summer day at the point - 16x12"

I finished this one and then worked on various finishing details and tasks associated with the open studio....it was a gorgeous day here and I got to spend much of it outdoors while I was doing these tasks so I was happy.

finishing stuff and starting stuff

I have been lax about posting things but that is the way it goes sometimes. Getting ready for the open studio, framing things and life in general does not always synch with blogger. My daughter is safetly in Austin for grad school and I continue framing and painting. Yesterday I went out with my painting buddies to the middle of Westport Harbor - we parked (the correct word?) the boat on a sandbar and painted for more than an hour.......then returned to shore and cooked hamburgers on the grill, drank a bit of wine and talked about our respective weeks. I would have to say it was as close to paradise as I can imagine. I found myself just wishing to put down spots of color on my canvas, no structure, no nothing.....appreciating the goddamn beauty of the place and the night without worrying about the state of the world for a change. So, this morning, I started a picture based on the color sketches I did yesterday...........obviously just a beginning.

red boats - 14x11"

I began this one plein air at Tripp's boatyard in Westport and have to finish it when the light ground has set up enough for me to paint the metal thingys that hold the boats up. I found myself laughing out loud when I was considering leaving some of them out for design reasons - I realized that at least indicating them was important or the boats would actually appear to float like some sort of fantasy illustration. It is the last two days before my daughter leaves for Austin so I am helping her get ready (in a limited way) - I will really miss her.

honorable mention and plein air study at Westport Point (11x14" & 12x9" respectively)

The green awning won an honorable mention at the Little Compton summer show and I did the plein air study from a sandbar in the middle of the harbor at Westport Point this morning. I love the view one gets from the middle of the water - my friend Phyllis has a Boston Whaler and we have been going out to these sandbars and setting up to paint. Today she figured the tides out just right and we had well over two hours!