The simpler the better

If you followed me on Facebook or Instagram last summer you'll remember the time I painted these waterfalls.

It was such a thrilling thing to paint, but my painting didn't turn out well. It was really a case of sensory overload. A painting needs focus to communicate the feeling of a place. In this case everything was so beautiful and I didn't focus on one particular aspect of the place to focus my painting.

Back in the studio, with my memory, the failed painting from that day and a few reference photos I was better able to construct a painting that communicated (1) scale and (2) the cascading falls.

I arranged the painting into a light area (in the center) and a dark area (surrounding). I minimized the contrast in value in those major shapes and GREATLY simplified the edges where the dark met the light.  I also prepared a board with an aspect ratio better suited to eliminate extraneous information (i.e. the water in the foreground, the sky in the background).

Swallow Falls

5x8, oil on board

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The Change in the Sky

Setting

July 17, 2014, Deep Creek Lake, MD

6x6, oil 

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First Lights

July 17, 2014, Deep Creek Lake, MD
6x6, oil
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These were painted the same evening as the sky transformed minute by minute. It is amazing how quickly the colors change. By the time one color is mixed and applied it has morphed into another even more beautiful hue.

Oh, to paint the evening horizon. So difficult, so magnificent, so overwhelming... but so rewarding.

Accidental Hiatus and Life According to my Iphone

Didn't mean to disappear this month. Time to show the blog some love again. 

This little collage will get you up to speed:

Oh, and ignore the duplicates, please. I'm annoyed at myself for doing that too... but as they say, Perfection is the enemy of the good. Or something like that.

So, it's been a busy month! A little explanation, you say?

Top to bottom (left to right):

Row 1:

(a) Theo got his very own carpet square in my studio. The typical afternoon in the life of the studio pup. (b) A little nocturnal painting action. (I'll post a photo of the outcome soon.) (c) Epic morning at the easel! I've been itching to paint a good waterfall this summer. My wish came true during a family vacation to Garrett County, MD. This was Swallow Falls National Park.

Row 2:

(a) Inspired by some fabulous Australian Impressionists, like Arthur Streeton, to paint a tall 'n' skinny. (b) This is a flashback to June. Taken by my mother. (c) I am still recovering from this one. Beautiful morning on the dock, despite the intermittent rain, almost falling in the water (with all my gear), a skinned knee, dropping my fav Rosemary brush in the lake, toes falling asleep (Raynaud's Syndrome), and getting a little sea-sick from the rising and falling of the dock with each passing motor boat. Still glad I did it.:)

Row 3:

(a) The banks of the James in Charles City. (b) One of the sailboats floated away while I was painting it. This was also Garrett County, MD. (c)  Lazare Gallery. Such a treat.

Row 4:

(a) Painting with a "limited color palette". It's the trim that never ends. It goes on and on my friends. (b) Delicious color palette for the sky of a commissioned painting. (c) Deep Creek Lake, Maryland. A fabulous week with my extended family.

Row 5:

(a) Working on the greens. (b) The big brush for the big sky. (c) One of my many studio paintings this month. I'll post it soon.

Row 6:

(a) I was standing on top of a 30 foot waterfall. So fun! (b) Duplicate (c) Duplicate

 Row 7:

(a) Back to June. This was Jockey's Ridge, NC. The older brother is attached to one of those kites. And we named the raft Ginguite. A story for another time. (b) The pup! We went trail running sprinting/stopping/sniffing/leash-tangling. (c) It's sewing time with Grammie. :)

 

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16 -18 (30 in 30 Challenge) - "Rolling Past", "Up the Beach" and "Down the Beach"

Ok. Back up. Here are a few more from the beach trip.

 Rolling Past

4x4, oil

Up the Beach

4x4, oil

Down the Beach

6x6, oil

Day 13 (30 in 30 Challenge) - Bikes!

 

Here's the crew part-way through one of our many bike rides in Nags Head last week.

 You should have seen Tom's pick up truck overflowing with 5 bikes, 2 wind surf boards, 4 kite boards, several kites for kiteboarding. He was a real chum to bring the bikes so we didn't have to rent them. Anyway... after a 13 or so mile ride I set up my easel on the back deck and made this little "guy":

 

 5x7, oil

This was my view. The shadows changed a bit, but you can see the overlapping shapes of those tires that I was trying to get "right". Fun little piece.

Day 12 (30 in 30) Perry's Kite, 9x12

 Spent last week in the Outer Banks with my husband and family. I managed 12 small paintings between the bike rides, family meals and time on the beach or pool. The views were gorgeous, weather was fantastic, skies so pretty and blue!

 

This was my view of sound from near Miller's Waterfront Restaurant in Nags Head.

My brother and his friends spent a couple hours kiteboarding while I painted. The wind was gusting 20 mph or so. Great for kiting, not ideal for painting. Felt pretty sea sick by the completion. I moved my easel set up around the corner of a building to make the final touches -- still gusty, but a little milder.

  

 9x12, oil

 I think i'll call it "Perry's Kite". His was the orange and white one closest to the center of the painting.

After finishing up I snapped a few photos of my bro, Tom, enjoying the wind.

Painting on the beach, Nags Head, NC

Last week my parents rented a beach house & invited the family for our 3rd annual beach vacation.

We did some biking, some sunset watching and of course a lot of swimming.

 

I brought my painting gear. I have a whole new respect for those everyday beach plein air painters. I  got more sand in my palette and on my paintings than I thought possible. My painting almost blew away once when I was packing up to leave. I think I even got a little sea sick while painting (on solid ground -- the beach) at Jockey's Ridge one particularly gusty day. Someone said the wind was in the middle 20's mph.

Despite all that painting on the beach, battling the wind and the sand beats painting in the studio any day! Below are a few of my favorites from the week. (Most of the sand has been scrapped off the paintings & a few touch-ups were made once I returned home.)

 

Afternoon at the Beach

8x10, oil on panel

sold

The Blue House on the Beach

9x12, oil on panel

sold

Clouds Over Jockey's Ridge

6x6, oil on panel

sold

Sketchbook from Deep Creek Lake

Got a few sketchbook pages from our travels last week to share with you. 

 

(Mark's hands on the wheel while driving to MD)

(A little boat house/shed on the lake)

(The vacated former restaurant/inn next door to the condos we were renting)

(This is Anna Joy, my cousin's almost-two-year-old, wanted to help out with filling a few pages of my Summer Challenge Sketchbook. Drew her portrait from a photo on one of the pages when we got home.)

Paintings from Deep Creek Lake

 

When painting is your job as well as your passion you take work with you on vacation. In fact the thing that most excites you about vacation is "working" in a new location.

Last week my husband and I joined my extended family for a family reunion at Deep Creek Lake in MD. The week usually involves water skiing, tubing, sailing, sun burn, a lot of good food, staying up late and catching up on everyone's lives.

Of course I also brought my paints. Between the activities I managed to squeak out a few paintings, including my first nocturne. I chose simple compositions to paint and focused on capturing the color of the moment. This enabled the essence of the scene to be captured quickly so I wouldn't feel like I was spending hours upon hours away from all the family festivities.

Take a look:

 

Edge of the Water

5x7, oil

 

Day's End

6x6, oil

  

Clouds Float By

9x12, oil

 Crimson Glow

5x7, oil

 Ten-thirty

8x10, oil

A nocturne

Ten-Thirty

8x10, oil

It's no Fredrick Remington, but it is my first nocturne en plein air. Those reds are definitely brighter than I could sense while out painting this scene.

An in-action photo. The camera flash makes everything look brighter. I set up under a security light and it was quite a challenge to see my color mixtures. This is when it pays to set up your palette the same way every time, so you can paint from instinct, in combination with sight.

Beach Break 12x12

Beach Break

12x12, oil

sold

I thought this piece might be appropriate to post with the upcoming holiday weekend. I know many families spend Memorial Day weekend at the beach or at the pool. With this painting I sought to capture a sense of recreation and relaxation that comes with a vacation to the beach -- a red bicycle  and a yellow surfboard parked in the shade during the heat of a summer day at the beach.

This was definitely a fun one to paint.

It was one of the pieces that sold during the May art show "Pathways" with Carter Stuart at For Art's Sake Gallery. The paintings will be on display through the first Monday in June.

Why did God give Saint Lucia all the color?

Question for you: Where is the most colorful place you've visited?