Sash & Shovel

Working on a still life series of  familiar items; the sashes my mother collected when we lived in France and traveled to Greece, the beach toys my grandchildren played with last summer. This piece is 12x12.

A Start with Orange Shovel

I had previously toned this 12x12 canvas with a yellow, which I am now having to really fight with. Consider what goes down as a ground color, it does make a difference! I am enjoying the folds and stripes of this woven belt which my mother bought 50 years ago in Greece!

Julia

We started our figure session by doing six 5 minute drawings, then voting on our favorite pose. The pose with the most votes was it for the nights session. I used the palette knife exclusively for this one. I didn't see how much yellow was in the light side of her back until almost the end which tells me I need to look closer before I start putting paint on!

4 Ways

The assignment was to do hand studies. My idea was to use the classical palette of titanium white, yellow ochre, cadmium red light, and chromatic black (Gamblin). I also wanted the hands to radiate out from the center of the canvas, which involved rotating the canvas a couple of times. Each study took about an hour, I used natural light from the window in all cases, using both brush and palette knife.

Setting Up

Getting ready to play! Found a great wood shop while in Vermont for the weekend, gathered all our materials and we're almost ready to start. Patches of snow around, but they didn't have much of a winter.

Won't Be Long

An older painting of a restaurant in Jamestown, RI that is no longer there. The new restaurant in its place I haven't tried yet. Spring is coming, and dining al fresco won't be far behind!
I did this from a photo in acrylic, and notice how I've become more generous with my paint application. I want to concentrate on using more paint, mixing with the knife to keep the color from turning muddy. Over and over I hear that to keep the color clean, use a knife!

With The Brush

The same putty colored shovel painted with emphasis on letting the brush strokes show. The flash of orangey peach is from the underpainting- a happy accident! Tonight we're back to class at Mass Art with Nancy McCarthy; last week was spring break and the week before a snow threat which cancelled class while I was in Florida anyway. I am so looking forward to be there tonight!

With The Knife

Another homework assignment, this time we had to set up a simple still life and paint it showing visible brush strokes, or strokes used with a palette knife. Here's my efforts using the palette knife. I loved this challenge because I chose a very neutral colored shovel on a grey/white table.

Vacation

This is how to spend your vacation, sitting in the pool reading your book! Others, like me for example, like to stand on their balconies and paint people reading in the pool. Last one of the little gouache studies I did while on Marco Island. On another note, this is post  #250! It has been so great to keep up my committment to this blog. I appreciate and thank everyone who stops by to look and to commment.

Goodland 3

With my back to the water, got the roof lines and the flag. The foreground presented a problem solving challenge, tried to just put down brushstrokes and not blend or smudge them together.

Goodland 2

Another effort from the dock outside Marker 8 restaurant. What a quiet, beautiful morning it was. I'm longing for spring...don't forget to turn the clocks ahead tonight!

Goodland

Last week I was on Marco Island and spent a morning on the dock by a restaurant called Marker 8, in the neighboring fishing village of Goodland. I brought gouache and paper I had gessoed and captured a few moments. This is the first one. Haven't painted plein air since last fall, so there was the feeling of "How do I do this, where do I begin!". Eventually I settled down and did the usual, assessing values, finding shapes, mixing the right colors.