Bowmore, Islay, Scotland

We are visiting the Scottish island of Islay, off the west coast. It's known for peaty scotch whiskey, which we are greatly enjoying. We're staying in Bowmore, and this watercolor shows the town from the pier. The Bowmore distillery is to the right of this scene. It was great to have a day of sunshine!

Doing the crossword

It was a rainy Sunday in Edinburgh yesterday. This man was doing the crossword at Glass and Thompson while we had tea and scones. Wonderful art galleries in that area. I particularly liked the Helen Wilson exhibit at the Open Eye, done from an in depth study at the Scottish opera.

We're Off!

We're off on our trip to Scotland and France. Whiskey first, painting later.

I've been looking at iPhone apps for the trip, not wanting to take my laptop or even an iPad. This drawing was done with my finger on the free version of Inspire, a woman waiting for her flight to depart.

Posting with my iPhone

I'm going on a trip in a few weeks and would like to leave my laptop at home. This is a test post using only my iPhone to take a photo of a painting, crop it, and post it to my blog.

I started this painting on Monday at the Royal River Boat Yard. I couldn't resist the pattern of the travel lift straps across the front of the Irish Piper, sitting on jack stands (not yet in the painting).

What do you think, does this method work?

PS - The hardest part was getting all of the image. Be sure to use the image settings in the blogger iPhone app to do that, no need to resize the image beforehand.

River Arts Flora and Fauna Show

The Meadows

6"x6" oil on Raymar panel

plein air

Distant Pink

6"x6" oil on Raymar panel

plein air

Friday night is the opening for the new River Arts Exhibit, "Flora and Fauna". I'm honored to have had two paintings selected by juror Henry Isaacs, whose work I love. The Meadows and Distant Pink are shown above. Both of these were painted en plein air at Great Brook Farm State Park in Massachusetts.

The opening is from 5 to 7PM. Hope to see you there!

Peggi Kroll Roberts Workshop 2

High Key Study (#11)

Value and Color (#15)

Value and Color (#16)

These are more examples of the exercises we did last weekend in the Peggi Kroll Roberts Workshop in Atlanta. #11 is a high key exercise, where all values are supposed to be on the lighter half of the value scale, using only two values, just different colors (not counting the background). I enjoyed this one. For #'s 15 and 16 we went back to the full spectrum of values, if required by the scene. Once again, I was trying for two value paintings. This is where I'll need to spend a lot of time practicing.

I can't say enough about what a great workshop this was. And what fun it is to work with excellent models. Thank you Ann, Kathryn, and Annie!

Peggi Kroll Roberts Workshop 1

Two Value Two Color Study (#10)

Two Value Two Color Study (#6)

Value Study (#3)

I had the pleasure this weekend of attending a workshop with Peggi Kroll Roberts at the Art school at Sandy Springs, Atlanta. The workshop was a focus on the clothed figure, and we worked both inside and outside, better light outside, better temperatures inside!

This workshop was exactly what I was looking for. I love to do value studies, but when it comes to translating the values into color, I often get stuck and even when I don't, it's easy to lose the value relationships. Perggi's set of exercises were tailor made for this problem. And working with live models was such a pleasure.

Each morning we began with "almost" blind contour drawings of 10 one minute poses. I love that, it's a great warm-up, really makes you use your eyeballs. On the first day we went on to value studies, first two values, then up to five. One of those is shown above. Next, was two values, but in two colors. I found this very interesting. All of the exercises shown here were done on the first day of the workshop.

I'll do another post with images from the second and third days. I can't say enough about the quality of Peggi's teaching. If you ever get a chance to take one of her workshops, go for it. And if you don't have that opportunity, Peggi's DVDs are also excellent, and a good refresher.

"Southport Harbor"

"Southport Harbor"

4"x8" ink and water color on paper

I've been doing a lot of sketching lately, as much as possible en plein air. Mary Byrom suggested adding water color, even if you have to do it later, in the studio. This was drawn at Southport Harbor, Fairfield, CT, last weekend. A few days later I added the color. I like this idea! Thanks, Mary.

Local Colors at the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden

"Iris"

6"x6" oil on Raymar panel

This month, River Arts is having an exhibition at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay Harbor. I'm honored to have one of my paintings (above) chosen for this show. The show runs April 1 - May 24, and there is an opening reception on Thursday, April 12, 5-7 pm in the Visitor's Center. Here's a description of the show from the Gardens:

This exhibit showcases talented midcoast artists’ expressions of Maine. The Gardens is honored to be partnering with one of the region’s newest and most exciting galleries, the non-profit organization River Arts Gallery of Damariscotta, whose mission is to nurture appreciation, encourage participation and provide opportunity in the arts.

The show is particularly exciting for me, because I love the gardens, and I've had a wonderful association with River Arts, both attending and giving workshops there. If you are in the area, I hope you'll stop by, check out the paintings, and enjoy the gardens.

"Tug 66"

"Tug 66"

8"x6" oil on Raymar panel

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of painting in New Castle NH with Mary Byrom and Barbara Carr, fellow members of the Plein Air Painters of Maine. New Castle is a delightful island community in the Piscatagua River between Portsmouth and Kittery, ME. I found this little red tug and couldn't resist painting it. I planned to do a quick 30 minute oil sketch, and Mary and Barbara were wondering what had happened to me when I finally returned 2.5 hours later. It was such a nice afternoon.