FL

T-Shirt Update

| Doreen E. Lepore

Just finished a major update to my arty-tees page. I’ve added new tshirts and hoodies as well as adding more color selections for some tshirts. There are two links for some tshirts  because amazon only lets me pick 5 colors per tshirt or product, so I just made another listing with more color choices. Also, some good news, the price on the hoodies dropped, thanks to amazon.

These are the paintings now available on tshirts and a couple of hoodies:

Painted Pony

painted pony

The Beaten Path

Path

Retired

Jocko

 

Spring Marsh

Spring Marsh

 

You can go to the arty-tees page for further details and links to amazon here.

If you have any questions, comments, feedback please feel free to leave a comment or email me.

Another Tuesday painting

| Doreen E. Lepore

Recently we, my plein air group, went to the Indiantown Marina. I had no idea how interesting it would be since this was my first visit there. The marina is mostly a boat yard, with rows and rows of dry docked boats. The boat I painted was called Topaz. I took pictures of many other boats and hope to paint them in the future.

Topaz - oil on board - 9x12
Topaz – oil on board – 9×12

Plein Air Tuesdays

| Doreen E. Lepore

Here is a   plein air  painting recently done on a Tuesday, of course.

St. Christopher's - 10x8 oil on panel
St. Christopher’s – 10×8 oil on panel

This church is at the center of Hobe Sound, FL and is different on every side. So, I need to go back 3 more times at least to paint the whole church. It was a clear beautiful day and I was happy with this small charming painting.

Tuesday Paintings House of Refuge Beach

| Doreen E. Lepore

Last Tuesday, not yesterday but Tuesday of last week, we painted at the House of Refuge on Hutchinson Island, a narrow strip of land called Gilbert’s Bar. It was a nice breezy day and I decided to paint the beach instead of the buildings. The limestone rocks alone are an interesting subject. Even though I had time for a second small painting I still painted the rocks and ocean instead of the buildings. So here are mama and baby paintings from last Tuesday.

House of Refuge Beach - 11x14 oil on panel
House of Refuge Beach – 11×14 oil on panel
Mini House of Refuge Beach - 5x7 - oil on panel
Mini House of Refuge Beach – 5×7 – oil on panel

Met some friendly beach walkers and one dog that was mostly interested in digging to China.

 

Spring

| Doreen E. Lepore
Spring Calf
Spring Calf

Inspired by a fellow blogger’s challenge to come up with something blue that says “spring”. http://decorartuk.wordpress.com/2014/03/22/something-in-common/  The local manatees came to mind right away. They are also known as sea cows and have a fairly bovine personality – sweet, slow and docile, not to mention big.

One time while walking near a dock I saw some manatees and one seemed to have a problem. After talking to a local officer they found that she had been playing this trick all along the coast and in fact she was fine, but seemed to like the attention. Silly cow.

Here’s a nice video, so you can see what they look like:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7txP9MOCqs

Some basic manatee facts:

http://www.savethemanatee.org/manfcts.htm

and then there’s this – were they the basis for the myth of mermaids? I think so!

http://www.savethemanatee.org/sirenian.htm

Seabreeze

| Doreen E. Lepore
Seabreeze - Oil on Canvas - 20x24
Seabreeze – Oil on Canvas – 20×24

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 Reed Pen

| Doreen E. Lepore

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.

reed pens
reed pens

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:

reed pen and ink drawing
reed pen and ink drawing

Fresh off the easel

| Doreen E. Lepore

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/