Painting & Halloween from the Lowcountry

Painting with gouache at the Hilton Head Motorcoach Resort where we spend as much time as we can- it’s been a glorious two weeks. This is the view looking out from our lot- see photo reference below. Keeping things simple and small as I struggle with back issues. But being creative is certainly a great pain-reliever…get in the zone and you’ll see… no worries at all!

Did this gouache the day before from inside our motorhome- looking out the dinette window to our beautiful magnolia tree. This resort is known for the old-growth canopy of wonderful trees- keeps it cool and shady when the days are hot. Love the lowcountry!

Workshop in Scottsdale with Mark Daniel Nelson

Not feeling well at all as this workshop approached, the pollen count in Az is off the charts and I've got acute bronchitis. Medicated and hoping I can get through the day, our workshop began with using mutiple reference photos and doing an exercise that Mark refers to as "mapping". Get the big shapes and flatten the space which is how I've been working for awhile anyway. Not too far out of my comfort zone for the first day. Very grateful for that and really just to be here with such a group of talented and eager artists. Mark is a wonderful teacher who uses the ipad to stress all of his ideas in a fast and effective way. I don't have an ipad so I didn't go there!
My first reference image is from downtown Las Cruces and I used gouache for this small 4x4 study.
Mark is inspiring- check out his website here!

This image came from a photo of reflections along the river in Las Cruces- again I used gouache for the first day to make things easier for me.