Beach Sketch

acrylic on paper canvas

This guy kept hanging around. I guess he thought I was eating, not painting. This was a first attempt with some acrylics on the beach. They dried fast. Very fast.

Beach Sketch

pencil with watercolor wash

What more enjoyable pastime could there be than playing in the beautiful white sands of a gulf coast beach? This time, the white of the paper is pretty darn close to the actual sand color.

Beach Sketch

pencil with watercolor wash

This was another little sketch trying to capture the masses of people on the beach. I think it was busier this year than last. More and more people are discovering the gorgeous white sands on Siesta Key. I think its owing to it appearing in more than one "best beaches" list.

I found the watercolor made it quite easy to "suggest" people. Just a dab of the brush. But what I'm really aiming for with this kind of sketching/journaling is like what I see on the Sketchcrawl site. "They" have organized worldwide sketching days and have lots of good suggestions about materials (I need to find the right pen and book/paper) and you go solo, or with others, to just go out and observe and sketch the community around you. I have yet to join an official day for this as I've had conflicts since I learned of it. But NEXT time! Though I "crawled" during my whole vacation and have pencil sketches from home, the airport, roadside views complete with billboards, seagulls and sandcrabs, and my brother-in-law building one of his very cool sand sculptures (he took that sketch home with him.)

I think that my increased sketching and observing have made me a better artist. I carry a sketchbook everywhere now. Its just small and fits in my purse. I was always a doodler; now I don't need napkins. One less thing to float around my studio.

Beach Sketch

Back in Austin. And already missing the beach! And all the fresh produce and seafood... oh, man we ate well. If anyone is going there or lives there... I highly recommend Ophelia's - the chef there is amazing. And you can't beat sitting outside, under fans and awnings in summer, on the serene bay looking at mangrove islands.

I sketched quite a bit on the beach and in the car during drives. I bought a cheap set of acrylics to try and had some success with them. I also added some watercolor washes to some sketches. It was fun. And I thought I'd share some of those with you all since I won't yet be able to get back to my studio for "real" work.

So here is the first sketch - a pencil drawing looking south on Siesta Key towards the Point of Rocks. I liked trying to suggest the numerous people and activity on the beach.

Update

Traveling this week and next, but I have managed to update my main website and wanted to invite everyone to visit it. So click robincheers.com and see my newest gallery paintings in a format that will be so much more easily updated and kept current.

For other artists out there - I test drove a few portfolio sites and really liked Foliosnap the best. It was so easy to upload and label images and build the galleries and other pages, all within their easy templates. No sizing images and making my own thumbnails. No coding. What a major relief.

Study of a Woman Standing

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $12 s/h

I really just felt like doing the figure as I began this painting and then I didn't even want to add a background. Sometimes I just love messing with the skin tones and fabrics, and seeing how little I can do to capture the impression. Sometimes just a few strokes are enough and it feels so empowering when the right shape and gesture emerge. It often amazes me that its just paint, but laid down the right way, it creates something beautiful. Its so simple, but can be so complex.

Dance Hall Days

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $12 s/h - sold

I am winding down with this series. The last couple I will post were painted at the end of last week. Now I am finding less time to paint. My daughter is out of school, has the flu (joy) and we are going to be traveling shortly. Heads up... beach scenes coming.

This woman is gazing at Toulouse-Lautrec's painting La Goulue at the Moulin Rouge in the MOMA. I really admire Lautrecs work - both he and Degas - for their interesting cropping and compositions. I think I lean towards composing work in a similar way.

A Kodak Moment

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $12 s/h

L'Impressionnisme

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $12 s/h - sold

Am I overdoing this subject? Well, I'm really enjoying these figure studies and have done more, so bear with me. This couple is looking at one of Monet's earlier paintings, "Women in the Garden" (1867) seen in the Musee d'Orsay, Paris. How I wish I could go back there myself and gaze upon these works. I've grown so much as an artist since visiting 8 years ago. I feel I could gain so much more NOW from looking at the masters.

Pontificating Pollack

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $12 s/h - sold

Ok, I'm sorry about the title. But it cracked me up.
This couple is looking at Jackson Pollack's painting One: Number 31 in the MOMA. A lot of people rather think Pollack was pulling one over on the public with his artwork, but I really do like it. I like the energy he created. And I imagine it was a very freeing way to paint. Sometime I must try it just for fun.

Meditating Marilyn

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $12 s/h - sold

This young man had a comfy seat in the Harn Museum of Art (Univ. of Florida) to contemplate a wall of Marilyns by Warhol. The red and green version is really quite garish!

I found a neat site that has some info about Warhol's prints and an interactive Marilyn that you can color.

Close Up

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $12 s/h - sold

A young couple scrutinizing Seurat's painting "A Sunday on la Grande Jatte." I have the same need when I get to see masters' paintings in real life. I want to get right up and inspect the brushwork and its all I can do not to touch. I once set off an alarm in a museum in FL because I was too close to a Monet.

I had the happy honor of being chosen a finalist again in the Raymar Fine Art Contest for the month of April. I submitted the painting below, which is now available at Castle Gallery in Fort Wayne.



Happy Memorial Day!

Connection

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $12 s/h - sold

This young woman looked so similar to Wyeth's Christina that I thought they had a connection in some spiritual way. The hair, the clothes, the gaze. Wyeth's painting is so powerful yet so simple. I really admire that.

Sundown

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $12 s/h

Someone had wanted one of those previous experiment sketches I had done so I did the scene again on my usual gessobord panel. Its the same color scheme but I think I lost some of the looseness. Then again I wasn't rushing through 5-6 of them in 20 minutes.

Cool Light

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $12 s/h - sold

Gallery Opening

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $12 s/h - sold

Loved this couple checking out the work in a local gallery. I really do like this subject. I think one of the things I like best about it sometimes is the spotlight effects and the multiple shadows that are cast from the overhead lighting. And the poses of the people, absorbed in art.

Note: I've had to go up on my shipping - its increased along with all the other postage/gas pricing. Sorry.

Curious Gaze

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h - sold

The lady in the reddish coat here is gazing at the Hopper painting "Chair Car" in which a woman in red is gazing at another passenger in the parlor car. I love Hopper's work. Though his subjects often seem to have a loneliness about them. Its something that has been remarked on and studied at length though by minds superior to mine. I just love his compositions and color and so I chose one of his to complement my subject.

The Bean

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h

I have to admit having always wanted to paint this but another artist has done it so well - and our work is often of similar subjects - so I held off. But it was a lot of fun to paint in oils - the reflections and distortion of the city buildings are so unique. And the plaza and Cloud Gate both seem to vibrate with color and light. I imagine the sculpture must change so much too - a cloudy gray day might make it almost blend in with the surroundings; at at night, with the city lights I bet it would seem to glow from within. The whole of Millenium Park is inspirational and I can't wait to visit it again. That trip is probably coming late summer.

Laughing Gull

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h

Late afternoon on Siesta Key beach. Another month and I will be there again myself.

Morning Drive

6x6 oil on panel
$100 + $11 s/h

This was another scene I witnessed yesterday morning - through my rear view mirror. Done from memory. We sure had a lot of rain last night again and some areas had hail and the chance of tornadoes developing. None did, thank goodness.