beginning of "historic house" - 12" square

This is just the beginning of this painting......I am roughing it out. Beaufort has many amazing historic homes but many of them are located in very "close" enviornments which do not allow one to get back far enough to get any perspective or distance from them without stepping in the intra-coastal canal or  onto a neighbor's porch. In this case I have found the distortion of the camera lens to be helpful. I usually become annoyed by the distortion and rarely rely on photos of the landscape I have just painted, prefering to return to the site if I need to do so.

Happy Fourth to all

 I realized when organizing photos that I had never posted this painting completed.............so, here it is.

feeding gulls & crabbing

It remains quite hot here but I did go out to paint this morning at the landing near my house.....I discovered that catching blue crabs is the perfect compliment to plein air painting. I got 7 crabs and was so excited I felt like I was eight again - they were all a bit small so I threw them back but it was still fun. I ended up wiping down the painting I did and came home to finish this. While I was there a man was netting for shrimp so I think I'll have to learn about that too. That wouldn't work so well with painting since it isn't as passive.........with the crabbing, all you do is drop the net over the edge of the dock and wait (something that would drive me crazy if I didn't have something active to do while waiting). I am hoping to get some big ones soon!

feeding the gulls - 14x11"

I'm back from NY............my Dad's house is now completely empty and we probably have a buyer. It felt much less emotional a year past and thinking of him tends to make me smile rather than cry but there are some days that he is the only person in the world that I wish to talk to. I tried to go out plein air today but it got hot so fast I came back and started this instead. The thermometer on my porch reads 102 (in the shade) but the weather channel website says it's only 98; I'm trusting the micro-climate of my porch. Tomorrow is supposed to be hotter and I doubt I will chance the beach since I am sure it will be jammed early so I will probably finish this. I must say I really like this climate even with the 3" flying cockroaches!

two things

I am nearly done with the figure painting but have to let it set up for awhile...........what seems like dry paint is actually quite wet and doesn't handle at all like oil paint on canvas. The other painting is the first day of a plein air and is a view from Lady's Island toward Beaufort across the intracoastal waterway. A really great thing about living here is that you can pretty much count on a having a similar weather day in the near future so you can work much larger and take two days on site. I won't be posting for the next week or two since I have to go back to NY to do the final cleanup of my Dad's house (which has sold - thank goodness!)............ I am unsure of exactly how long the process will take. Both paintings are 14x11" and on birch panels.

crowded water - 14x11"

I am experimenting with this one........I wanted to get the feel of a crowd in the water without focusing on the individual figures. Also, I have never done a complicated figure painting on a panel before and am getting used to the paint setting up so fast. I prefer paint to stay wet as long as possible so this has been the major reason why I have used canvas pretty exclusively. Anyway, I am having fun with this one and have to repeatedly tell myself to see the masses and the gesture rather than zooming in on individuals.

path to the beach - 14x11"

My favorite spot to paint at Hunting Island......every time you move an inch there is a different painting. In addition to it never being crowded, there are bathrooms and parking. Plus, I am determined to master painting palmettos.