Royal River Bandwagon Collaborative Portrait

My painting of section bwe4 of the Royal River Bandwagon Collaborative Portrait

8"x8" oil on panel

As many of you know, I do a lot of teaching at Artascope in Yarmouth, which is part of the Bickford Education Center (BEC). As part of an upcoming fundraiser, we are making a collaborative portrait of the Royal River Bandwagon. I've seen a couple of Susan Bickford's earlier collaborative portrait projects and was excited to participate in this one. She blows up a photograph, then cuts it into a grid of pieces. Participants take one piece each, and reproduce it using their chosen medium. The resulting pieces are put into a frame with metal backing with small magnets. The result is very very cool. Check out Susan's collaborative portrait website and this article about one of her projects. Many of them have been portraits of people, rendered in black and white. This one is the portrait of a vehicle, and we are going for color.  Hopefully I'll be able to show the whole thing in an upcoming post.

Blueberries and Watermelon

 Blueberry Pie

10"x10" oil on cradled board (sides painted - no need to frame)

$200

#165

Watermelon

10"x10" oil on cradled board (sides painted - no need to frame)

$200

#164

to purchase, click here for the email and telephone number

Does your kitchen need sprucing up? Here's an easy way to do that and to help a great cause. My two paintings of garden produce are available at the online Tidewater Farm benefit run by the University of Maine Cooperative Extension. Half the proceeds go to the farm (and half to the artist). The sale ends on September 2.

If you’re ever in the Portland Maine area and want a beautiful place to paint, I recommend this saltwater farm. I love teaching my plein air class there. Let me know, and I’ll go with you. Here are a few posts of paintings of the marsh on the property. There are also buildings, the garden, and additional marsh views.

http://bobbiheath.blogspot.com/2015/09/marsh-at-tidewater-farm.html

http://bobbiheath.blogspot.com/2015/09/tidewater-greens.html

http://bobbiheath.blogspot.com/2015/09/tidewater-in-secondaries.html

http://bobbiheath.blogspot.com/2015/09/tidewater.html

Wet Beach at Trouville

Wet Beach at Trouville

7"x9" oil on panel

$75

On my trip with the Wapping Group, we spent five days in Brittany, followed by three in Normandy, near Honfleur. We stayed in the small town of Villerville-sur-mer, where we found gorgeous villas, very paintable houses in the village, and a lovely beach with a walking path the whole length of town. There is a creperie and a fish restaurant in addition to the very posh one at our hotel, Le Bellevue. We tried them all!

We had a very wet day of painting in nearby Trouville. Sally, Jenny, and I stood beneath the overhang in front of a block of beach changing rooms, and painted the beach in the rain. Others got totally soaked, but cranked out some wonderful paintings. This area has a lot to see, but I’d been there several times before, so Sally and I stayed close to Villerville, and painted on the beach, chased a few cows, and tried to stay dry.

Some of Sally's paintings from the trip are here on Facebook.

And here are a couple of Rob Adam's beautiful pen and ink drawings from the trip, also on Facebook.

Low Tide at Pont-Aven

Low Tide at Pont-Aven

7"x9" oil on board

$75

To purchase click here

I’m just back from a trip to France with the Wapping Group of Artists. I was very much looking forward to this visit with my friends from four years ago, when I joined them for a similar visit to Brittany and Normandy. Alas, trouble followed me all the way! British Airways lost my bag on the way over, so, no paint, tripod, panels, clothes, or camera. I did have my paint box, brushes, and PJs in my backpack, so all was not lost. But lots of time was, as I struggled to cobble together a painting kit and something to wear! And of course, I was ever hopeful, but the bag never showed up. I’m now trying to figure out how to get reimbursed for its contents.

In addition to the luggage fiasco, it rained on us pretty much all the time. On one painting, I had to lift up my box, turn it sideways, and dump the water off the palette, two times! I only did a couple of paintings worth showing. This is my favorite from Brittany, done in Pont-Aven, a lovely town where Gauguin spent lots of time. The river Aven flows through the town, and is pretty much only puddles at low tide. The boats all sit on their keels with small wooden sticks on the side to hold them upright where needed. It’s an interesting view, as here in New England, we only see boats out of the water in orderly rows, held up by many jack stands. The painting was done with one blue, red, yellow, and white tube of paint.

Pont-Aven, in Brittany, is well worth a visit. There is an art museum, with a history of the period when Gauguin was in residence and a few of his paintings, along with those of his contemporaries, in addition to more contemporary exhibits. My friends Mary, Christine, Sally, and I enjoyed the boat trip down the Aven to the sea. And everyone enjoyed the galettes, moule frites, crepes, and cider. Take a look at my Facebook page over the next few days for introductions to artists I painted with on the trip.

Watermelon

Watermelon

10"x10" oil on cradled panel 

$200 at the Taste of Tidewater event in August

My second painting for the Tidewater benefit is called Watermelon. I liked the idea of the round subject from the pie, and thought that pulling out a piece would improve the composition. And then there are the colors, red/pink and green are complimentary, which is a great combination.

When you read this I’ll be in London, and will be off on Sunday night with members of the Wapping Group of Artists, on their summer painting trip to France. I joined them in 2012, and am looking forward to this year’s trip. I’ll try to post from France.

Blueberry Pie

Blueberry Pie

10"x10" oil on cradled birch panel

$200 at the Taste of Tidewater Event in August

As I’ve said before, I enjoy painting for a cause I believe in. Tidewater Farm in Falmouth Maine and its community garden is one of those causes. Their Taste of Tidewater event is coming up in August 20th, including a sale of over a hundred paintings from local artists. Last year I did well with a food painting, and so I’m continuing that theme this year.

My first painting for this year is of a Maine specialty, blueberry pie. I made the pie using a recipe from our cousin Ann, and was dismayed to find that I’d used the wrong one. Like any good Mainer, Ann has two blueberry pie recipes, one for a topless pie, and one for a pie with a top crust. The scribbled recipe I found stuck in the front of our New York Times Cookbook turned out to be for the more juicy version with a top, not what I had in mind for this composition, where the missing piece of pie is key. I was ready to make a new pie, and then had the idea of putting this one in the freezer on a tilt. It worked! Sorry about the bad photo, I'll replace it with a better one once the painted sides dry and I can stand the painting up for another shot.

And for even more fun, I’m teaching a plein air class at Tidewater farm again this year, It will be on Tuesdays, August 9th, 16th, 23rd and September 6th and 13th, 9am – 12pm. Check it out here.

For those of you who can’t make a class every week, I’m also teaching a plein air workshop for River Arts in Damariscotta on July 13 and 14th. More info on that is here.

"Dinghies" - Day 3 of Leslie Saeta's workshop

"Dinghies"

12"x12" oil on gessobord

This one took quite a bit of time, including a few hours after the workshop; partly due to the detail in the boats, and the size. There is a lot of paint mixing for a 12"x12".

A few things I've learned about palette knife painting:
- Lots and lots of paint is required! Buy the big tubes.
- Paint on the palette must be spread out so that you only pick up a bit on the edge of the knife. This means that you need a really big palette. That's going to be tough for plein air unless traveling by car, with a small table to augment the palette area.
- It's important to remember to clean the knife after every stroke. You get messy edges and mottled color if you don't. So lots of paint gets thrown out.
- It's great to only have a few knives to clean up, which is easy to do with wet wipes. A plus for traveling.

Bottom line, it's really fun, and certainly different. I recommend giving it a try. And you won't have more fun than in a class with Leslie.

"Gift Box" - Day 2 of Leslie Saeta's Workshop

"Gift Box"

8"x8"

oil on Gessobord

Day 2 of Leslie Saeta's palette knife painting workshop was a great learning experience. We are all getting a better feel for the knife in our hand, and learning to hold it up to the painting and I'm lagging behind. Afterwards, Leslie made dinner for all 14 of us, which was a very special treat!

Provencal Tree Study

Tree Study

~ 4"x6" oil on board

Julian gave us a lesson in painting trees, focusing on giving them some variety and a shape other than that of a lollipop on a stick. Isn't it interesting how the longer you work on a painting the more regular and evenly spaced everything becomes, even when you started out with lots of variety and interesting shapes? We have to fight against that. I think I succeeded here. Thank you, Julian.

"Provencal Irises"

"Provencal Irises"

6"x8" oil on board

This is another painting from the Julian Merrow-Smith workshop. Julian worked with several of us; doing a short demo, explaining the process, and giving advice. For some photos of us at work, take a look here (Julian is in the orange fleece); and for our paintings, look here (scroll down to irises).

"Provencal Window"

"Provencal Window"

8"x6" oil on panel

my paintings ready to be packed up for the show

I'm back from France, where blogging from my ipad didn't go so well. It was such a great trip. If you have the opportunity to take a workshop with Julian Merrow-Smith next year, grab it. An amazing experience.

Above is my painting of a window at La Madelene, the wonderful house where we stayed. Several people were captivated by the house, and Julian showed us examples of how painters have treated shadows on this type of building. It was fun playing with color!

This painting will be in our show at Yarmouth Frame and Gallery that opens this weekend. I'd love to see you at the opening, which runs from 4-7PM. The other photo shows my 14 paintings all framed and ready for packing up to take to the gallery. They are all there now, ready for the show.

  Ocean Point Pine 6"x8" oil on panel

 

Ocean Point Pine Sketch

 

Sketchbook page

Betsy painting

These are more from my day in East Boothbay last week at the OPA paintout. The top image is my first painting of the day, the same tree as in the painting in the previous post. But here, I'm looking into the sun, or at least it started out that way. My preliminary sketch is the second image, and as is often the case, I like it better than the sketch I did on the panel for the painting. Perhaps a notan would be better preparation for the painting, since it's masses rather than lines that matter. Next time!

I had lots of fun with the drawings, particularly of the other painters. And Betsy did not have two umbrellas.

Corn and Sunflowers

With a forecast for rain all day, I was happy to see clouds moving out around 10AM. I stopped the car for a better look and couldn't resist painting this scene of rows of corn, trees, and other crops. It took 3 sketches before I got what I wanted, and as often happens, I like the composition of the sketch better than that of the painting. Something to work on!

Laudholm Marsh

Laudholm Marsh 10"x8" oil on Ampersand Panel

 The platform that solidly held my umbrella

Yesterday I painted at the Wells Reserve at Laudholm Farm. It's been years since I painted there, I used to very much enjoy their annual wet paint auction. I wish they'd bring it back.

I wanted to paint the marsh near where it goes into the ocean, and was lucky to have this platform to stand on, with an excellent railing on which to clamp my umbrella. It was sunny and a bit windy, so this was a welcome surprise. Umbrellas clamped to tripods often tip over in a breeze, which I know from experience. With this set-up, it wasn't going anywhere.