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.

connected - 18" square

Well, it has reached the point here this past week that one cannot really paint outside - the nighttime temps are rarely below 80 and, no matter how early you go in the morning, the heat is just brutal. So, I have been working in the studio for the past few days. This painting is obviously from a photo and you can see the remnants of the grid that I used to position the figures and the god-awful yellow underpainting that I experimented with (I keep trying this). There are two things that I really look for when I am taking photos for reference material and the most important criteria for me is an interesting connection between figures........a shape that incorporates a nice gesture not only between the figures but between the figures and their surroundings. The photo I used for this painting has that quality. 

"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 swimming hole - 12x24"

Wow............I had no idea that it had been so long since I posted anything! Actually, I plan on transitioning this blog to my new website on faso.com. Yes, I finally started a "real" website and that website has a blog feature which I will be using. I will probably do double entries for a bit (once I figure out how to use the faso.com blog template). I have been working plein air a lot recently but have been experimenting and haven't really felt like putting them here. This painting is one I have been working on in the studio when it's either raining or too damn hot. It is nearly complete and it's been really hot.

So, my new website is: patriciaawalsh.com (note the double "a" in the middle - that's my middle initial and the site without the double a was taken). I have been putting this website thing off for years and just really wanted my work to be available in one spot without having to scroll through pages and pages that are accompanied by comments. In addition to that, I often do not wish to post updates of paintings that are completed over time and much of my work is now larger than 8x10's and the like so it isn't completed in one session. There remain unfinished areas on the website just because I haven't had time to do them yet but they will all be finished soon. I was really, really surprised by how long it took me to organize all of the photos of my paintings for the website and how this blog was unbelievably helpful in helping me locate pictures of paintings among the seemingly millions of photos that remain unorganized in iPhoto. I felt pretty relieved when I had completed most of the work! More info later on the process and I'll try to not lose all sense of time again.

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.  

my girl - 12x24"

It is very easy to really fall in love with "off line" life and I certainly have this past month - it has just been too hard to see well enough to deal with electronic reading so I didn't. My surgery is complete and I can see super well but I have decreased my internet presence so much in the last six months that it is really hard to get back into it again. I started this painting before I was "cleared" enough to lift my painting equipment (and do some plein air) and finished it today. Now I just have to force myself to catch up on email all the while realizing how much life has changed since the mid-nineties or so when the internet became such a huge presence in our lives. I have really begun to relish the quiet of my little woodland home, the sounds of birds, wind and the ocean and the lack of television. 

At any rate, I loved the way this young dad was teaching his baby girl about the ocean and I could see his total adoration for her so I "snuck" a photo last summer and it just had to become a painting.