Three of my faves sold last week. 🙂 😦
But fear not, I’ll do more!
Sold!
Treasure Coast
Torrit Bird
Each year the Gamblin paint company cleans their filter and makes paint out of the pigment they collect. They put it in a tube and when you buy their paint, you receive a free tube of this random grey paint. The color can be different every year. They call it Torrit Grey. (I believe Torrit is the filtering system.) Also every year Gamblin paint company holds a contest and you can see the rules for yourself at their website: www.gamblincolors.com. There is a link there to see past shows and winners.
Basically you must paint with the current year torrit grey paint and you can use any white and a black.
My Torrit Bird paintings were painted with just the torrit grey and white – Gamblin’s Flake White Replacement.
Even though they allow you to enter 3 works, I only entered the top bird – he was my favorite.
Greener Pasture
This is the greener pasture we’re always looking for. Occupied, of course.
Live Oak Concerto
Haven’t had a chance to post anything lately.
These live oaks are located at Adams Ranch in Ft. Pierce. They have such a happy, lyrical, uplifting look to them that I had to paint them with happy squiggles.
The painting panels I use are “Pintura” and they are canvas on wood.
Dad’s 54 Chevy Truck
In honor of Father’s Day I thought I’d post this pastel of my father’s truck. Don’t be surprised if I post it again next year! It’s not a new painting, but a favorite. He never finished restoring the truck so that I could paint the “after” shot, but he did see and love this painting.
This pastel is done on a maroon piece of acid free mat board that I sanded a bit to give it a little more tooth. When you sand mat board or paper (sometimes it helps to rough up Canson paper before using it too) you should use a very fine sanding block, not regular sand paper. The block is sturdier and won’t make unwanted bends, folds or marks on the paper. Just a gentle once over is enough.
Through the Oaks
This is from Adams Ranch in Ft. Pierce, FL where the live oaks grow undisturbed. They are huge trees with far reaching limbs. A bit farther down this dirt road on the ranch is a picnic area with a giant tree house.
I’m getting ready to start a new commission and while taking stock, making sure there were plenty of pastels in the box and planning my approach this painting came to mind.
The new painting won’t have a path with dappled light but many of the colors will be the same, as well as the size.
Better get to work!:)
The Sketchbook Project
The Sketchbook Project is fun to do and I’ve just signed up for the 2013 project. In a nutshell – you sign up, pay for a blank sketchbook plus touring expenses and when you return it to the ArtHouse Coop it is cataloged and then goes on tour.
Here are some pages from my 2011 sketchbook – my theme was “Down my Road”, so these are all very local scenes.:
and last but not least because it is once again that great spot on the Loxahatchee River:
There were many more pages but this is enough to give you the gist of the sketchbook. The method that I used was fun. The first sketch is with watercolor crayon, then apply water, let that dry, use the marker pens to outline or do some fancy scribbling and then a final layer of gray or white on top for atmosphere.
I’ve scanned in the 2012 sketchbook but haven’t downsized the files yet. Will post soon.
Now I’m looking forward to the 2013 project and hope I don’t procrastinate as much as I usually do finding myself filling the book two days before it’s due.
Magnolias!!!!!
The magnolias are blooming like crazy this year – or more than they have in the past – I tend to exaggerate. We have two trees in the yard. One in the front and one in the back.
They are the big trees with the big flowers. They smell great! Some magnolia trees in the neighborhood are dwarf trees with the big flower, which is nice because the flowers are lower. With the big tree it’s hard to even get a good photograph of the blooms because they are so high. However, once in awhile, if you can catch it at the right moment (the flowers peak on one day and then they’re done!) blooming on a lower branch you’ll be able to at least have a photograph to work from.
Repeating Myself Again
Here is one of my favorite painting spots at Jonathan Dickinson State Park on the bank of the Loxahatchee River. In the past I’ve seen very large gators here and often there are kayakers going by too. Not together.
This first plein air is done on an 8×10 panel that I made with a gritty coating to give the surface texture. It’s done in pastels, pure brilliant pigment – in stick form – better than crayons!
Next on the Loxahatchee, same place different day and time, was also a textured panel – much bigger and was done as a class demonstration. The class wanted to also see how to underpaint so I used some rubbing alcohol over the pastels, which solidified the background. Then I waited a bit for the painting to dry and finished the pastel on top.
Wait, I’m not done – there’s one more for now – this one is same place – of course a different day and time and different paper! Viewpoint is slightly farther down on the river bank. This one is my favorite – it too has an underpainting – this time with watercolor.
The watercolor underpainting is a great tool. You can get some great darks in without getting too messy and build some beautiful shadow areas. Also the pink undertone in the sky and water adds luminosity and air.
Looking at all these together like this makes me want to go there again.
I can’t promise that these are all the paintings that I have done or will do of the Loxahatchee River.
Using All The Crayons 