seaside road - 16x12" plein air

How nice to be done with the pressure of preparing for the show and just being able to go out to paint with absolutely no thought of anything but really painting. This one took two days due to the recent weather (which I have loved).....downpours and lightning make me pack up though. I haven't fully resolved the bottom portion but should be able to do it in the studio without much of an issue. Right before I left something bit my ankle and it is now swollen - serves me right for bragging that bugs never bite me......just last week!

Post reception

I'll try to get some better photos of my show when I have a chance to get back to the gallery again. The reception went really well, the food was good (as usual, I over provided) and lots of people came. Family was visiting and just left on Monday....I promptly came down with a bit of a cold and did little but laundry and napping yesterday. Feel better today and plan on getting out to the studio today. The weather has changed in the past week and it is cool and rainy instead of steamy - I have a sweatshirt on for the first time in months.

portrait of a tree - 12x10"

I fell in love with this live oak as soon as I saw it on a side road near my house.........it's in the middle of a large field that is owned by Seaside Farms, a large agricultural enterprise. I took photos of it during the spring because the surrounding field was impossibly green and the sky was an awesome pinkish-orange. I had determined to go back and paint it plein air as soon as I could but when I went back last week, it was just a pile of trunk and branches in the middle of the field! I don't know if the company cut it down or if it was struck by lightning during the past summer but I resolved that I would always return to paint something that I felt such a strong connection with as soon as I could and not get distracted by other things I wanted to paint. So......I decided that I would paint it anyway from the photo - I actually closed my eyes numerous times while painting this just to remember the day when I first saw it!

edge of the storm - 16x12"

It has been a very stormy day today.............went to the lagoon at Hunting Island & things really clicked despite the fact that I got rained on pretty heavily about mid-painting. I think I am beginning to truly like Ray-mar panels even more than canvas for outdoor work.....glad I stuck with them long enough to discover this. 

An update & a plein air (12x10")

It's still pretty hot here but I've become pretty accustomed to it and am really enjoying being outside for the most part. This morning it looked like we were going to get a big storm - as you can see from the clouds in the top painting - but they dissipated and it's now cloudless with little promise of rain. I am nearly finished with the "crabber" 18" square painting but thought I would post an update.....I'm pleased with the quietness and solidity of it (what I was attempting to do). Hard to believe it's September again!

Happy Labor Day!

I thought I would post a couple of plein air things today in the spirit of "working".........I don't usually exhibit them and often don't really "finish" them since I do them for the experience/learning and find that I tend to mess them up when I try and make them suitable for sale.  The top painting also shows how I used an old frame to hold a small canvas (8" square) firmly in my soltek easel which doesn't accommodate small sizes very well. I did the bottom 14"x11" this morning at the entrance to the beach down the street from my house on Coffin Point.