Morning Light & Days End

Morning Light SOLD

11x14 oil on linen

While I was out running yesterday morning on the south end of Anna Maria Island's Coquina Beach  I noticed this pretty play of dappled light and shadows upon the sand, strewn with pine needles. Inspired by the composition and colors, I returned to the same spot at the same time this morning with my easel and paints. As beach-goers started arriving, setting up their tents & umbrellas and firing up their barbecue grills, I added them to the painting. I'm quite happy with the light and airy feel of this one!

Day's End SOLD

11x14 oil on canvas

There's something about that hour or so before sunset when I look out the window at the dunes below and just become mesmerized by the soft violet blue shadows cast on the sand... and before I know it, I'm down there chasing that light, till there's no more light to see by!

Easy Like Sunday Morning

Easy Like Sunday Morning SOLD

16"x20" oil on canvas

I'd planned on going out to paint around sunset last night, but some late afternoon thunderstorms sent me into the studio instead! Using an 8"x10" plein air sketch that I did last month (on Easter Sunday morning,) along with my recent sand dune studies, I began this larger 16"x20" canvas and finished it up on site this morning. When painting en plein air I tend to work smaller because the light just changes so rapidly that there's limited time to capture the scene. But I'm having fun working in the studio from these smaller sketches, without time restraints, as it allows me the opportunity to play around, take risks and experiment more. 

Sand Dune Studies

Been playing around with some Arches Oil Paper (9"X12" sheets) this weekend, works great for creating quick, small studies... of some of my favorite subject matter! I used masking tape to divide the sheets in quarters, then spent about 30 minutes on each one, exploring different compositions and light effects.

Cortez

Cortez

8x10 oil on museum board

At the Plein Air Convention & Expo in Monterey last month my friend Haidee-Jo Summers invited me to join her & a group of fellow plein air artists in Venice for a week, coming up in October...  which might have something to do with my current (and let's face, on-going) fascination with this subject matter!

Sexy Lady in Waiting

Sexy Lady in Waiting

8x10 oil on museum board

Yep, guess you could say I'm on a boat and water paint'n kick at the moment!

(And I'm pretty sure anyone whose ever painted this particular boat in Cortez Fishing Village has had fun coming up with titles... )

Touched by the Setting Sun

Touched by the Setting Sun

8x10 oil on canvas

I'm always struck by how, in the hour or so before sunset, the dunes behind our place on Anna Maria Island take on such pretty colors. And just before the sun sinks into the Gulf it seems to set the sea grasses ablaze with its fiery light for just a moment!

Garden Party

Garden Party

9x12 oil on gessobord

This was my 2 hour Quick Draw entry from yesterday's 4th annual "Diggin' the Arts" festival held at the Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo. It was a beautiful morning to be out in the gardens painting (surrounded by fragrant gardenia bushes in full bloom!) with a bunch of really great people and I was honored to receive both the President's Award and People's Choice Award that afternoon for my painting.

Sailboat Blues

Sailboat Blues

6x8 oil on canvas

After grabbing some lunch at Circles Restaurant in Apollo Beach the other day I had a little over an hour before my kids got out of school and decided to continue my exploration of boats, pylons and water reflections. The rhythm of blue canvases caught my eye in this particular view of sailboats docked nearby. 

Keeping Watch

Keeping Watch

8x10 oil on museum board

Painted these same Cortez "working boats" the other day, just love the in and out switch-back that the eye does when looking at the composition, along with the challenge of capturing the reflections in that water. A pelican landed on the pylon towards the end and kindly posed for me!

Sound the Trumpets

Sound the Trumpets

9x12 oil on gessobord

I was inspired by my friend Steve Andrews' beautiful floral paintings during the Winter Park Paint Out and decided to do one of my own on the last day in the Polasek Gardens.

Night Music

Night Music SOLD

8x10 oil on gessobord

A concert was going on while I did this nocturne of Knowles Chapel on the campus of Rollins College, which provided some lovely night  music by which to paint!

Dinner on the Ave

Dinner on the Ave

8x10 oil on linen

A couple came and sat down for dinner just as I was finishing up, which as perfect, cause it was miss'n something up until that point!

In Memoriam

In Memoriam SOLD

9x12 oil on linen

A local boy had this statue erected as part of his Eagle Scout project last year, created in honor of his friend and 7th grade classmate who died, much too young, of a brain tumor.  Apparently she too was an artist and loves to draw and paint peacocks most of all.  The garden is full of roses and the air is perfumed with gardenia bushes.

A Nice Spot in the Shade

A Nice Spot in the Shade SOLD

16x20 oil on canvas

Loved the silhouette of the baby stroller beside this woman feeding her baby in the shade. I came back the next day to finish the painting and set up in my same spot as before, however this time I was just a few feet away from another couple and their baby who were spread out on a blanket and enjoying a nice spot in the shade as well.  I'm sure they probably wondered why, with this whole big park, I had to set up my easel right next to them?!

Afterglow

Afterglow

16x20 oil on canvas

This was a demo I did at the Alfond Inn in Winterpark last week focusing on the importance of negative shapes- the space in, around and behind a given subject- in painting. Just as I was finishing up the sun set and cast a beautiful afterglow across the sky... as if right on cue. 

In No Rush

In No Rush SOLD

8x10 oil on linen

Thought I'd found such a great place to set up my easel and paint on the 3rd morning of the paint out... till all the cars started parking along the street, completely blocking my view! So every time one would move I'd quickly and frantically add shapes of shadows, lights, and people. In other words, the title refers to the people lazily sipping their coffee, not the artist across the street trying to capture them!

Morning Commute

Morning Commute SOLD

8x10 oil on linen

The perspective and soft morning light on this little side street off Park Ave caught my eye on the 2nd day of the paint out. Towards the end I felt like it needed a little life though.  Just then a guy with a backpack walked by, probably on his way to class at Rollins College, so I snapped his picture. Little did he know he walked right into my painting too!  

Coffee in the Courtyard

Coffee in the Courtyard SOLD

9x12 oil on linen

Last week I participated (for my 2nd year) in the Winter Park Paint Out, which proved to be just as much fun as last year! I set up under a little alcove beside this charming courtyard on the 1st day, since the sky was grey and I knew rain was predicted.  Sure enough, it poured! Luckily, there was a little bookstore to my right and the owner was kind enough to let me sit inside to wait out the storm. 

Monterey, CA Paintings

These are some paintings I did during the 5 day Plein Air Convention & Expo in Monterey, CA a couple weeks ago.

Asilomar Beach

9x12 oil on linen

(The 1st day was by far the windiest, it was a challenge just to keep my easel from blowing away!)

Rocks at Lovers Point Park

8x10 oil on linen

(Couldn't get over the beautiful blue of the water in CA!)

Pebble Beach

9x12 oil on gessobord

(I paint along the beach quite often, but Florida gulf beaches are so different from CA ones!)

Crash

5x7 oil on gessonbord

(One of the demo artists at PACE suggested meditating on your subject before painting it... which is kind of a requirement when attempting to paint waves!)

Pirate Ship at the Warf

8x10 oil on gessonbord

(Last morning in CA, the red/green complimentary color scheme of this punchy little pirate ship-looking sailboat moored along the warf caught my eye.) 

Point Lobos

8x10 oil on linen NFS

(The stunning vistas from Point Lobos Park literally took my breath away as I hiked around on the last day of PACE... Unfortunately, just as I was getting my easel set up the sea fog rolled in and settled. I didn't have any phthalo blue on my palette either, which is needed to capture the ice blue water there... in the end this one got scraped down, just couldn't manage to do the scene justice, oh well.)

Brrr! It was a little on the cool side... but sooo beautiful!