Passage to Seal Bay

"Passage to Seal Bay"

8"x10"

oil on canvas panel

Seal Bay is a beautiful unspoiled part of Vinalhaven Island in Penobscot Bay. It's a must stop for us on our annual boat trip to the area. At high tide, a small boat can make it through this passage into Vinal Cove, and near the end of the cove there is a reversing tidal falls, which everyone loves to go up and down in their dinghies. This year the tide was a bit high when we went through, so there was no falls action. This painting was done from a photo taken as we headed back through the passage to Seal Bay where our boat was anchored.

Lobster Buoy 3

Buoy 3 Red and Green

6"x6" oil on Raymar panel

This is an unusual buoy, because it doesn't have a stick, but I couldn't resist the colors. The lobsterman will grab the line tied to the small end of the buoy using a gaff. I'm thinking of getting one of those for our boat, because we often pick up mooring lines that are hard to grab with a standard boat hook.

Lobster Buoy 2

Orange White and Green Buoy

6"x6" oil on Raymar panel

Today I did the value under paintings for three more buoy paintings. This is one of my favorites, I love the tricolored stick. I may replace the photo if I can get one with a better color reproduction of the water.

Here's the under painting. I wiped off more of the dark before painting over it, to minimize mixing with the upper paint layer.

Owls Head Harbor

 

Owls Head Harbor 

6"x8" oil on canvas panel

My last painting from the Anne Blair Brown class was painted at Owls Head Harbor. Through the class I came to rely more and more on my Notan thumbnails (see below). That was particularly important here, because the boats swung around while I was squeezing out my paint. So I used the Notan for the composition and glances at each boat to grab their dark light patterns as they swung. Then, when I got home, I broke my rule number 1 of plein air painting "Don't muck with it when you get home".  I simplified a few things, and sadly I don't have a picture of the original. Lesson leaned!

The Notan I used for the above painting.

Other Notans of this scene, where I didn't think the composition was as strong.

Doubling Point Light House

Doubling Point Lighthouse

8"x8" oil on Raymar panel

Don’t you just love lighthouses? I do. It’s easy to imagine them lighting the way in a storm. And then there's the solitude of the lighthouse keeper’s life. That would probably last about a day for me! Lighthouses can also be fun to paint. They show different faces as the sun moves across the sky and the tide ebbs and flows. When we’re out on our boat, I always have the camera ready when a lighthouse comes into view.

A few years ago my niece and I took a road trip with a goal of visiting as many lighthouses as we could. This little gem, on the Kennebec River, just south of Bath, Maine, was one of our favorites. It was commissioned in 1989, fifteen years after the founding of Bath Ironworks, just upstream. It’s not much taller than a person, and is just exquisite. You can walk out and around it, over the water It’s easy to get to by road, and the lovely people who own the property will likely let you park, but please ask first. Or, you can see it from one of the tour boats that operate out of Boothbay Harbor, along with several other lighthouses. It's a great boat ride. This painting was done from of several photos I took as we went by on our boat a couple of years ago.

Here’s some more information about the lighthouse, and about the boat tours.

And by the way, I painted this one mostly upside down. More about that in a future post.

"Stonington Green"

"Stonington Green"

8"x16" oil on Raymar panel

 Under painting for "Stonington Green"

Note that I widened the lobster shack and the pier and added the lobster boat.

There are a number of iconic scenes in Stonington, Maine, at the bottom of Deer Isle. Many painters have enjoyed painting them, and they hang in fortunate houses across our country. It’s a beautiful place to visit, and I feel lucky that my first few visits were by boat. That’s the way life should be.

This house, with its green paint and matching lobster shack on its wharf is one of those scenes. This particular view is from the shore side, and you can see it if you walk from Billings Marine into town as we often do. I have a lovely painting of it by Alec Richardson. He stood out on the rocks a bit to the right of this view. I started this painting over a year ago, toned the canvas and did a pencil drawing. And it sat. And I looked at the view again as I walked by last summer. And the other day it reached out to me and said “It’s my turn! Paint me.” And so I did.

Ocean Blues

 "Ocean Blues"

24"x24" acrylic on gallery wrap canvas

"Ocean Hues"

16"x16" acrylic on canvas

SOLD

I've been having fun experimenting with acrylics on big canvases. Last year I painted Ocean Hues (bottom - 18"x18"), and very much enjoyed it, so I wanted to continue the theme. This one is called "Ocean Blues" (top - 24"x24"). As I worked on it, it became a bit less abstract than my original intention, but it's about going where the painting wants to go, isn't it?

I'm off to the Plein Air Convention later this week. If any of you are going, please let me know, I'd love to meet up.

Blue Boat Study

Blue Boat Study

6"x8" oil on Raymar panel

You know how much I love this blue lobster boat. It's not in the water yet, so I pulled out a study I started some time ago, and just added the reflection of the cabin and fixed up the mooring ball. I decided to leave the background as it was. It is, after all, a study.

I'm taking this painting and four others to Yarmouth Frame and Gallery tomorrow, for their next show, "Winter Cowers as Spring Empowers". The opening reception will be from 4-7PM on Saturday, May 9th. I'd love to see you there!

Dinghy in Blue

"Dinghy in Blue"

6"x6" oil on Raymar panel
$150
(the blue is a bit lighter than shown here)
To purchase, click here.

 Under painting in cad yellow and burnt sienna,
which was followed by a thin layer of quinacridone red,
once the yellow layer was dry

As the sun goes down, everything goes golden. It's my favorite time of day.

"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.

"On The Beach" Painting

"On The Beach"

6"x8" oil on Raymar panel

$150
Click here to purchase

 iPad version of On the Beach

Today I started painting using my iPad paintings as a reference. This is my first effort, and it's not a great photo, I'll try to get a better one. I might still tweak it a little, but I don't want to loose the initial freshness, which so often happens. The most obvious thing that hit me is that the zoom on the iPad isn't in my brushes! I think a larger version will be needed to fully use the iPad version information.

I've added a process photo to yesterday's post. There I did an initial sketch and block-in with a higher transparency setting, hoping that it would show through and make the final a little softer. I'll be exploring other ways to do that.

Red Sailboat Watercolor

Just a little watercolor in my sketchbook of my three favorites from the previous post.

Sister Island

Sister Island

4"x10" oil on Raymar panel

$150

A little plein air piece done on Maquoit Bay. If you're wondering how I get Raymar panels in these wide formats, it's simple - they can be cut with a table saw. It can be a little unnerving when the painting is already painted.

I'm off today to the Castine Plein Air Festival, which I thoroughly enjoyed last year. It runs tomorrow morning through Saturday evening, with the show and sale at the Alfond Student Union, Maine Maritime Academy, on Pleasant Street, 6-8PM on Saturday. Last year the event was packed, so be there at 6 if you want your choice of paintings!

Please visit my newly designed website, at www.bobbiheath.com, where you can sign up for my newsletter and learn about each month's events in advance.

Sketching the Blue Boat

Blue Boat sketch

oil on gessoed board

Initial drawing, 6"x12"

The blue boat as it went round and round.

I had some fun on Sunday painting from the town landing in Yarmouth. My favorite blue lobster boat was in the water and made a great subject. I'll show you the first painting I worked on in the next post. This was some fun sketching afterwards. I'd hardly gotten started when the wind picked up, the reflections of the trees were gone and the blue boat was turning around on her mooring. I lost the right hand sketch as I tried to finish it. All in a days work on the water.