Portland, Maine

I took photos of lobster boats in Portland, Maine when I drove home from a painting trip this past summer. The colorful reflections, lobster boats, traps and shipping containers tell a story and I plan to do more pieces along the same lines. This is the first, a smaller 11" x 14" where I made the boat the center of interest.

12" x 12" Portland Harbor

Maine Wildflowers

Another painting from Maine- eventually I will be caught up, but I haven't taken the time to update this blog in a few weeks so I am behind.

I painted this looking east toward the ocean about mid-afternoon. I loved the cool tones of the shadows and the violet wildflowers.

Maine Greens 12" x 12"

Small Figurative Paintings Part II

I don't always use my own reference photos for paintings. If the image is simple enough and the message obvious enough, as it is in this image, I can usually make an interesting piece. I have done a lot of beach paintings of kids. I'm always careful to make the kids generic enough so people won't recognize them. I used a photograph by Rachael Curry, an artist friend, of her two children on a beach in Queensland. Rachael and her family live in Australia and I love the internet for this very reason. You 'meet' friends from all over when you share common interests-- in this case art. She posted a gorgeous picture in our online photo sharing forum of her children on the beach. They are obviously posing but the pose is adorable (to me) and has love written all over it.

I cropped this picture into a square format and used a warm peachy underpainting to counteract the huge quantity of blue. I also used a very limited palette of ultramarine blue, cadmium red light, raw sienna, viridian, alizarin crimson and cad yellow light. I love that she is taller than him. It just wouldn't have the same impact if they were the same height.

Young Love

6" x 6"

Oil on Gessobord™

Just Beachy

I am having a show at Studio 14 in Tipp City, Ohio from July 12-September 8, 2013. The theme is SOLAR ENERGY, or paintings featuring sunny things or inspired by the sun. Many of the paintings I take to the show are not painted yet so I hope the rain stops soon and I will get outside and get busy. I painted this one last week when it seemed to be raining every day. I used a picture I took of some beach chairs and a photograph of the ocean that I found on line-- together they seemed to make a nice painting.

I call it Just Beachy.... 12" x 16" oil on linen