MUD(season) at Artistree

Today is the last day to drop off work for the local MUD(season) show at Artistree.  We've hardly gotten to the beginning of mud season this year with the cold and snow lasting so long.
In addition to "Early Spring, Cloudland Road", I am exhibiting the watercolor below.  In the beginning, the painting was oriented vertically.  But as I worked on it I thought that cropping a bit off the bottom would improve the composition so that's what I did....

stage one

"Barnard Brook Meltdown"

transparent watercolor and gouache - 7" x 7"

Here is the finished painting with some added color to suggest the coming of spring--and not a moment too soon!
Friday night from 5:30 to 7 pm is the opening of this year's exhibit in the new gallery at 2095 Pomfret Road in South Pomfret.  Please come and enjoy!

Early Spring, Cloudland Road

Winter wants to hold on to the cold but the sun is getting stronger day by day and the snow is diminishing.
I've been working on a watercolor painting of a huge tree on Cloudland Road in Pomfret.  The painting came together in stages which I photographed along the way.

In the first stage I am beginning by painting the lightest colors and then check to see how dark I need to go with the tree.

As I build in the darker shades of the tree trunk and branches, these begin to set off the snow on the branches and ground.

"Early Spring, Cloudland Road"

watercolor - 10" x 12"

The finished painting includes the shadows on the snow and the brush along the horizon.  The foreground snow is not pristine but we've gotten used to this leftover mixture of snow and dirt by the sides of our roads and driveways.  Mud season is here!

Yale Art Museum

On our way home from New York City a bit ago, we stayed overnight in Hamden, CT and after dropping our grand daughters off at school, went to the Yale Art Museum to see the current exhibition of James Whistler's work.

Whistler in his studio

The show is mainly his etchings from his days in Paris, London and Venice.  

Nocturne, from the First Venice Set, 1879–80. Etching and drypoint

But there are also a couple of his nocturnes painted along the Themes in London.  He is a master of these dark, mysterious works....

For this exhibit, the walls of the gallery are painted shades and tints of purple--an unusual choice that I found to work very well!  You can see a bit of the color surrounding the painting above....

"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....

"Woods"

Outside my studio window, the field across the road goes up to meet the woods that climb our western hill.  There are deer tracks and shadows that mark the snow and then the deep woods claim the view.
This is the beginning of the watercolor I made yesterday.  It is a loose composition using the colors on my palette, mostly burnt sienna and ultramarine blue but with the added springtime yellows and greens that give hope to us all at this stage of the winter....

"Woods" - stage one

"Woods"

transparent watercolor and gouache - 4" x 6"

My small finished painting is a loose representation of the snowy field and the deep woods both waiting for spring which arrives in about three weeks.

Key West Two

It was eight below zero this morning as I got my coffee in the kitchen. We now have clear, blue skies and lovely, bright sunshine but the actual temperature at one pm is still only one little degree!
So it's a treat to remember our days in Key West with beautiful, warm breezes and abundant, healthy plants.
Here is a collage of photos of palm trees and such I put together this morning....

Key West Abundance

collage - 4" x 7 1/4"

Key West One

We had a great visit with our friends in Key West and while there I took the following photos through the glass table on their balcony....

Each photograph is a lovely small abstract painting and to my mind, there is no point in painting them when they stand alone so beautifully just as themselves....