Saturday, February 27, 2010

Grappa

Grappa
oil
7" x 5"
Grappa bottle John's daughter, Sam brought back from Italy in 1983.  Still some left!  This is the fiftieth painting for this year.  There's something to be said for the old saying: "What gets counted gets done."  This is an alla prima painting, direct painting, wet into wet, one sitting.  And I won't tell you how long I sat!  But good thing to do on a rainy day.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Jaine

Jaine
oil
10" x 8"

Portrait sketch using only vermillion, black, white, and naples yellow for the flesh tones.  Really missed alizarin crimson!  Also experimented with heavy gesso on masonite, allowing  brushstrokes to show through.  Was pleased with how the background looked after I wiped color off with a rag.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Venice Plein Air

Venice Ave House
oil
10" x 8"
Plein air painting in Venice, Florida this morning.  Had perfect spot in a park across from this classic Spanish Med.  Hong Kong orchid tree in full bloom dropped flowers all around us.  Rain held off until we packed up at noon.  Love this house but decided the door needed to be turquoise, instead of white.  After all, if it were my house I would paint it that color, and it's my painting, so there!  Settled.  Once again, artistic license rules.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Venice Beach Fog

Venice Beach Fog
oil
10" x 8"

Same foggy morning, same spot of Foggy Morning painting from previous post, but looking north instead.  Two tall pines are a favorite painting subject of Venice plein air artists.  Sun burned off the fog soon after this and my painting friend and I headed out as the beach crowd arrived.  Not a bad morning at all!

Foggy Morning

Foggy Morning
oil
8" x 10"
Heavy fog this morning didn't burn off until almost noon.  Unusual for Florida but great for painting hazy colors and flattened forms.  Couldn't resist the yellow shirt and the scale a figure gives to the landscape. 

Monday, February 22, 2010

Garden Of 5 Senses

Garden of Five Senses
oil
5" x 7"
Small public garden in North Port, celebrating the five senses...  knocked senseless by the worst Florida winter in over a hundred years.  I painted the "Painter's Palette" section where the giant purple crinum lilies (crinum Asiaticum) had been cut back.  I liked the way the sun made the purple leaves glow and how they stood, still surviving the brutal frost.  Many members of the Punta Gorda Plein Air painting group were scattered around the park painting with oils, acrylics, watercolors, or sketching with pencil.  The flowerless park bloomed with our artistic sensibility.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

Cloves

Cloves
oil
4" x 6"
Small daily painting practice using red, yellow, and blue objects.  Set them up in a cardboard box to block out background lights and to help control the light source. 

Friday, February 19, 2010

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Tracy

Tracy
oil
10" x 8"
Punta Gorda's Visual Arts Center Portrait Studio had a record number of talented artists this morning and two models.  Left my burnt umber at home but made up a pretty nice brown with burnt sienna and ultramarine blue.  Whiskers are not easy to paint but had fun with the tattoo and earring.  Painted on canvas that I had previously toned a neutral green mixed from left over paint.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Imaginary Plein Air

Canoe Lab
oil
5" x 7"
Quick, imaginary plein air sketch of lab floating in a canoe for my daily painting.  Did this to warm up for an illustration job deadline.  Can't paint outside today so just pretended I was watching this scene in the warm sun.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Beach Boy

Beach Boy
oil sketch
6" x 8"
This little boy was searching for fossil shark's teeth, a major beach activity from Venice to Palm Island.  Have relatives visiting so was unable to paint yesterday but able to take lots of photographs.  I often aim the camera at my husband but am actually snapping photos of something else, in this case, the boy.  People get really self-conscious when a camera is aimed in their direction.  My long distance camera can take a portrait shot of someone half a mile down the beach.  I changed every color of the outfit the boy was wearing.  Really love the position of the figure and the hat.  Also moved him a lot closer to the waters edge.  Plenty of material here to do a larger painting.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Mrs Palmer, again

Mrs Potter Palmer 4
oil study
8" x 6"
Another exercise I might use for my workshop next month: creating a scene from reference and imagination using a monochromatic color scheme.  This one was burnt sienna and white which has the effect of an old photograph.  Here Mrs Potter Palmer looks out on Little Sarasota Bay about one hundred years ago at her winter home on Spanish Point.  Maybe, it's Valentine's Day and she's waiting for her husband to arrive on his sleek, white sailing yacht.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Mrs Potter Palmer Again

Mrs Potter Palmer 3
oil value study
7" x 5"

      Another study of Mrs Palmer for the workshop I'm teaching at the Punta Gorda Visual Arts Center in March.  
      Favorite quotes of the day:  "I could not paint at all if I had to paint slowly." - Sorolla
       "Paint faster, Stupid!"_ E. Wright    Will be engraved on my paintbox.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Beach Day

 
Day Off
oil
6" x 8"
Lunch break on day off for a beach guy, Englewood, Florida.  It doesn't look like this here today.  Cool, gray and rainy for a change.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Englewood Beach


SEAHORSE
oil
8" x 6"
      Was on the way to Sarasota to the portrait studio at the Southern Atelier and had left in plenty of time, so I thought.  After many near accidents with tourists driving 35 in 45 mile zone and spending three light changes to get through intersections, I finally decided it was not my day to paint portraits, especially when I would have been at least a half hour late.  The final straw that made me turn around and head for home was when a man on a bicycle wobbled and fell right in front of me.  Luckily for both of us, there was no one in the next lane and I was able to swerve around him without squashing his head like a grape.  Back home, I went through some old snapshots I took last summer.  This mother and daughter happened to be in the background of a photo I took of my husband.  The shaky strokes are the results of my traffic nerves. 

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Service Beach, Venice

 
Service Beach, Venice
oil
6" x 8"

   Yesterday morning,  plein air painting in the dunes at Service Beach with my artist friend.  One of the benefits of living in Florida in February, pushing a paintbrush instead of a snow shovel.  Painted on panel over extra heavy gesso.  Like the way this brushstroke texture shows through on a loose painting.  Like the golden, greenish color of the Gulf when the sun strikes it and the cobalt blue sky patch. 

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Mrs Potter Palmer

 
Mrs Potter Palmer 2
oil sketch
4" x 6"

Another study of Mrs Potter Palmer, this time using full color.  Found the Zorn palette study I did yesterday much easier to paint. 

Monday, February 8, 2010

Haunted at Spanish Point

 
MRS POTTER PALMER 
oil study
Zorn palette
6" x 4"
      After a morning plein air painting with my friends Marjorie and Eileen, we took a lunch break on the White Cottage's porch.  A woman strolled by wearing a vintage 1900's long dress and large hat.  I grabbed my camera and chased her down the path.
      "Hello," she said, turning to shake my hand.  "I'm Mrs. Palmer."  She agreed to let me take a few photos while she posed looking out at sparkling Little Sarasota Bay.  Her purple dress was set off by red flowers and the dappled shade of palm trees.  I felt like I had met the ghost of Mrs. Potter Palmer.
      At home, after downloading the photos to my computer, I knew I wanted to paint her.  Meanwhile, I was researching the Zorn palette for a workshop I'm teaching next month.  This limited palette of only vermilion, yellow ochre, Ivory black and white was used by Anders Zorn, a Swedish artist.  And then, like a voice from the past... Mrs. Potter Palmer appeared again.  Zorn had painted her in 1893.
      A little research and I learned that Mrs. Potter Palmer (Bertha Mathilde Honore Palmer) was born 1870 in Louisville, Kentucky, lived in Chicago, and had inherited an estimated 4.5 million from her father in 1943.  She purchased almost a quarter of what is now Sarasota County in 1910 and died eight years later.  In 1980, her heirs donated the 30 acre parcel of Spanish Point to the Gulf Coast Heritage Foundation.
      This painting is my first study of Mrs. Potter Palmer painted with the Zorn palette... exactly one hundred years after she purchased Spanish Point.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Old Iron

 
IRON
oil
4" x 6"
Practiced using palette knife and larger brushes than I usually use.  We bought this old iron in Maine about twenty years ago.  I love the colors.  John thinks it's a calcium carbite iron, same thing used in old miner's lights.   Didn't show it, but paint on handle was worn with use... the poor soul.  Use it now for a door-stop.   Weighs a ton.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

Boca Grande Pass

 
Heading Out 2
oil
6" x 4"

Storm passed and sun broke through the clouds when this boat headed out Boca Grande Pass.  

Friday, February 5, 2010

Charcoal Drawing

 
Elaine
11" x 8"

Punta Gorda Visual Arts Center, charcoal drawing of Elaine.  The portrait studio painted outside because the National Exhibition was in the hanging process.  (Got an early peek at some incredible work.   My Rachael Is Five painting was accepted!  The opening is February 12 at 7 pm. )   Elaine modeled in her black wool scarf and coat, which was fine early in the cool morning.  But as the sun came over the building, the artists and model had to stare into the glare.  Some fashioned sun-visor hats out of tape and paper.  Elaine, melting in the heat, stuck it out until the last artist finished.   Sorry Elaine, you're much prettier and thinner than my sketch!

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Snook Haven

 
Snook Haven Canoes
oil on panel
6" x 8"

      Painted this yesterday morning.  Unusually gray day for Florida and chilly, too.  Limited myself to Kevin Macpearson's starting palette of ultramarine, pale cadmium yellow, alizarian crimson, and white.  At the last minute, I borrowed a dab of cadmium red to brighten the seats and bows.  Snook Haven restaurant had gator bites on the menu.  Didn't see any alligators.   They were probably lurking under the murky water, waiting for the sun to come out.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Southern Atelier

Kent
oil
6" x 4"

  This was the model for Romel de la Torre when he gave a portrait demo at the Southern Atelier in Sarasota.  I took a few snapshots of the model and couldn't resist doing my own version later.  Romel's portrait was gorgeous, done with flair and confidence.  I learned a few things about technique, such as wiping the canvas with linseed oil before starting.  This keeps the paint from sinking in and allows it to flow.  I also liked the way Romel played with color, put it on thick and let it sit.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Boca Grande

Heading Out
oil
4" x 6"

Sailboat heading out Boca Grande Pass was taking a pounding!  Braver sailors than me... I'm a screamer! 

Monday, February 1, 2010

Ca d"Zan

Ca d'zan
oil
8" x 10"
This was painted at Ca d'zan which was Ringling's winter home in Sarasota.  A complicated subject for plein air!  Next time, I'll only paint the tower.  There's another floor level under this...  I started at the second level above the ground.  Kept noticing more and more details in the tile work.  Amazing place.