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.