still hot here!

Despite trying to paint outside this past week, I failed. Knowing that it was probably going to be impossible, I stayed close - my backyard gardens. At any rate, I have absolutely no idea how the farmworkers around here (and there are tons of them) do it. Sweat was pouring into my eyes at a blinding speed so I gave up and returned to the studio to finish up a few things. The top 18" square is now on the drying wall so I can gain enough perspective and distance to see if it's done. 

The painting below (24x12") has been on that wall for a pretty long time - I was (and still am) dissatisfied with the umbrella........it is better now, though. I went to the beach to walk several times this week and studied umbrellas as I did and I don't see anything glaringly wrong with it so I decided to post it anyway.............I hate it when that happens! Value (maybe) , color (probably), overworked (most definitely), everything? It will go back on the wall until enlightenment hits.

"real feel" 102 but cooler than yesterday!

Summer is here for sure - I'm still painting outside a bunch but there are days where it is pretty impossible. Anticipating a day as brutal as yesterday was, I put the A/C on in the studio at 7:30 am. Now it's only 90 with the "real feel" of 102 (I love accuweather) and it seems nearly cool.

I thought I would post a couple of the plein air studies that I have done in the past couple of weeks. Both paintings are 16x12" and done primarily on site. The top painting was done while I was standing on one of the numerous boat landings that we have here so the air stayed a little cooler. The painting beneath was done at the Savannah Wildlife Refuge which is an absolutely awesome place to paint - since it takes me over an hour to get there I don't go as often as I should. This painting isn't finished yet since I ran out of time - I'm not certain if I'm going to back to finish it or just try to complete it from memory.

the oyster factory - plein air study 16x12

This is my favorite of two paintings I did on Friday at the Paint Out in Bluffton.......There are some pretty rough areas that I noticed after I took the photo (of course) but I liked the effect overall. It was a great day, lots of good energy and the weather was perfect.

orange and green - 24x18"

I wasn't going to post this one until it was done but then I decided to because I wanted to post a blurb about tomorrow's Paint Out in Bluffton, SC. This shrimper is docked in my neighborhood at our "community dock" that no one seems to use. At early morning and late afternoon here the sky becomes more orange than what I expect....this isn't a factor of what it normally does early and late because when you leave the forest here, the sky is it's usual self. It seems more to do with the dark green color of the trees and the warmer sky. This particular scene expresses that color relationship and how it is intensified when a storm is clearing.......not too many trees that you can see in the painting but trust me, there's a ton of them behind me. I've still got a lot to do but I'm getting there.

Tomorrow I will be participating in the "Bluffton Old Town Paint Out" and would like to mention it to anyone who might be in the area. I am not really familiar with Bluffton even though it is only an hour away from where I live and on the way to Hilton Head....it took me a while of exploring to get to really know the area closer to me and I just haven't gone towards there except to shop occasionally. It is a very interesting town and the historic area is pretty neat. So.....I have just joined SOBA (the Society of Bluffton Artists) and will be exhibiting there at their gallery.  

photo v.s. plein air

I use photos all the time......especially when painting complicated subjects like city scenes, figures in motion and places where it would be especially difficult to paint  (like standing near or on a dangerous street). I must say, the more I paint, the less I like using them - in fact when I'm out painting plein air I don't even take a photo of where I'm working for the most part. I have discovered that the photos are so untrue to the scene and often quite disappointing that I would rather rely on memory. The 12" square painting below has been sitting on my drying wall for over two years - there was something I liked about it but something I hated about it too. I had some painter friends visiting from RI and one of them mentioned this one which caused me to see it with fresh eyes. It used to have a sign above the door which always seemed crowded and too close to the edge. So......I took the sign out and liked it much better. Still, the drawbacks of "photo-painting" seem to be embodied in the difference between the top painting and the bottom painting which was done plein air in my yard. 

This painting which is 24x12" has drawbacks as well...........the composition is weak since I wasn't paying all that much attention to it because that wasn't my focus. Now, this painting is soaking wet and at least two (probably three) years newer than the top picture so one would hope that my skills have improved somewhat but I find it much more interesting than the top picture (which does have a kind of neat composition) plus it was a lot more enjoyable to paint. Now that I see a photo of the painting, I see other issues as well but it does have a "life" that the top one doesn't. I don't expect to ever stop using photos since they are so valuable to my process but it's nice to be aware of their limitations.

I've been pretty light on the posting for the past month. I had cataract surgery on one eye and am waiting to have the other eye done (next week). It was very successful so far and I can't wait till it's all over. Right now the only issue is the huge difference between the done and undone eyes........I'm hoping I won't even have to wear glasses anymore. So far it seems like a miracle!

marsh geometry and some chickens

When I went back to finish this after two days of rain the light conditions were totally different so I just brought it back to the studio and went from there. I have a little more to do but it has to hang on the wall for a bit so I can see anything that bothers me. The trees aren't completely finished yet but I have to let the colors in the "sky holes" set up a little. I am leaving some of the initial drips at the bottom because I like them.

I am still working on the chickens a little - thought that the background was too light so I darkened that and need to finish their faces and may lighten the front chicken since I think she's still too dark.

process for loosening up........24x12" plein air beginning

I have been trying to begin my outdoor work in a more "inside out, gestural" manner. Sometimes it can be hard to put into words but I look for the center of shapes, their gesture and how they relate to one another rather than so much drawing a composition.

This example of the beginning of a plein air study I did the other day is kind of an example of that. Because I started late in the day, I ran out of light in about an hour and a quarter and it was too late to get an accurate photo of where I stopped. The past two days have been downpours for the most part and I would really like it to clear up so I can get back out there in the afternoon tomorrow!

a week in the studio

The weather remains a bit problematic but I tried to paint outside yesterday.....got all the way to the location and realized I had forgotten my easel! My soltek easel isn't on my mental checklist because it pretty much lives in my car - I had taken it out before Christmas when I needed space in my car for a trip to Costco. It is now back in my car for when it stops raining again! At any rate, I have begun a painting (16x20") of three of the eleven backyard chickens that were born the end of July. They don't hold still EVER so this is from a photo with a lot of direct observation for color (I find them endlessly fascinating). I am finishing up a few other things in anticipation of the Beaufort Art Association's big Spring Show which will be held the end of February this year - I like to have several framed pieces to choose from.

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This 18 x 18" painting is very near completion so I'll probably forget to post it when it's actually done. The rain has finally stopped so hopefully I'll be able to get outside to paint tomorrow - the days are already getting longer!

getting back in the swing of things

Well, the holidays are over again and they were great. Right before New Year's I caught a bad cold, however, and am just getting back on track. I always find it difficult to feel the "flow" when I haven't painted for a couple of weeks. Normally I would just go out plein air but it was super cold, wet and gloomy so I went to the studio instead since I still feel kind of crappy and definitely didn't want to get wet and miserable. Sooooo, Happy New Year to all.

lady's island plein air - 16x12"

Just about time to try a few still lifes since there is so little color left this time of the year outdoors. Today and yesterday were absolutely beautiful outside..........warm and kinda sunny but, despite that, the environment is pretty low color at the moment. It was still awesome. I do find myself craving a little more color in my life now that the days are so short and the landscape seems to be resting.

beach erosion - 18x18

What a week! It began with jury duty, evolved into my continuing internet provider issues and, finally, getting a chance to paint. Since there is so little daylight as we near the shortest day of the year, I've been working in the studio. The internet wire that leads into my house was struck by lightening at the beginning of the summer - it took two weeks then for them to figure it out and replace the wire but I have had a multitude of connectivity problems since then. After about a million phone calls (and being on hold for at least a half an hour per call) they sent a technician out to my house. I'm hoping it's fixed for good this time and won't shut down multiple times each day. I will also welcome not becoming immediately furious each time it quits.....they gave me a whopping $10 credit in July for the two weeks it didn't really work at all...........and I pay $70 per month for internet alone! Living in a rural area there's only one choice unless I want t.v. and I don't so I'm stuck. At any rate, I calmed right down when I had an entire day to paint yesterday.....not one single errand.

speed is needed!

I didn't crop this because it's not done yet and I sort of liked the way it looked with the surroundings in the background. I love the quality and angle of the light this time of year but it does make it really important to work as quickly as you can. I began a different 24x12" painting at the same location yesterday and returned hoping to finish that one but shrimp boats have this pesky way of moving around and the scene was completely blocked by a new (huge) arrival this morning. Luckily the Eddings Point landing has lots of parking and plenty of good views so I just turned around and started another painting. I've been painting outside mostly in the past couple of months - partly because I really like it and partly because I have to have cataract surgery on both eyes and am finding artificial light kind of impossible. I am an odd mixture of excited and terrified to have this surgery but I have heard nothing but good things so the excitement seems to be winning at the moment. This painting is 16x12" and close to being done - I just ran out of time.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This 24x12" plein air took me three sessions of an hour each so far - I'm pretty sure I will have some refining to do but it's mostly complete. Because the days are so short now, there's a very small window of time before the light and composition change drastically. I do love the light this time of year and it startled me to realize just how much it had changed between Monday and today - I was fortunate that the weather stayed just about the same. I hope y'all have a wonderful holiday.

gloom for weeks! - 14x11" - plein air

The weather here has been quite wretched for what seems like months but is probably more like weeks. Yesterday the gloom lifted a bit and the landscape seemed more saturated than grey so I went out painting. I have been trying all week actually but Monday and Tuesday were full on rain and Wednesday I did a painting that I wiped down. This site isn't far from my house and the colors were pretty fresh and intense - I had planned to paint the field of cows that were grazing when I began but they all left as soon as I got ready to incorporate them! I didn't even try today and worked on stuff at home.....the sun came out for all of ten minutes. Because there are so many dirt roads and I have a Prius I have been reluctant to travel afar.......I think I'll work in the studio tomorrow.

the other side of the beach - 24x12" - plein air

This painting took two sessions of about two and a half hours each. Luckily the conditions were pretty much the same for two days. I'm still using and enjoying the very limited palette. The title refers to the location of this site...........the State Beach is off to the left of the painting about a mile or so and the road to the beach runs through a slice of deep semitropical forest between the beach and this area of marsh that edges the Harbor River. 

really limited! - 12x9"

I did this yesterday at the boat landing down the street..........as I mentioned before I am using a very limited selection of colors. I used ultramarine blue, cadmium yellow and cadmium red (plus white) for this painting. Until last week I have sort of considered that a warm and cool of a red, blue and yellow plus white and earth tones (primarily burnt sienna) was a limited palette - boy, do I feel dumb right now. I am also surprised that I was able to paint this scene effectively with only what I used............another huge surprise was that I used very little white paint. I have to thank James Gurney's challenge on his blog for getting me to really try this.........he had a challenge to paint a graveyard scene using only three colors - in the spirit of Halloween. Though I didn't actually enter it, I did begin a painting for it and stuck to the rules.............unfortunately I didn't hear about the challenge until a few days before the deadline and couldn't finish the painting in time because it was raining so hard that my paint wouldn't stick to the panel and my palette was completely impossible. Despite all that, when I realized what was happening with my colors, I felt this huge sense of excitement and liberation! I will write more about this in the future because I am just blown away by how simple this is.

Frogmore nocturne - 24x12" - nealy finished

Wow is it difficult to photograph dark paintings! I will attempt to do a better job when I have completed this one......it's definitely too dark in this photo. Frogmore is actually a place near where I live and home of a locally famous dish named "Frogmore Stew" - a shrimp, smoked sausage and corn delight! This is the last traffic light on the sole road (rte. 21) that leads to my home on the way to Hunting Island and the Atlantic Ocean.

I've been doing a lot of plein air and will have a few to post soon where I am experimenting with a limited palette - something I have never really tried before. I have always used a relatively limited one but this one I've been trying is super sparse and I cannot recommend it enough. More later.

field trip??? - 10x10" study

Just a quick study less than a mile from my house. It sort of looks like fall - kinda sorta. The field is full of yellow wildflowers that appear to be related to asters........it was pretty hard to get a view without standing in the middle of the road so I had to squeeze myself into a spot between two very prickly trees. I think I'll have to take a real field trip inland soon to paint.......I'm missing hills and buildings (that aren't trailers or McMansions).

Hustler Shrimp (nearly completed) - 24x18"

I am pretty close to completion with this painting.......will have to let it sit for a bit because the paint is so thick on the water that I find myself covered in paint from the easel and the edges every time I try to do the remaining detail work that needs to be done. I went for a walk on Hunting Island State Park beach this afternoon and was stunned to see that an entire section of the road that leads to the parking area had washed away. The recent storms really did some damage and my favorite spot to park and paint is now sand and downed trees.

dry enough!

We have some good weather coming up and, except for the damn fire ants, it should be really wonderful painting outside. Those ants seem to swarm the entire ground after heavy rains so it's not easy to spot them like it is when they are in their dry weather mounds.......I suppose I could stop wearing sandals but I have this terrible fear that they will get IN my shoes and that will be worse. So, yesterday (after what seemed like an eternity), I found a nice field to paint - the picture (12x9") is pretty typical for a quick study.......just a chance to work outside and learn......I don't post most of them because they seem too boring. Had to make a run for it at the end because of the ants - I really hate them!