Hydrangeas by the Cabin

Hydrangeas by the Cabin SOLD

6" x 9" gouache on watercolor paper

In late July I went up to our family's cabin in the hills of East Tennessee as we do each summer. Last year a friend of mine drove up and brought all my oil paints and supplies with her, however, this year I flew and was not able to bring any of it on the plane in my carry on luggage, other than my gouache tubes and some paper.  It wasn't till I got there that I realized I'd left my tube of white at home in my studio. Now, gouache is very much like watercolor, it can be used transparently or opaquely. I like it because you can tint colors lighter or go back at the end and add white, which you cannot do with watercolors. With watercolors one must plan out ahead of time what is to be kept lightest in value and it can be a very unforgiving medium. Anyway, I had just the tiniest little smear of white dried up on my palette and chose to use it for the tera cotta pot, for the rest I had to use the white of the paper- as one traditionally does with watercolors.  Necessity being the mother of invention, I actually really like the way this turned out with the contrast of transparent and opaque! 

Swimming Hole

Swimming Hole

11" x 14" oil on panel

This was one of the last paintings I did in Tennessee this summer, painted at the bottom of the Laurel-Snow hiking trail in Dayton.  My husband and I had gone running on the trail a few days earlier and the moment I saw the mountain stream that runs all alongside the trail I knew I wanted to paint it!  So we returned a couple days later and while he took our kids on a 5 mile roundtrip hike to the falls and back that's just what I did- set up my easel on some rocks and set out to paint the reflections, ripples, shadows, colors, textures and transparent depths of this swimming hole.

Once done, I took a picture of it still on the easel where it seemed to blend seamlessly into the scene itself (see photo below) and it was recently featured in Plein Air Magazine's online newsletter, Outdoor Painter.com!

 http://www.outdoorpainter.com/news/parting-shot-where-the-painting-ends.html

High Roller

High Roller

8" x 10" oil on panel

Well, summer has come to an end- at least in terms school having started back up for my children- which means it's high time I get back to posting some of the paintings I did over the past couple months on my blog here. This one I did in mid-July over the course of 2 mornings. My favorite part about it is the sky, as I feel I was able to (somewhat) successfully capture the luminosity of the billowing clouds.  Unfortunately, when I returned to my spot (on the dock behind the Cortez fish processing plant) the sky was much more overcast, which meant the reflections in the water were quite different than the day before, as were the shadows. Oh well, lesson learned, probably better to wait until conditions are the same again, guess that's just what happens sometimes when you "roll the dice" with a plein air painting!

Sexy Lady

Sexy Lady

9" x 12" oil on panel

Today found me back at the Cortez Fishing Village again... there's just so much good painting subject matter here! Plus, its always fun to chat with the motley crew of assorted fishermen who inevitably wander over to see what I'm up to. (Note* This painting gets it's provocative title from the name painted on the side of the aqua blue fishing boat.)

Beach by the Sandbar

Beach by the Sandbar SOLD

11"x14" oil on canvas

Painted this one by The Sandbar Restaurant on Anna Maria Island this morning. The sky kept threatening rain and sprinkling intermittently on my canvas, but I was not deterred! And neither was the wedding party setting up for the evening's ceremony just to my left ;)

Smooth Sailing

Smooth Sailing SOLD

11" x 14" oil on canvas

This week, while my son Sam enjoyed "brushing up" on his sailing techniques at the Tampa Sailing Squadron Camp in Apollo Beach, I practiced my "brush techniques" and enjoyed watching him set sail... 

Shell Seekers

Shell Seekers SOLD

8" x 10" oil on panel

This is a commissioned painting I started yesterday and just completed, working from photos I took of a dear friend's two children who came to visit us at the beach a few weeks ago.