Value Study III - Backdoor to Seal Bay

A few hundred yards down the shore from yesterday's scene is the entrance to Seal Bay, the "backdoor" as I call it. At low tide you can't even get a dinghy through this, but at full tide, it is gorgeous. One time when we passed through here, there was a guy sitting on the big rock in the passage reading a book. What could be better on an August afternoon?

Value Study II - Vinal Cove

I like this one better, just four shades of gray, yeah! The photo is from one of our sailing trips to Penobscot Bay. This is the shore of Vinal Cove in eastern Vinalhaven Island, near the backdoor entrance to Seal Bay where we moor our boat. The kids love to take a dinghy at high tide through the backdoor channel into Vinal Cove, where there is a wonderful tidal flow, and run the dinghies up and down the rapids. It is such a beautiful place!

Value Study I - Penobscot Bay

I have been reading Bob Rohm's "The Painterly Approach" (available on amazon.com). I was taken with his description of Carlson's proposal that four values are sufficient to interpret a landscape. I spent a little time going through photos, looking for appropriate scenes to try this with. This is my first attempt, in gouache. Looks like I have five values here, so I didn't quite make it, but it was an interesting challenge. I used the color photo as a reference and then when I was done compared it with the photo made grayscale in Photoshop. Not bad.

Pet Portraits with the Kids

One rainy day last week I spent some vacation time working with my niece and cousins on pet portraits, inspired by my friend Elizabeth Fraser's work. We were lucky to have three new puppies in the neighborhood, and got some good photos of them to use as reference material. These are the results of Jessica, Eli, and Rose's efforts (two of them are not quite finished, and will be completed at our next visit).

I haven't posted about this until today, because that was the first chance I got to finish my portrait, which is of our Airedale, Macintosh (above). He is looking with longing at one of his toys, placed on a beam above our heads by my son.

And here we are in a group photo. There was actually a larger group, because my mother-in-law, aunt, and cousin got so interested in the drawing part of our process, that they asked for sketchbooks too!

"Apple and Banana" Art Photography Experiment

It was pouring today, so there was no painting outside. After wiping off a more complicated still life, I settled on this simple composition.

I have been unhappy with my painting photography and thought today was a good one for some experimentation. The two photos above show two different cameras and processes, both taken with the painting in the same lighting. The top view was with my 3.3 megapixel 9 year old Olympus, followed by adjusting the levels in Photoshop. The lower view is from my friend Suzanne's Pentax with minimal processing using the HP software from her printer. Several photos were taken with each camera with different white balance settings and we chose the result that best matched the color of the painting, which turned out to be the auto setting. Is it time for a new camera? "Apple and Banana" is a 6"X6" oil.

Homage to Postcards from Detroit - "CMP Wyman Station"

A couple of weeks ago my friend Suzanne sent me to Stephen Magsig's "Postcards from Detroit" blog, where he posts his small paintings of abandoned buildings and commercial structures such as bridges and factory buildings. They are just awesome, and I immediately started following the blog. I love the way Stephen captures the sense of these scenes and his spare painting style.

We have such a structure here in Yarmouth, visible from near my house and all around Casco Bay. I had thought before of painting it, because it has a nice blocky feeling, industrially interesting. Suzanne and I were outside the other day, and Stephen's blog inspired us to paint what we all refer to as "the power plant", but was named CMP Wyman Station. (CMP stands for Central Maine Power, Wyman was it's founder.) The painting is a 6"X6" oil.

"Cottage Reflection"

We are on vacation this week, and our cottage and the family cottage are full. Lots of fun with everyone here together. It has been great to get up early and paint on the float at the dock while the others are still asleep. This cottage is just down the cove. "Cottage Reflection" is a 6"X6" oil.

"Sou'wester Hat"

It took a couple of sessions, but here's my Sou'wester hat. Those of you who know this hat will recognize that we are looking at the back, which has a wide brim to keep the rain off your neck in bad weather. I have only worn this one a couple of times, plastic not being my favorite material. I had a great waterproof nylon sailing hat, with a somewhat wide brim all around that worked in sun and rain, but it got left behind on someone else's boat a long time ago. My husband still has his blue version. It might be on my list... And yes, the cantaloupe is still under there. "Sou'wester Hat" is a 6"X6" oil.

Sou'wester Hat Drawing

In my search for a paintable hat to wear for the upcoming portrait challenge (see previous hat post) I thought of my old sou'wester, appealing because of the bright color and big brim. After five drawings and the help of a cantaloupe I finally had something that my sailor husband recognized. I wonder if painting it will be as challenging?

"From Wolfe's Neck" - NFS

Today I painted with my friend Suzanne at Wolfe's Neck Farm in Freeport. What a great place to paint! We were down on the water at the campsites, though the salt marsh by the bridge was also tempting. We took lots of pictures that will come in useful this winter. This is the view southwest, the point of land with the tall trees is another part of Wolfe's Neck with South Freeport Harbor around the corner behind it. "From Wolfe's Neck" is a 6"X6" oil.