Estuary

9x12 oil on panel - nfs

Saturday morning we got to go out to Crane House which is a private wildlife sanctuary and bed & breakfast. It was beautiful and our host, Al, was very gracious and clearly loved this special place. We saw an alligator smiling on the bank, we saw pretty pink-footed whistling ducks and lots of deer. No whooping cranes though at this time of year. During winter, they are found in the estuaries I painted above. The mosquitoes could have carried us away if not for the wind. 

This is not my cup of tea - painting vistas. I learned a long time ago when I was painting the landscape regularly that I just could not do long vistas. My friend Terri asked if I was near-sighted or far. I'm near-sighted - and without contacts/glasses - I can barely see my hand in front of my face. She, on the other hand, is far-sighted and can't see well close up. So when we painted up close subjects in the dockyards, I was happiest. It made me wonder if vision is really a factor even with corrective lenses? I obviously like to paint things close up, intimate and personal. I like to have things cropped in the foreground, or door frames, or something framing a scene even. Its an interesting idea. Terri enjoyed this long distance view and much of her work is of western desert scenes from a high perspective. I liked my sky above. That is about it. Oh, and because of the wind and insects, we timed ourselves and painted just 30 mins. or so. I hope to go back when the cranes are there. What a sight that must be!

Texas Rose

11x14 oil on panel - nfs

This past weekend I went to the Texas Coast - Rockport/Fulton area - with Plein Air Austin. We had 10 artists attend the retreat and enjoyed the challenge of painting some really tough subject matter in some equally tough conditions. The wind was up, to say the least. The oystermen on these boats didn't like it any better than we did. This boat was begging to be painted with the afternoon light hitting the one side. My friend Terri painted along with me - here she is at work on her beautiful watercolor.

It was really cool to be alongside the working docks and watching the boats come in with shrimp and oysters. They would offload them directly to a waiting refrigerated semi for overnight delivery I bet. "Texas Rose" was the name of the red boat, but with the wind, there was no way I could paint a straight enough line to try to get that on the bow.

Beach Girl

8x10 oil on paper
$125 incl. shipping
PURCHASE

Even with 30 minutes on the timer, I think I put too much info in the water and waves. I think had it been more graphic or solid in color it would have made the figure stand out more and been less busy.

Also - she appears very, very red (rock lobster) on my computer, but she isn't so in the painting. Can't make the red less intense.

Catch and Release

10x8 oil on paper
$125 including priority shipping (US)
sold

I've been trying to come up with a new way to create paintings for my blog again - for art collectors on a budget (and aren't we all these days, really?) I just can't paint those little canvases though. I find that they cause me to tighten up which could not be more frustrating for me. I've done 'sketches' on paper before and I like the results and the room to be expressive.

The paper is 9x12 and I am taping off the sizes I want to paint so there is a white border around the painting. The paper is substantial enough to stand up to the paint, its coated, acid free and it has a slight weave like canvas. While the works are larger, they aren't going to compete with my gallery work. I'm limiting myself to 30 minutes on these, and I can't tell you what a great exercise it is for me. A digital timer is the best tool in the studio. More on that later.

And finally, here are some fun ideas I've found while surfing the web for those of you who buy small paintings or my works on paper and want to display them creatively and cheaply.

1. Clipboards

2. Wooden hangers

3. Clips

4. Or you can easily get a ready made from with glass any home decor or craft store

Sister's Care

8x8 oil on panel

Available at Loretta Goodwin Gallery

I've spent my morning preparing and packing six small paintings to go to Alabama to the gallery for their "Tiny Treasures" show opening December 1. I hope people are thinking of decorating their beach homes, because everything I have painted were beach scenes! Obviously a favorite subject of mine!

Beach Study - Sunset II

6x6 oil on panel

This is the same sunset as I posted previously, but a little later. I had loaded my palette with alizarin crimson and cad yellow medium and couldn't get the true bright red/orange that was happening on that higher cloud, but this is the general feel of it. The next time, for the beach scenes I used scarlet red. I usually use a cad red hue from Sennelier, but I need to get new supplies when I get home. Didn't have a tube of ultramarine blue to travel with either and had to borrow one from my mom. Good thing she is an artist also and has lots of goodies to play with here. She mostly does watercolors though.

Below I thought I'd share a painting that I did a hundred years ago! Feels like it at least. It hangs in my folks' house and is a large portrait of my mother holding my young nephew (he is now 19!) I wonder what it would look like if I painted it now?

Beach Study II - Sunset

6x6 oil on panel

We had such clouds and a fair amount of rain at the beach that we only had good sunsets twice during the week - but WOW - what sunsets they were. Just devastatingly beautiful!
What amazed me also was how long my paintings stayed wet. In Austin they dry overnight. Not here, what a difference the humidity makes. At home even the paint on my palette hardens overnight - which is very annoying and wasteful.

Beach Study

Beach week is over. I am in central Florida now with a nice rain falling. We actually had rather cloudy skies and rain at the beach as well, but its ok with me. I am not into burning in the blazing sun. Though the shadows and bright sunlight would have been preferable for the artist in me. I got some good sketching, and a few oil studies in.

The painting above was a study in values. It was an overcast sort of day and looking down beach it all seemed almost misty except for the bright beach umbrellas.


My little cigar box set up on my knees. Limited palette - but tried two different blues since my mom had brought them both.

No photo editing software here. I somehow allowed a virus on my husband's laptop too when I got on Facebook last week. Oops. Hopefully he will have that taken care of before he goes back to work! My daughter and I continue our vacation this week. Lucky us!

Happy Independence Day all!!

Cooling Off

12x12 oil on panel

Guess where I am going tomorrow?? Siesta Key! I am so ready. I've been painting and framing and focused solely on gallery work... and dealing with all the other bits of life. You know... cleaning, laundry, parenting, chauffering, gardening, being the door opener for a demanding squirrel-crazy dog....
Tomorrow it all ends. Tomorrow I will be sitting on the white sands of the beach and shell hunting and visiting with my family.
I'll "e" ya from the other side of the gulf!

Central Florida

These are just some tiny oil sketches I've done trying to record my memories of scenes we've passed while driving around. We went tubing on the Ichetucknee river a couple of days ago and drove out to a neat little hamlet along the gulf marshes. Today we're packing for our beach week. We go to Amelia Island Saturday morning.

Pier Surfing at Galveston

10x10 oil on panel

Hopefully this looks a little like California because that is where its going. It doesn't resemble Galveston anymore since the piers were wiped away by hurricane Ike. From what I have heard, the damage was great and the recovery slow. Keep your good thoughts going that way.

Tomorrow is the day we post our Monthly Challenge Group painting. I just finished mine but can't show you yet! It was a fun challenge which pushed me in several ways.

California Dreamin'

12x12 oil on panel
Available at Gallery laPlace

I did this on Wednesday actually - before my difficulties yesterday. And I am really, really pleased with it. I am not sure if I have a favorite subject (location, rather, because people are my favorite subjects) but the beach would rank right up at the top. Then probably cafes. At any rate, these two young men were walking back to their cars late afternoon. It being a scene from Rockport beach (Texas gulf coast,) I thought that the title might be what they are thinking. Rockport can offer little excitement for boogie boards or body surfing.

This painting will be available at Gallery laPlace in Georgia in a couple of weeks. Its framed in an antiqued black with a gold lip. Stay tuned for the opening information.