For locals – here is the season’s schedule for Molly’s House Gallery in Stuart, FL:
My mostly beach themed paintings will be there in December, from the 5th until the end of the month.
Molly’s House is a 501(c)3 hospital hospitality house, providing temporary lodging for adult and children patients and their families who are receiving medical care on the Treasure Coast.
These trees are piney and I don’t know the name of them but I like the way they lean toward land as if the breeze showed them which way to grow. This is at the northern end of Hobe Sound Beach.
This painting isn’t huge but consumed a lot of paint. The paint was thickly applied with a fully loaded brush. It’s a high key painting with hardly any darks.
The only way to get to Barley Barber Swamp is to be taken there by bus. It’s located in the middle of FPL property in Indiantown, FL. This link tells you more about how to get there if you’re local: http://www.treasuredlands.org/blog/news and this one tells you more about the swamp: http://www.barleybarber.org/
Once you get to the Seminole Inn and hop on the tour bus you get a bumpy ride past the FPL plant and arrive at the swamp in the middle of nowhere but is actually close to Lake Okeechobee that you can’t see from there. The tour follows a windy boardwalk through the ancient cypress swamp that is host to otter eating gators, many tree frogs and assorted rarely seen vegetation.
Toward the end of the boardwalk tour I captured several shots of the most beautiful area of the swamp where all the cypress needles had turned the land into a carpet of red. It would have been even more stunning if the sun were out that day.
with little roses.
The reed pen is a very simple instrument that van Gogh used to perfection during his time in Arles. Vincent made his own pens and after buying some I see why. The pens that you can buy at art supply stores are made of bamboo and the ones that I bought were marked small, medium and large – all the same price. It took me a little while to figure out what the sizing meant. The sticks were similar in size and it was actually the points that were different sizes. After using the pens, I’ve decided to modify them to suit my needs because I find that the finer points aren’t very useful.
Drawing with a reed pen is fun and requires a mark making language. Mine needs more development. The paper I used was a heavy weight, 140 lb., hot pressed watercolor paper. van Gogh used laid paper and I did find some at Staples but haven’t tried it yet, other than to scribble and see how it feels. The reed pen flows better on the stationery than the watercolor paper. I’ll keep trying other papers until I find one that works best for me.
Here is my attempt at a reed pen ink drawing:
The drawings that are part of Vincent’s letters to Theo are interesting and all his talk of etchings and drawings by other artists, as well as his own, led me to the catalogue by the Metropolitan Museum “Vincent van Gogh – The Drawings”. (The catalogue is from a 2005 exhibit.) It’s too bad I missed this exhibit but maybe some day I’ll see his drawings in person. Years ago I saw a number of his paintings in Boston and was completely awestruck. I think the drawings would have the same effect.
Here is a synopsis of the exhibit/catalogue by Eric Gelber on Art Critical:
http://www.artcritical.com/2003/11/01/vincent-van-gogh-the-drawings/
However, I’d like to change his last line to “take up our reed pens”. The reed pen was the instrument used for the most vibrant of van Gogh’s drawings.
Many of Vincent’s drawings can be seen online here:
http://www.vangoghgallery.com/catalog/Drawing/
It is said that his best drawings, the drawings considered his most important, were the ones that were done during July and August 1888 in Arles. (also, notice – done with the reed pen.)
from Vincent’s letter to Theo:
“Now the Harvest, the Garden, the Sower, and the two marines are sketches after painted studies. I think all these ideas are good, but the painted studies lack clearness of touch. That is another reason why I felt it necessary to draw them.”
Usually artists draw as a preliminary step to a painting – working out the kinks. But, many times Vincent would draw after a painting to study it further or to show his brother Theo what he was working on.
Next: Trying out the Reed Pen
Yes, of course it’s another beach painting from Hobe Sound Beach. But, this time it’s done in pastels. Finally, I’ve gotten around to trying out the pallet of John Pierce Barnes to see how complete it is. Here’s the link to the older post:
http://hobesoundartist.com/2012/06/02/john-pierce-barnes/
It was very complete, just needed to go back to the big box for one stick of a darker tan and one better mid tone flesh color. It was nice to be limited to the smaller selection of colors and yet I felt as though I had plenty to choose from. Makes for a very portable pastel kit. If you do any plein air painting you know that’s a huge plus.
More beach paintings! This time I’ve included a picture of each painting in their frames. These are small works, all 6×8 – oil on panel, and look great in wide white molding frames – the width of the molding is about 3 1/2 inches.
The brilliant blue is compliments of Gamblin – go to www.gamblincolors.com and click on Torrit Grey to see the paintings that were submitted. This year all Torritt Grey participants (remember the Torritt Birds http://hobesoundartist.com/2012/09/29/torrit-bird/) received a free tube of “Cote d’Azure” along with another tube (mine was white). The backstory is that their master paint maker, Matt and his wife Liz went to France for their honeymoon and the water inspired this color. The color is perfect for Florida, hope they keep making it!
The paintings are all down at a small, new boutique in Hobe Sound; Juno Shoe Girl on S. Dixie Hwy. The shop has a beachy theme and my beach paintings have sold well there. You can find more information about Juno Shoe Girl here: http://junoshoegirl.com/
My 2013 Sketchbook Project is called Frogology because it’s about Frogs. Most of the frogs in the book are extinct and on the back cover there is a list of frogs that are missing. I wasn’t able to scan the whole list but the website is written there where you can read the list for yourselves.
Again, I used mostly watercolor crayons and ink. Some drawings are in colored pencil and the last is graphite. It was a fun sketchbook to do because the frogs are colorful and fun to draw. It also felt good to give the frog issue attention. The cover is brightly printed fabric.
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Using All The Crayons 