Plein Air Season is Underway

 Sachuest Point is a special place to paint- a National Wildlife Refuge that has grasslands and overlooks both Sachuest Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Trails and beaches, so many places to paint!Here’s my pick.

It was so windy I didn’t even set up my tripod, but braced my paintbox between some rocks and tried to capture the essence of the scene. 8x10 oil on a linen panel. It felt great to be painting outside! When it’s framed-heading to Spring Bull Gallery in Newport, RI.

Yellow House

Since we are so close to Mexico we decided to visit Nogales for a look around. We walked across the border after parking in downtown Nogales. Cooper is a wonderful ambassador and with his company we built some bridges, no walls for us! The wall is actually in great evidence around this border town.
Of course we ate some fabulous street food, bought some blankets and a gorgeous serape, and took a ton of photos with my i-phone. The line to get back to the States was quite long, but they let us through when they saw our dog Cooper and "didn't want him to have an accident in the building". We laughed and went to the next Customs Officer, knowing that Cooper would never go in a building!
Here's my ode to Mexico painting, 8x10, oil on linen panel, from one of my reference photos with a couple of changes to suit my composition. The sky is mostly King's Blue, an Old Holland paint that's new to me.

Take Two

Another look at the dried pods and flowers that is part of the large collection of things to paint at the studio. There is never a shortage of items to inspire, but I decided to have a go at the same items but paint it in a different way. I did, however, keep the shadow a large element in my composition, this time cropping the pods quite sharply at the top of the painting. The yellow horizontal band made its' way in to break up the shadow with a structured shape to contrast against the many organic shapes.

Dried Pods

Studio still life has many of the elements within my control- what I choose to paint, how it will be lit, the composition of the elements. In this painting I chose to emphasize the shadow as an integral part of the composition. 8x10 on linen. I'm fascinated with rendering the pods with minimum detail while letting the viewer know exactly what they're looking at.