Fertile Ground

Today from 4:30 to 6:00 pm is the opening reception for the Norman Williams Public Library's Community Gallery exhibit, "Fertile Ground".

My painting of irises was accepted into the show.  I hope you can stop by  this afternoon for the opening!

This and that...

Here's a little watercolor of tour Easter lily which is now down to two blossoms.  But in it's glory it was so beautiful...

I added some colored pencil to it and now think that was probably a mistake--the purple would have been better if it were watercolored.

On another note, yesterday I attended an all day "Artful Meditation" workshop at Artistree.  It was really great and here are two of my playful creations...

...my collaged box with the "hidden me" on the inside and the "public me" on the outside...

...and my "Island of Ball Trees", a whimsical variation on a project I used to do with my second graders.  It helped me capture the sense of playfulness we all have in childhood!

Painting with Sandy

Yesterday was too wet to paint outdoors and too dark to paint in the studio so Sandy and I set up in the kitchen with a fall flower bouquet and got out our watercolors.  Working back and forth on two paintings is a good way to go so on a damp day like yesterday.  One can dry a bit while I work on the other.  At the end of the session, I had two studies, this first, a light and breezy painting.  I may go back in and add a few details...

"Fall Flowers"

watercolor - 4" x 6"

The next one is my attempt to add a dark background to make the flowers stand out.  I also sprayed it with water to soften parts but maybe I got carried away a bit...

"Chrysanthemums"

watercolor - 4" x 6"

So, I decided to add some marker lines to clarify details and edges and pump it up a little and I'm pretty happy with it now...

"Chrysanthemums"

watercolor and marker - 4" x 6"

As I get back to painting after a very busy season of guests and travel, it's fun and very accessible to start by working small. 

Saint-Gaudens Iris

Using a photo that I took at Saint-Gaudens I added a bit to the watercolor I started earlier and I'm pleased with the result....

"Saint-Gaudens Iris"

watercolor - 9" x 12"

Now I'm looking forward to following the blossoms through the summer.  I only wish I'd started earlier in the growing season!

A Day at Saint-Gaudens

Yesterday, Sandy and I spent the day at Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, New Hampshire.  The home, studios and gardens of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, one of America’s greatest sculptors are quite amazing.  Over 100 of his artworks are displayed in the galleries and on the grounds, from heroic public monuments to expressive portrait reliefs, and the gold coins which changed the look of American coinage.
In the gardens, the poppies had gone by but the foxglove, iris and peonies were blooming beautifully.  We sat right down on the ground to be eye level with the blossoms and enjoyed a sunny, warm day of watercoloring.  Here is my version of the peonies....

"Saint-Gaudens Peonies"

watercolor - 12" x 16"

I also started a painting of iris and hope that finishing it in the studio using photos taken yesterday will not result in a tightened up painting!

Tulips

It snowed again last night--maybe another five or six inches.  It won't last long because temperatures are forecast to go up into the 60's over the next week.  But the psychological impact of more white ands gray is real.  And the best way to combat it is with some COLOR!

"Tulips"

watercolor - 7" x 11"

So, here's my antidote--a bouquet of colorful flowers exploding on to the paper, giving us hope for warmth and sunshine coming soon....

"Life Force"

Today I've been working with a different palette--warm reds and orange.  Perhaps I need to see these colors when the landscape is still white and shades of blue shadows....
This composition is lovely and fat with dots of dark paint and the salt makes textures in the first wash....

"Life Force" - stage one

"Life Force"

watercolor and gouache - 4" x 6"

Some judicious straw blowing and a bit of negative space painting gave me this result.  I am liking these little experiments with loosely constructed work....

Daily Painter Week Eleven

Well, it looks like it's another floral week!  This time of year, flower gardens are so beautiful they can't be denied.  I was inspired to create the pieces below during a visit to Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site in Cornish, New Hampshire.  It was a hot, sunny day and after Sandy and I toured the house and gardens, we settled down to work....

"Hollyhocks"

Sharpie marker and colored pencil on watercolored paper

5 1/2" x 7 1/2"

"Day Lilies"

Sharpie marker and colored pencil on watercolored paper - 6" x 8"

"Poppies"

Sharpie marker and colored pencil on watercolored paper  - 6" x 10"

Working with these media is one of my favorite ways to sketch.  It comprises the best of several worlds: watercolor wash done either before or after the marker drawing and colored pencil to finish.

Daily Painter Week Ten

A busy, busy week!  First up is the painting I did in my plein aire workshop in Pomfret.  I worked with a new palette and mixed all my greens which was quite a challenge.  And who knew you could make a great cerulean blue with white, a little bit of thalo blue and cadmium lemon yellow?

"Felicity Farm"

9" x 12" - oil on canvas

Last week, Sandy and I went to Cider Hill Gardens in Windsor to paint.  I haven't finished my painting yet but here are some photos of the amazing perennials there....

"Day Lilies"

"Astilbe"

"Little Roses"

"Little Hosta"

"Huge Hosta"

Finally, below, is the colorful hanging basket on our deck.  It needs lots of water and dead-heading but it's worth it for all this abundant color....

Daily Painter Week Seven

This week, the iris are in bloom here in Vermont.  So here is my take--or better yet, four takes--on this lovely frilly flower....

"Iris"

 4" x 6" - watercolor with collage

Lily of the Valley came and went and the lupine is blooming now.  Siberian iris are still budded and will probably bloom next week along with the lemon lilies.
The next two were done while working with Sandy in Randolph...

"Bend in the White River"

4" x 6" - marker and colored pencil on watercolored paper

"Lumpy Clouds"

4" x 6" - watercolor

And finally, below is a paraphrase of the great Tibetan meditation instructor, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche's words.  They were shared on Susan Piver's wonderful online Open Heart Project and have been helping me keep my expectations a bit lower.... 

"Patience"

5 1/2" x 7 1/2" - marker and carbon pencil on watercolored paper

So, the daily artist adventure goes on....

Daily Painter Week Four

I've been doing a drawing or painting every day now for a month.  I am amazed at this since I wasn't getting into the studio very much earlier this year.
I started the week with two drawings of studio objects.  The first is my canvas stretching stapler.

"Red Stapler"

6" x 8" - soft pencil on gessoed paper with colored pencil and watercolor

I liked the black, white and red colors together and so I decided to draw the hammer I use for hanging pictures and banging on staples that don't go all the way into the stretcher frames.

"Red Hammer"

6" x 10" - soft pencil with watercolor

This next series of small abstracts is done in the same manner as last week's "Tulips".  These also look good connecting to one another in a horizontal format.  

"Moving Fractures"

4" x 6" - watercolor with collage

Below is a marker drawing I did last Thursday at Mink Brook Nature Preserve in Hanover, New Hampshire with the Odanaksis Artists who have been painting plein aire together for the past eleven years.

"Ancient Tree"

6" x 9" - Sharpie Marker

I was fortunate to be able to work plein aire two days this past week and now have two drawings plus lots of photos to work from.  More next week....

Daily Painter Week Three

I spent a lot of time in the studio this week and created seven new pieces....

"Sap Bucket #2"

6" x 8" - soft pencil on gessoed paper

"Barn on the Hill"

6" x 8" - soft pencil on gessoed paper

The flowers below will be mounted horizontally into one frame....

"Tulips"

 4" x 6" - watercolor with collage

The watercolor below is the second painting inspired by a snowy day on Calendar Hill....

"Shadow Ribbons II"

9" x 12" - watercolor

This Daily Painter adventure goes on.  I wonder what next week will bring?

Daily Painter Week Two

Well, I just finished week two of daily drawing and painting.  I am finding the daily exercise to be exciting and invigorating.  

A quick sketch with added watercolor at the Quechee covered bridge.

Since there isn't a lot of time to devote to each one I skip studies and the work becomes more spontaneous.  On the sap bucket drawings, I just found an interesting place to begin, worked out to the edge of the little paper--maybe 5" x 7"--and if the composition didn't work I just lopped off the uninteresting part--a kind of "flying by the seat of your pants" approach. 

"Sap Buckets" done in marker

"Sap Buckets #2"

5 1/2" x 7 1/2" - soft pencil on gessoed paper

"Sap Bucket #1"
6" x 8" - soft pencil on gessoed paper

"Shadow Ribbons I"

9" x 12" - watercolor

I am very happy with the last three pieces and consider them frame worthy.  And I haven't spent so much time in my studio in ages....

All those little apples...

At the recent, "Fine Works in Miniature" show at Artistree Gallery in Woodstock, I showed five small apple watercolors.  The first was part of the fifty unframed pieces by fifty artists shown together....

 "Three Knobbed Russets"

7" x 7" - watercolor mounted on clayboard

Most of these paintings, including the one above, were inspired by lovely heirloom apples I discovered at the Woodstock Farmers Market....

"Three Holsteins"

7" x 7" - watercolor

"Three Queens of the Pippins"

7" x 7" - watercolor

This last arrangement made me think of a traffic light--hence the title....

"Stop, Caution, Go"

7" x 7" - watercolor

And I blogged about the creation of this painting last time....

"Three Cortlands"

7" x 7" - watercolor

Working small is an interesting challenge.  I enjoyed it immensely and will remember it as a possibility even as I go about stretching some big canvases for acrylic landscapes.  And all those little apples?  They made fine applesauce.