Happy Last Day of 2013!

Pear & Egg. The start. Just some practicing. 

Faces #11 - Day 3 Fini

Mimi    6" x 6"  oil on panel

The only thing I changed from this is the hat ... I made the brim a bit larger.

Mimi's food/photo blog

... check her blog out, it is great!

Faces #11 - Day 2

Yes, I did sign it but still have more to do ...

Next post will have the finished painting.

Faces # 11 - Day 1

Guess I had better get painting if I want an even number of Faces paintings! .... 

(for exhibiting????)

I have just about finished number 11, after getting permission to paint

Mimi Thorisson, from a photo of her on her incredible and amazing

food/photo blog, Manger. This link directs to a recent post. 

I really really like her blog - she does not post often, but it is fairly regular. (I have signed up for her email blog posts, like I would love you to do!)

She lives, cooks, and blogs in Medoc, France, sigh ... what could be better? 

(well, if I lived there of course I would paint in addition to cooking ... )

Here is the beginning of the painting:

Merry Christmas!

Two Red Flames (after Gerhard Richter)   12" x 9"   oil on Wallis paper

I love Richter's candle series and thought it appropriate for Solstice and Christmas.

Cheers and Happy Holidays to one and all!

Crawford Notch Painting

The Standout        21" square       oil on canvas

A few lyrics from a song called Stand Out 

- from the Disney movie "A Goofy Movie". (I didn't see it.)

To stand out
Above the crowd
Even if I gotta shout out loud
Till mine is the only face you'll see
Gonna stand out till you notice me, yeah...

This tree was definitely shouting out.

All the others were just a crowd.

Thanks for looking at my art blog!

Crawford Notch - Day 2

 I am not very far into this painting, but when the two are next to each other like this, 

I think it might work!

It is challenging to work larger. And in a square format.

One painter/blogger I follow (of many) is Cathleen Rehfeld who lives in Oregon, 

where I was born.

I appreciate her loose style and her color work. She does landscape and still life paintings with a brisk clean method of applying paint.

Sometimes I wonder if I should learn to play chess so I can learn to plan ahead.

Nah....I would rather paint.

We are taking off for southern points for Thanksgiving visiting, so not sure I will make much more progress on this until we are back (in two weeks). But I will have my artrage app and perhaps be able to try some stuff for this painting with it! ... and BlogGo seems to be working again, so I may try to post little things on the go.

Thanks for looking and commenting!

Crawford Notch II - on the easel

Crawford Notch II

So, not sure if any of you follow other artist's blogs, but I do and the ones that I follow post their paintings and I learn something each time I view one.

And each time I begin a painting, I feel like I have no idea what I am doing ...

... so here we go again. I decided to do a bigger painting 

of the small study I did at Crawford Notch.

These are a coupla photos of the start.

Imagination

Mt Jumbo from the mainland - iPad painting

oops, I should have posted this
over at my painting daily blog

ok, from now on the artrage stuff goes there

:)

October - Nauset Marsh

We were so excited to see Nauset Marsh on Cape Cod. This is where Frank Weston Benson had a hunting cabin and did many sketching

 studies for his magnificent bird etchings, which we were able to make appointments to SEE at the Boston Public Library 

AND the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

We were allowed to take photos, so here are a couple of his wonderful etching prints:

We hiked out the trail to Salt Pond at Nauset Marsh.

I set up right here and there was a GBH (Great Blue Heron) hunting at the edge of the water. We were very quiet and sat very still and he didn't mind us. 

He hunted and caught stuff right there in front of us!

 

 This is the scene I painted.

 

This me painting. 

Several people were hiking the trail. Some were quiet and just went on by 

and some stopped to chat.

 

in situ

Nauset Marsh, October       8" x 10"       Oil on prepared canvas board

 

It is ok. I think there are some things I can fix, value-wise.

I like it because I loved the area.

October on Cape Cod

I wanted to paint on the beach that Matt and his family always went to when he was a boy.

This is the view down on the beach looking north ...

... and looking south.

He remembers the parking as being just a blown out area of sand - now it is a large macadam parking lot with bathrooms nearby and also, now there is a stairway down to the beach whereas, when he was last there - 50 years ago (!) one just skuttled one's way down the sandy bluff.

So ... the story behind the jackets wrapped around my legs is that the biting flies on the beach were HORRENDOUS! .. and we didn't have any bug dope, so if I wanted to stay there and paint, this was the solution! Stylish .... no?

    Newcomb Hollow Beach          8" x 8"         Oil on birch panel

I had the house wayyyy too big so when I got home, I changed it. Much betta.

Let's see if the b&w will show I used a good value range.

Yep, it is ok.

Thanks for viewing my art!

October - Crawford Notch, NH

This quotes directly from Wikipedia:

"Crawford Notch is the steep and narrow gorge of the

 Saco River in the White Mountains of New Hampshire"

This sketch was done on the day we drove from 

North Conway completely around Mt. Washington (and almost halfway around again, looking for this spot!).

Red Tree at Crawford Notch      8" x 8"     Oil on prepared board

This is a sketch that I would like to do in a larger painting. That tree was really almost the only red one there, not sure why I put so many more red trees around it. 

Glad i got a photo. 

The b&w isn't a good value study. This is what happens when you spend an hour or less painting!

Kancamancus Hwy, New Hampshire

Hi! I wanted to post the painting sketches I was able to do on our fall trip to the east coast.
This is the first one I was able to paint after leaving the city (NYC).

We took the Amtrak train to Plattsburg NY and rented a car and headed west to visit our friends where we went on a couple of hikes (took photos!) - then drove east.

We took the Kancamancus Hwy through the White Mts to see the colors, but there had been a storm or two blow through and many of the leaves were already down. 

A few trees held on to their leaves though.

Stopped to eat our lunch at this spot; nearly impossible to find a parking area because there were SO MANY cars, both driving and parked.
We lucked out to find this quiet, soothing place on a tiny creek, with no one there!

 

 

Kancamancus Lunch Spot    10" x 8"  Oil on canvas board

As I mentioned, this was about an hour's worth of work (ouchy work, too!) - so I am not sure if it will become a larger painting or not. I do like the way this sketch turned out. And I have to fess-up, the color version is "enhanced" from the original, which is a little darker. Usually I try NOT to do that unless the photo is bad ... and that is partly the reason here.

Bright October, New Hampshire Coast

 This painting went faster than I expected.

I think I like it. I will sign it.

Bright October, New Hampshire Coast - oil on canvas panel, 12" x 12"

Thanks for viewing!

NH Coast - Day 2

New Hampshire has the shortest coastline of any state.

The Atlantic Ocean washes its shores for 18 miles ... sometimes recorded as only 13 miles!

... and we drove all of it.

Matt used to do winter sea bird surveys there as an undergrad at UNH. We stopped at the spots he thought were the ones they used for the surveys. 

It was amazing to hear him talk about doing that work

 in the wind and cold of a NH seacoast winter. 

One guy counted the birds through a spotting scope or binocs -

 the other had to have bare hands to write.

Brrrr ... sounds brutal ... and I live in Alaska!

New Hampshire Coast painting - Day 1

Back from our recent east coast trip, I felt the need to paint something from one of my photos. I did paint en plein air, and will post those soon. But wanted to get this going.

 It is on a 12" x 12" prepared board made by Ampersand, 

9mm thick and with a canvas-type texture. 

It is a very nice surface for the oils, brush & knife.

Thumbnail sketch,  2" x 2", pencil

Faces #10 - Fini

JennaMarbles        6"x 6"      oil on panel

Meet Jenna. If you go here ...

you will get a laugh. She is just outrageous.

This is the third time I have tried to post. I tried twice on the iPad with the Blog Go app but must be doing something wrong or don't have the right thing clicked ... 

so this is posted from my 'puter.

I hope to be posting photos, sketches and paintings en plein air along the way 

on our trip to the east coast.

Hope to figure this travel blogging out. It can't be that hard...

Thanks for viewing my blog!

#10 - Day 2

Faces #10 - Day 1

Not sure I will be able to finish this before we leave on our trip

 but I sure would like to.

 I do not want to get caught up in the details...so fast would be good.

Here is the start:

The only people who will know this person are probably GenX-ers.

... and those who look at YouTube videos.

 

I think a friend sent me her imitation of Sarah Palin (you know who you are). 

When I finish the painting, I will try to remember to link that video for you to see. It is wild.

Drawing

We drew for 3 hours and this is the result of that effort yesterday.

Really great model. 

She said when she looked at my drawing, she saw her mom. I took that as a compliment but apologized for aging her. She said no, her mother used to model as well and she meant that it reminded her of those drawings.

Thank you for viewing!