Tourmaline

Tourmaline
9" x 12"
oil on canvas board

My goal is to finish three paintings by Wednesday. This one took me a little longer than I thought it would.
I think my next two are going to have to be smaller to meet my deadline.

I picked the title because tourmaline is a semiprecious bluish green stone. I like it. I like this boat too. Its a little jewel.

I am going to have to make some changes in the type of yellow I use though, because the one I am using has some red in it. I've been having trouble getting the clean, pure color I want.

Ahhhhhh.....

Seattle Boats
6" x 9"
oil on canvas board
Sold

Small paintings move wonderfully fast. I can see why people become daily painters. Instant gratification- ahhhhh!

Moving on! - The Metisse

The Metisse

8" x 10"
Oil on canvas board
Sold

I took too long with this one- started fiddling with it. Darn tiny brushes!

I'm going on a virtual paint out to Paris now with Bill Guffey and crew. I got my prints from Kodak the other day and am sooo ready to start!

Scribbles

Another shipping box sketch. Scribbling on cardboard is fun. There is a sort of freedom in sketching on something that you know will be beaten up by USPS and then thrown away.

I am halfway there with the Metisse boat painting. I'll post a picture tomorrow. I have to wait for real light, otherwise the colors come out all jacked.

I decided to give membership with the Oil Painters of America (OPA) a shot. Membership is juried, but I'm not terribly sure how exclusive they are. I need more exposure for my work, I believe I can get some with OPA. I won't know for sure if my membership application will be accepted or not until around the 23rd of May, but I was told to go ahead and enter the 2009 Western Regional Juried Exhibition. I guess if my membership is denied, they can just chuck my entry into the show. Easy enough.

They get around 2400 applicants for that show and only accept 200. I saw last year's paintings, and they were very good. I'm a little nervous, but not really. This will be the first time I entered any juried show, so it is more of a learning experience than anything. Whatever happens, it will be fun!

The show will be in Kirkland, Washington August 6-30, so I hope to go see it whether my work is accepted or not.

OPA is also having a paint-out (painting outside, not like a shoot out or anything) in November that I hope to attend. It will be on Willow City Loop just outside of Fredericksburg, my hometown.
Oooo! How exciting! Just the thought of painting with a bunch of other oil painters gives me wonderful little chill bumps. Oh the excitement of it!

The Metisse - WIP

I was getting a painting ready to ship and got a little carried away. I couldn't help myself- the box was so perfectly clean and blank... It was just begging for a sketch. The boat is called the Metisse. I fell in love with it at the dock. It was smooth, slender and red red red!

This was another reference photo I had been avoiding for a while, but I had so much fun sketching it that I started a small painting of it.

I am enjoying working small. This one is an 8"x10". Soon I will have a mass of 6"x8" canvas boards to work on as well.

Let me tell you how much I love Gamvar (Gamblin's super awesome archival varnish). It dries to the touch relatively fast and doesn't make your head spin from the fumes... in fact, I hardly noticed a smell. Hurray for Gamvar!

Aha! Not quite as finished as I thought!!!

Fisherman's Wharf

16" x 20"
Oil on Canvas
Click here to purchase.

Now its finished. I will not be making any more changes to this painting.

I was trying to leave the lettering off the Karsten because I didn't want it to draw attention away from the Phalarope behind it. But lo and behold! leaving off the lettering did the opposite of what I intended. That great white mass was just too much. I like this painting too much to have left it to sink into that crevasse of unwanted paintings.

(The purchase link on the post below will go the same place as the purchase link in this post... to the updated painting in my Etsy shop.)

Fisherman's Wharf

Fisherman's Wharf
16" x 20"
Oil on Stretched Canvas
Click here to purchase.

Finished! This painting was a challenge. Mostly because I took so long to finish it. Have had to make some changes to my studio space

Moving on. I have about 16+ canvases to paint red now.

I have been trying to get my hands on Edgar Payne's Composition of Outdoor Painting for a while now, and could not find a copy for less than $125. Insane. Finally found one though- for less than $30 and still in the printer's shrink wrap!

It came in today. I thumbed through it and can hardly wait to immerse myself in its glorious tutelage! (oooooo! I get shivers just thinking about it.)

WIP - getting closer!

A few little changes and a bit more paint. Any minute now a whirlwind of paint is going to hit this painting and it will be finished. I pretty much just have some whites and an orange-ish spot and a blue-ish spot.

Oh... And a bit more lettering on the boat in the foreground.

Almost finished!

WIP - a bit more

Coming along... I just saw something I need to change. Man! Blogging is helpful! This is the first painting that I have pretty substantial reflections from the water appearing on the boats. This is a new challenge. I like it so far.

Lettering is hard. It has to be just right otherwise it looks sloppy and awkward. Talk about awkward- awkward is one of the most awkward words I have ever seen. Good fit.

My lettering on the Phalarope needs a bit more work... the beginning of the word hangs down further than the rest. .... hmmm...

WIP - bit by bit

Woohoo! I got a little bit done today. Feels good.

I really had to fight the impulse to make all those grays in the upper left hand corner the same. But things like that make a difference. There are bluish grays, reddish grays, yellowish grays... It would be a shame to ignore all those wonderful little differences.

Its funny, but the more things get filled around the boats, the more excited I get about painting them. Icing.

WIP

A start. I had a minute and decided to go ahead and post what I have so far. It helps me see that some progress is being made. Its like looking at a painting upside down. Gives a different perspective.

Sometimes I get so caught up in the mess before me I fail to see where it is all going. Just have to keep pushing forward, and even if the final piece is not what I wanted it to be, it will at least be finished. More often than not I end up liking it in the end.

I have some more stormy sunset cloud reference photos on the way. I'm looking forward to painting some more clouds.... and more boats.

I just have to work past this block.

WIP - some Seattle boats

Rrrrr!!! The frustration! I screwed up the proportions on the reflections of the boat in the back, and I have been fighting with it for days. I am so ready to just paint!

I get to start tomorrow. Yay!



Looking to the future....

This is what my toddler does when I give him a paintbrush.

Awesome.

Port Townsend Boats II

Port Townsend Boats II
16" x 20"
Oil on canvas
Click here to purchase.

Voila! Painting number 5 in my Boats of the Pacific Northwest series.

I like this one. I really like the composition- the busy stuff at the top with a majority of the space taken by reflections.

I think I am going to do a couple of cloud paintings while I wait for my reference photos from Seattle to come in.

WIP - More Port Townsend Boats, and a bit of a ramble

I took this tonight because I didn't want to wait until morning when I have the proper lighting... The colors are a little off.

We went to Seattle this weekend and loaded me up with SOOOOOOOO many wonderful boat pictures! Oh! I am so excited! Wait until you see some of the beauties I got! Saturday evening we ran over to Fisherman's Terminal. Brad got himself a fish taco to go from Chinooks- which he said was awesome. I don't care for the taste of fish. I took his word for it. The day had been overcast, but seconds after Brad got back in the car with his dinner the sun broke through the clouds. I booked it for the boat docks. There were so many wonderful things to see. I took around 200 pictures there. Then we went down the road to a Marina just below the Fremont Troll and got a few golden hour pictures. I am so excited! I can hardly wait!

We had an interesting stay at the Mediterranean Inn. Someone pulled the fire alarm around 3 am. It was chilly, but a nice night. I think there was a dominant feeling of goodwill coming from the relief of knowing that we were all out and safe. The hotel was pretty small, so it didn't take long to clear the building. No fire. The suspect was a lonely drunk guy in a beret, apparently looking for some company in the wee hours of the morning. There was only one person there who seemed angry about the whole deal, but he seemed like a nice fellow. He was running about taking pictures of everyone standing around outside in their pajamas with their bed hair sticking out in all directions. I spent the rest of the night going over in my head how I could get out of a building faster if we were ever in another fire alarm situation.

I love Seattle. The city itself has so much personality. I remember someone telling me they hated the place because all the buildings were a dirty gray... I saw so much color there. Even with the overcast and rainy skies. The buildings are tastefully colored, muted, not obscene. Not the glaringly hideous colors you see on the houses in mountain towns.

There is art everywhere in Seattle. And artists too. On our way into town yesterday we saw a man riding a bicycle with a french easel strapped to his back. It was a very pretty easel too. Looked a warm red, like cherry wood. I wonder where he found such a pretty thing. Maybe he stained it himself.

I remember seeing an artist painting at a busy intersection a couple of years ago. His subject was a cute little bar/cafe, and he was painting on a rather large canvas, in my opinion, for painting outside. It was definitely larger than a 16x20. I was impressed. And then there was little ol' me running around like a maniac trying to get as many boat pictures as I could before the light vanished. But as far as anyone else knew, I was just an enormous dork caught up in a shutter frenzy.

I had so much fun running up and down the docks.

Seattle = Good Food.
Woah! let me tell you. We have never eaten at a bad restaurant in Seattle. This morning I was dying for a hometown-hangin'-with-the-cronies kind of breakfast. I was looking doubtfully at a Greek breakfast menu when Brad opened the door of the next cafe, took one look inside and said "We need to eat here." I was skeptical at first because it was called Mecca Cafe. I was thinking "middle eastern food for breakfast... not today." The place was a tiny bar/cafe done down in red, black, and silver. It was like Mephistopheles bought himself a little 50s diner. The waitresses had pasty skin and black hair and fingernails and dark dark lipstick- not quite Goth though. They took the look and gave it a real down home feel- if you can imagine that. It was all very well done! And the food was wonderful. I had a massive plate of scrambled eggs, rye toast with strawberry jam and the biggest pile of hash browns I have ever seen in a cafe- all for a whopping $4.99.

I was musing over the fact that we have yet to eat crummy food in Seattle, and Brad said it is because they have loads of competition and access to all kinds of fresh ingredients. A mediocre eating establishment can't survive in that kind of an atmosphere.

I love Seattle.

WIP- more Port Townsend boats

I was looking at my wall of reference photos last night trying to figure out what to paint next, the pickings are getting slim, when I came across this photo. The composition was boring, so I cropped a section with tape and cut out what I wanted.

So now I'm working from a teeny tiny 3" x 4" photo. Which, as it turns out, is a good thing! I am having to break the smaller bits into chunks of color rather than trying to paint a particular something. I am in trouble when I find myself trying to paint what I think an object is supposed to look like, instead of how it is.

My mantra for the day:
Paint what you see, not what you know.


Oh! I found my learning journal while cleaning up the book shelf. One of my "learning observations" from the other day was that a concise drawing is key to a good painting. My husband calls it "P.A." - Plan Ahead. I think it makes the painting process more enjoyable, because everything is set and ready to go.

I didn't plan very well on my last painting and struggled with it the entire time.

Gotta have P.A.

Squamish Yacht Club

Squamish Yacht Club
16"x20"
oil on canvas
Click here to purchase

Finished.

This picture was taken in the middle of summer. It was chilly. And stormy, as you can see. That was such a wonderful day. The dark, moody sky... and the sun beaming through in just the right places.

I am looking forward to getting some more reference photos soon. I was making room on the bookshelf the other day and found Fodor's Pacific North Coast guide book. Oooo! Excitement! I don't know why I didn't think about using a guide book. This one is over 10 years old, but I figure I can get some basic ideas of where to go and then look up the details on the internet.

I love the internet.

How did we ever do without it?

WIP - Squamish Yacht Club

Adjust, adjust. The boat in the foreground is in a constant state of adjustment.

I am, at least, feeling a little better about this painting. When there are so many changes needed, and so much going on in the painting, it is sometimes difficult to see the end product as worthwhile.

Getting there!

WIP- Squamish Yacht Club

My paint has been drying fast on this painting... either that, or I am painting slow. E-gad! this painting and I have been having it out. I just keep telling myself to keep trudging along.

I find grays to be somewhat difficult to match. Apparently I need more practice...

I am too zoned in on the background right now. It has been irritating me, but I think what I needed to do- and I see it now - is to post the work. I think I am staring to see some of the things that were bugging me about the background.

Moving on... dab, dab, dab.

Reflections

Funny how this morning I felt as if I was sooooo far from being finished with this painting and now it is done! Yippee-hurray!

I like it. Its Etsy fodder.

Now I am going to go paint some chickens... or something else....

WIP - reflections

This was looking like a complete mess when I stopped painting this afternoon. But! now that I see it another way (through the eyes of the camera) I can see that it is coming together.

One of the reasons I love painting reflections on water is that it really forces me to paint what I see. Lay down the color that I see, and not the shape that I know this object should have. I also love how such a big fat mess will suddenly explode into life.

A lot of people say painting water is hard. Its really not, as long as you paint what is there. Paint what you see, not what you know. Paint what you see, not what you know! I have to remind myself to do that constantly... especially when painting water.

I like the composition of this painting. I think I could happily do another painting with even less of the sky and boats and dock fodder and more of the reflections.

I am really enjoying just painting this painting. It is challenging, but I feel more comfortable with each painting I complete. Like my joints are loosening up and I can stretch... and breath.

I look forward to seeing how this one turns out!