Art of The Ocean State

Very pleased to tell you that my painting Quiet Morning can be seen at the Wickford Art Association exhibit- Art of the Ocean State. Wickford Art Association is a wonderful gallery with a full range of classes and exhibits. 

I painted this plein air from a little park on Washington Street in Newport. It's a shady park til lunchtime at this time of year, which was particularly nice as the day was very hot.

I'm in NH this weekend and will miss the opening but send a big thank you to WAA and my fellow artists who are also exhibiting.

Purple Haze

The last in my little iris series, until next spring. Each one is 5x7.

Rosemary's Iris

Plein air painting has many challenges- wind, bugs, sun on the support, to name a few. When the sun hits the surface you're working on, it becomes quite a challenge to judge the value of a color. It works best for me to have my panel or canvas in the shade. But as we know, time stands still for no one, and that sun will move!

Yellow Iris

Another from the iris series, a favorite flower of mine. My grandmother had masses of them, appearing each spring after the daffodils. They told me summer was just around the corner.

Margaret's Iris

While they were still blooming, I painted a few iris in my neighbors garden. They welcomed me to sit and become totally absorbed in my work. The big challenge is to distinguish flower bloom from background, so I played around with finding the right value contrast between the edges of the flower and the background. 

Friday Finish

The weather took a turn for the worse, so I brought the flowers into my studio to finish the painting.

I enjoyed the pattern of this tablecloth as well as finding balance and harmony within the composition. This painting is 16x20;  my primary goals were to link the dark shapes and create a circular path for the eye to follow. The first to droop and wither was the big white hydrangea on the left of the arrangement and I was glad to have the rose done early as the bright studio lights made it open quickly. I kept the upper shape I saw when I started the painting outside, a touch of discord/ambiguity to an otherwise pretty painting.

A Sunday Start

Friends who came to dinner last night brought me an amazing bunch of flowers. My first thought was to get them in water, my second thought- when can I paint?
This morning I set them on a patterned tablecloth on the back deck and stood above them. This flattens the picture plane and lets me focus on composition, shape and color before I start trying to "turn a form".
I want to paint several layers, so I lay the paint down quite thin. There was a bright area of sunlight on the deck, with the rest of the set up in shade, and I wanted that abstract shape in the top right corner. I also drew a few composition lines with my brush to look more carefully at the intersection of those lines. The top edge of the table, where the wall joins the deck and of course, the edge of the deck in the sun.
Can't wait to get back to it- I love painting from direct observation!

Ida Lewis Yacht Club Backstory

Ida Lewis Yacht Club was first Lime Rock Light in the heart of Newport's inner harbor. The first lighthouse keeper was Ida's half brother, then her father took over. When he died Ida ran the lighthouse by herself performing many daring rescues and withstanding rough water, weather, and isolation until her death in 1911. Her unassuming impact on women's rights was the subject of an award nominated documentary by Marion Gagnon titled -  America's Forgotten Heroine: Ida Lewis, Keeper of the Light.