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!

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!

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.

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.

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 - Zorbit II

Ah, the Zorbit.

I took a photo of this boat in Squamish, British Columbia a couple of years and painted a picture of it when I got home to the studio. I really enjoyed that painting, and I am enjoying it this time as well!

The difference between the two will be in the detail and the colors, I think. I see more in the photo this time around. I love all the colors in the white. I am looking forward to seeing pictures of the two side by side for a comparison.

This one is an 8" x 10" so it should be finished very very soon. I started drawing it in last night and started filling it in this afternoon. Lovely thing about small paintings- they are completed quickly.

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....