Sunday 26 June 2011

signing off for a bit & a bit of Texas! 11x14

I have been working steadily at my painting but am going to sign off this blog for a bit.......I will be spending a lot of time preparing my father's home for sale and then packing up in New England for a move to S. Carolina before the snow flies here. I feel a strong desire to move closer to the rest of my family who live near Charleston. I wil be posting haphazarly in the next couple of months. Following the South Coast Artist's Open Studio Tour in August, I will be concentrating on packing and relocating down south. I will continue to post but just cannot feel pressured at the moment to post on a regular basis. Until Winter, then.

Thursday 23 June 2011

marina study - 10x8"

The only thing I have been able to do this past week is paint - unfortunately I broke one of my own rules and accepted a portrait commission from a neighbor who gave me a god-awful photo to work from. In addition to despising the photo, the fact that he is wearing a navy uniform in it (my father was in the navy) made me upset. The man was also wearing an expression that made him seem constipated and showed his teeth in a sort of grimace. Needless to say, I detested every minute of the three starts I made on the portrait..........I am glad to say I have now completed the portrait but I will be damned if I will post it! I will eternally remember my rule - never, never accept a portrait commission without taking the photo yourself (or at least liking the one the customer gives you). In between sessions of wipimg the damn thing down and restarting, I did this study.

Sunday 19 June 2011

completed gulls - 12x24

I took this photo in the sun....yes, it is actually sunny for the second day in a row!

Thursday 16 June 2011

three gulls (step 1) - 12x24"

I am having a rough day today..........losing your father the week before Father's Day is painful since you cannot even turn the radio on without hearing incessant commercials for Home Depot & grilling. Work is the thing that is the best medicine right now. I began this painting early today and made pretty good progress.

Tuesday 14 June 2011

the herring run - 20x16"

This is an old painting that I never finished. I did a couple of plein air things at this site the other week (none of which I wanted to post) but got inspired to finish this - of course I ended up re-doing the entire thing. I am not fully done yet but wanted to get myself back in the habit of posting again. I forced myself to go grocery shopping as well. Work seems to be the only thing that is keeping the tears and sadness away.

Sunday 12 June 2011

a tribute

I don't really know what to say here beyond a quick explanation of why I have not posted for a bit. I am posting a recent portrait I painted of my father for his 90th birthday just a month ago. I am reposting this picture because my father suffered a fatal fall a week ago and I left immediately for NY. He died a day after I got there and I just got home tonight. I doubt I will feel like posting for a bit even though I can't wait to get back to painting tomorrow. We were very, very close and I am very, very devastated so I will close for now.

Saturday 4 June 2011

spring light completed - 12x9"

Finished - the perspective of this house is quite challenging from this view........I drive by the house all the time since I live at the bottom of a steep hill.

Friday 3 June 2011

OMG........spring light - 12x9"

I am stunned I was able to get as far as posting! I am having some pretty severe computer problems, my hard drive is nearly full so I went out and bought an external hard drive. I have now backed my kazillion photos up but am still having difficulty in freeing up space despite deleting tons and tons of duplicate photos. I am getting annoying messages from windows and  have not been able to figure out how to keep my photos accessible but off the hard drive! I do have an entire drive free (the D drive) but have no idea how to transfer stuff to it. Damn, I will have to go te Staples again!! Anyway, I have been painting outside and wiping down...........it is always an adjustment getting back outside. This painting is actually farther along than the photo but I didn't dare to do another thing with the photo programs!