Helianthus Mine

The last one of this little series now showing at DeBlois Gallery. Something timeless about a studio still life, the arranging of the objects, the close observation, the way time passes as you sit and solve all the painting problems. I named it Helianthus Mine because of the intimacy I developed with these simple objects, one from the earth, one of glass and one of clay.

Happy Halloween. Goodbye October.

Helianthus East

Here's another from the sunflower series that is part of the Small Picture Show at DeBlois Gallery. I am satisfied with the blocky shapes of the petals, the flower lends itself well to being painted in this way. Not too delicate, lacy or fine; I like the solid shapes! Just a touch of the black cup linking to leaf shapes of same value on the left of the picture plane.

Helianthus West

What is it about sunflowers that make them so paintable? I wanted to really look at structure with this series, while keeping color naturalistic. 8x8 on cradled panel.

Over the Lagoon

I took my paints out to this gazebo like structure that sits out over the lagoon looking at the light on the bank of the opposite shore. I approached it as I have been doing, getting the drawing down in pencil first. The sun has come out after two days of clouds but the wind has also picked up. I decided to go back to the comfort of home, and use my visual memory to paint. Before I left I looked carefully at what I wanted to emphasize, what wasn't as important to me and then I packed up my things and biked home. I haven't tried that particular way of working before and I enjoyed it quite a bit!

Reflect

I want to work with the window image for a series, did this gouache in a 4x8 format. I love the reflections on the glass table in front of the window and felt I was able to keep an overall abstractness.

Lagoon

Looking out the window I was thinking about Lois Dodd and looked for shapes in the water and in the shadows. Did a quick pencil first to get the shadows, a good thing because the sun soon went behind a cloud. Note to self: Get those shadows in early!

Bridge to the Pool

Brought gouache with me to Hilton Head. I want to get as abstract as possible while retaining sense of place. That will be my objective this week. I'm working on Canson paper in a nice portable traveling book I found at Utrecht. 

Westport III

Here's the last study in which I pushed even more with the time. I stopped after 15 minutes, now sure I could have spent more time but I was trying to grow my painting muscle by doing an uncomfortable exercise. I think it was worth it!

Westport II

Wanted to get looser with the second Westport painting, so I gave myself only 30 minutes for this tree study. I'm happy with how it sits in the landscape.

Westport

Camping at Horseneck Beach this weekend. Went painting with Libby Gilpatric this morning, this was the first one I did. Felt so amazing to be out and surrounded by such beautiful land and sea!

Porch update

Another long session in the studio let me focus on that shadow shape, differentiating the blue in the light from the blue in the shadow, the blue closest to the door then moving into the room. Same with the whites. I think I am pretty close to saying all that I need to say.

Porch

In the studio working on a 12x24 panel of the sun porch of my sisters house. This family home was designed by my great uncle Mason Remey who later was the architect for many amazing buildings, including an embassy in Washington DC and the Ugandan Bahai place of worship. 

Do you find interest in places that have a history, whether personal or historical? Are these places worthy to paint, to hold in time at that moment of memory?