Not Hobe Sound

February 25, 2012May 5, 2012 | Doreen E. Lepore

This is the first year in many that I haven’t been able to attend the “Artist Day” or I think it’s currently called “Brush with Nature” day at Adams Ranch in Ft. Pierce, FL. Unfortunately my husband had recent surgery and I’m not comfortable with leaving him for a whole day yet. So, today I’ll post some of my paintings from Adams Ranch, and believe me I have a few. The ranch is a wonderful place to paint and is a working ranch that is just huge (about 50,000 acres) with way more cows than people. My kind of place. Once a year they allow artists to occupy a section of the ranch and the cows watch us paint all day. Entertaining for all of us!

Harry and the Natives, Hobe Sound, FL

February 10, 2012May 5, 2012 | Doreen E. Lepore

A few years ago I did a special project that I called “The Hobe Sound Project” where I left post cards around town and asked everyone to tell me what they wanted me to paint and in the spring there would be a show of all the paintings. This particular painting is one of my favorites from that project. It’s a pastel on La Carte pastel paper. This paper has a lot of tooth to it and it has a luscious look to it when you fill the tooth, probably from the coating, which they say is vegetable matter, and I think some cork. You can’t use liquids on it though because it will just fall apart.

Harry and the Natives is located on the main intersection of Hobe Sound at Route 1 and Bridge Road and serves local delicacies, such as gator burgers. The street light is from the old part of Hobe Sound and there isn’t actually a glass globe on it but I thought it needed one.

Hobe Sound Beach Umbrellas Study

February 9, 2012May 5, 2012 | Doreen E. Lepore

Sometimes I do a small study in watercolor crayon and marker pen before the larger painting. This is only 6×8 on “Fluid” Watercolor paper 140 lb., which comes in a block of 15 sheets. The watercolor crayons are made by Caran D’Ache and mine is a set of 40 and the pens are Faber Castell with the brush tip.

Postcard From Paradise sketch — Hobe Sound Beach Umbrellas sketch

The great thing for me is that the watercolor crayons are similar to pastels and I just love the way you can scribble with them, then wet them down and scribble some more.