of her face--I let it bow out too much (but I think I can fix it).
I tried to get the baby teeth in there but really didn't like they way they looked ... I think I still need to broaden the smile a bit.
Or maybe start again ... I'm feeling that this portrait doesn't capture Meezie.

wip: mia

2010-09-28T20:01:00.000-04:00

(11x12)
I thought I'd better start another painting trying to do what I did in Ted's class before I forget everything; I hope it's not too late!
I did this drawing of my niece, who's now grown with a son of her own; her pose and expression are pure Mia.
Unfortunately for me, the painter, she has the family's characcteristic fine wispy hair! A thick, straight bob would be so much easier!

about the workshops ...

2010-09-26T16:40:00.003-04:00

Practicing modified contour drawings, a la Charles Reid, on trees, above; notebook page with sketch of the Physick estate and notes from Charles' first demo.

The Ted Nuttall and Charles Reid workshops were two different experiences: they were different; their methods were different; the subjects were different. But it seems to me both teachers stressed, explicitly or implicitly, three things.

1) Seeing. I thought I was already doing it, but I wasn't--I was rushing through it to get to the fun part, splashing around in the paint. Ted pointed out all the small, unexpected things--the way the light hits the edge of a cuff or reflected light catches a hat's brim--that make a painting a delight and a revelation to look at. Charles emphasized connections and exploration of your subject with your pencil; Ted would call it interpreting; finding the emotion.
2) Applying the paint. Many of us share the optimistic delusion that a certain paint or color or type of paper will do the trick for us. Neither Ted nor Charles seemed very concerned with any of this--though they both had favorite brushes: big soft ones. They apply their paint in completely different ways--Ted in successive light washes; Charles in small bits that he "places" on the paper then pulls and pushes around ... but however you do it, in stages or all in one go, think before you do and while you're doing it.
3) Find your own way. There is a lot you can learn from other painters, past and present, especially perhaps when it comes to design, but ultimately you have to find what you do, how you do it, and commit to that, whatever the subject, method, or materials.

I hate to ruin the simplicity of my little tripartite summary, but I have to add one thing Ted talked about that really struck me: nonattachment to outcome. That's the hard one; the essential one.

I just saved you all a whole lot of money! Just kidding. For me the best part of the workshop is the experience of meeting and painting with other painters, regardless of who the teacher is, though these two were great and I'd recommend both if you have the chance.

charles reid workshop

2010-09-24T20:28:00.002-04:00

Day One: We painted at the Emlen Physick Estate in Cape May. The Physick house is a huge monstrosity; really quite ugly--even Charles Reid had a hard time with it. So I turned my back and painted the little house across the street. I started with a contour drawing--the contour drawing was my favorite part of the workshop. Charles thought this was a little tight, and I agree, but it's not as ugly as the Physick house.

Day Two: We painted indoors from a black-and-white photo Charles supplied. This was a real opportunity to try out not only his "modified contour" drawing--it is fascinating to watch him draw; he clearly enjoys it--but also his method of applying paint: place the paint; modify it while wet, if necessary; then pull the color into adjacent areas.

Day Three: Outdoors again. This time on the grounds of two restored old whaling cottages, which were charming, but I was more interested in the grove of old cherry trees out back. I would really love to be able to paint trees well! Slow contour drawing helped me see the shapes, and I was pleased with the drawing; wish I'd left more of it showing. I suspect I'll be doing a lot more contour drawing, especially of trees: it's a great learning tool.

Day Four: More plein air. We went to St. Mary's by the Sea, a retreat for Catholic nuns at Cape May Point; the nuns who had previously agreed to let us sit on their extensive porches reneged, which forced us to sit out in the blazing sun! Most un-Christian of them.
Shelby and I found a shady spot, but were eaten alive by flies. It was intolerable, so we packed it in and painted at the hotel. I painted this from a photo on my camera's screen.

Day Five: We stayed indoors (hurrah!) and painted from old photos. I call this one "The Unhappy Couple (Or, Oh No, What Have I Done?)"

Charles liked it, and thumped me on the back, but I'm not entirely happy with it: I wish I had, a la Charles, lost more edges.

Shelby and I had a great time, for our second week of painting together: painting all day and talking about it all night. What could be more fun?

But now I have a lot of work to catch up on and hope I can manage to find time to paint regularly as well before I forget all I've learned.

PS: Per your requests, more on the teachers and the experience of the two workshops to come!

nuttal workshop

2010-09-18T19:30:00.003-04:00

(10x14)

I'm back from Ted Nuttal the 3-day workshop in Lewes, DE, with one day to recuperate before the 5-day Charles Reid workshop begins.
The workshop with Ted was unbelievable: he is the most generous teacher, and such a sweet and thoughtful man. I think I learned things from him that I will be able to, and want to, work and build on on my own. And I really want to take another workshop with him as soon as possible!
I also imagine it'll be awhile before I have any interest in painting anything other than people.
The last day of workshop is always a bit sad, but, happily for me and Shelby, Ted will be coming over to NJ tomorrow to attend our meet-and-greet prior to the Reid workshop.
These are the three paintings I worked on, one a day. The first one, A.J., is done; the other two are incomplete, but not by much.

(10x14)

I don't think I've ever worked with such a warm palette, but I'm enjoying it, and enjoying also working slowly, which is not my usual method. Ted impressed on us all the importance of looking at each and every detail and thinking before, and while, painting.

(12x16)

I had more photos, but I left my camera in Shelby's car! I hated to be without a camera on the ferry ride home, because everywhere I looked, I saw people who would make great paintings: the was a family of Mennonites, with four daughters--all with long braids and stray hairs flying, standing at the railing in the morning sun! And a family that may have been Guatemalan or Ecuadorian--they were all beautiful, and the grandfather especially so, with his rolled-brim straw hat.
I have notes, from which I'll share ideas as I try work on other paintings keeping Ted's advice in mind. I'll just say, if you have a chance, sign up for one of his workshops. ... I am just too spent to think any more tonight!

off to DE

2010-09-14T13:21:00.000-04:00

(4x6)
I'll be on the 4:30 ferry to Lewes, DE, today; workshop begins tomorrow ... And I'm a nervous wreck! The butterflies have already started.
Here's a little postcard I did this morning. Thank you for all your encouragement and good wishes!
Back Saturday with paintings and posts about the Ted Nuttal workshop!

melyssa

2010-09-13T15:54:00.002-04:00

(9x12)
Still not happy with the lips, but I've crossed over into the ill-advised tampering mode so really must stop!
I painted this 140lb. Fabriano paper--my comfort zone--and can see why Ted Nuttall recommends you work on 300lb paper ... All my fiddling around the lips has bruised the paper ... But now that I see it here, on the blog, I realize I will go back, one more time, maybe tomorrow when the paper's totally dry and attempt a small, the smallest possible, adjustment.
Tomorrow afternoon I'm off to Delaware; the Nuttall workshop begins Wednesday.
I think I'll reattempt this Cimabue-like pose of Melyssa on 300lb paper.

Melyssa's brother Pete pointed out that I didn't paint Melyssa's freckles! I thought about it, but I'm not ready for that yet: can you imagine trying to paint freckles--not too many, not too few; not too speckly, not too birthmarky ...? Maybe Ted will have some suggestions; Pete thinks I should go for it.

wip: melyssa

2010-09-12T14:13:00.000-04:00

(9x12)

This is Peter's daughter, Melyssa. I took the picture, in which her eyes are in deep shadow, so I'm inventing a bit.

I started this last night (and photographed it then too, which is why the photo on the bottom is so much warmer), and this morning realized that, although her lips really are very defined, it didn't work in the painting, or at least not the way I drew them. So I've done some lifting, esp on the top lip.

The next step will probably be the hair, which in this case is daunting: Melyssa has deep auburn hair that shimmers with myriad colors in the sunlight! Many times I've been amazed at the depth and variety of colors, from golden, coppery red to russet: it's truly gorgeous.

After this one, I think I'll take a break from painting people to conserve some energy for Ted Nuttall's class, which starts Wednesday! I'm still working on making drawings; I'd like to have as many as possible to work on for the three-day workshop.

It would have been a nice break to paint some Victorian architecture in Cape May this weekend, but yesterday, which was a glorious day for plein air painting, I intended to join the class after lunch but, though I drove all around Cape May I couldn't find where the class had gone to paint, and finally gave up. Today is wet and gray, so I think I'll concentrate on getting some paying work done while I have a chance.

cassidy & another wip

2010-09-10T12:53:00.001-04:00

(12x17)
I feel a temptation to fiddle with the hair more, but in the spirit of the good decisions I made yesterday, I'm not going to.
I started another painting of my sentimental favorite, Walt Whitman. I made poor Walt a bit cross-eyed, but I'll fix it in the next wash.
(11x15)

I recently took up yoga again, and I think it's good for my painting, among other things. Sometimes when I'm painting I'm able to turn off my busy-mind, be calm and just be, as opposed to the rest of the day when thoughts, problems, and words churn around.

Come, said my Soul
Walt Whitman

Come, said my Soul
Such verses for my Body let us write, (for we are one,)
That should I after death invisibly return,
Or, long, long hence, in other spheres,
There to some group of mates the chants resuming,
(Tallying Earth's soil, trees, winds, tumultuous waves,)
Ever with pleas'd smiles I may keep on,
Ever and ever yet the verses owning – as, first, I here and now,
Singing for Soul and Body, set to them my name,