Day 5

Nagoonberry Trail oil painting 6x6

It has been a very frustrating couple of days.  I tried to paint this image twice on gesso board and wiped it out twice.  Then I did an under-painting on this canvas and let it dry overnight and worked most of yesterday on it.  I was almost to wipe it out again.  I think getting the values right has been my main problem.  I'll probably work on it some more.   

For more than a year I have been studying with Deborah Paris, doing indirect painting with a palette of mostly transparent pigments. I love some of the results I've achieved, but like some instant gratification too.  It took me a while to figure out I needed some more opacity. So, I pulled out some older tubes to work with.  I've really been struggling with getting the greens right.  I need to go back and study the color charts that I made a couple of years ago.

I'm a day late getting this on my blog, and hope I can still get it on Leslie's. I really tried to get a good photo after dark yesterday and finally around noon today there was enough light outside.

Day 4

watercolor 6x6 inches

 I'm frustrated that I don't have an oil painting done to put here today.  I started a small one this morning and wiped it out twice.  Then I did an underpainting which I will work on tomorrow or the next day when it drys.  Now I have two works in progress in oil.

I had wanted to go out for a ride and do a watercolor this afternoon, but it was dark by 4 when I finally quit working on my oil painting.   I went through photos I took on my walk yesterday and used a couple of them for this painting.  These weird looking Sitka Spruce are like many on our beach and around town.  The brewery in Juneau used spruce tips(the new growth that comes in the summer) for a special brew and buys them from pickers here.

Day 3

oil painting 8 x 6 inches

I painted this yesterday but couldn't photograph it until today when the sun was shining.  It's from a photo taken last week when the willows and ground were covered with frost.  Now the ground is covered with a little bit of snow and  ice.

Day 2

I painted the sky after watching a spectacular sunrise from my window between 8:30 and 9 this morning.  This is the only time of year that I can see much of the sunsets and rises from my house and there have been lots of beautiful ones this year.

watercolor 4 x 6

I finished an oil painting this afternoon and will wait until tomorrow to photograph it in the daylight

FIRST DAY OF LESLIE SAETA'S CHALLENGE

watercolor 4x5 inches

After ignoring this blog for most of the past year, I'm turning over a new leaf and have taken Leslie Saeta's challenge to paint 30 paintings in 30 days and post them here.

My intention for the month is to paint most days with oil, but am having some difficulty getting going after hardly picking up a brush for the last two months and the last hurrah of 2014.

This little watercolor is one of three I did this afternoon from memory of the view from my studio window, as it was a few days ago.  We've hardly had any snow this year but it has been cold and the willow have been covered with frost.  But today the view is quite different looking, with melting snow from last night on the ground and on the trees.

  

A PAINTING AT THE BEACH

BEACH IN WINTER  watercolor 6.5x11 inches

A two-week stretch of sunny weather ended a few days ago.  I went to our beautiful beach on many of those days and went for walks and painted from my car.  I worked on this piece on 4 different trips at the same time of day. 

I left out tire tracks in the snow.  It always irritates me that people drive all over this area.  It's about a mile from the dock to where you can't walk or drive anymore because of a slough, and many folks seem to need to drive as far as they can.... there is always a place to park on the road and walk.

There are three rare lady slipper orchids amongst the trees that I go to see in bloom every year and I fear  that some vehicle is going to obliterate them.

POINT ADOLPHUS

POINT ADOLPHUS gouache painting 10.5x7.5

 I've been trying to not paint from photographs for much of the last year, and have mostly been using oils.  But this painting  that I had started  and struggled with  for close to two years needed finishing. I used  several photos that I had taken years ago while fishing with my husband,  .... and this month I finally cut a mat and found a frame for it.   

At first I worked  with transparent watercolor.  I spent hours painting every tree and wiped most of them out.  Then I got out the gouache and after at least one more wiping out, finally finished it.  The paintings was originally taller with snow on the top of the mountain and more water.... many hours of work got cut off, but its a much better composition. The kayaker was the final touch.

 I had put a whale in the water at one time.  Point Adolphus, not too far from here, is a prime spot for observing humpbacks.  I'm not sure if this rocky outcrop  is actually the "point" but it is close.  I looked at Google Images to see if there was a photo of it, and almost all that's there are images of whales.

FOGGY AFTERNOON

FOGGY AFTERNOON watercolor 7.5 x 7.5 inches

It must be time to start posting here again, since here I am writing again. 

The trees outside my studio window get drawn and painted a lot.   Many days they are just a dark mass but they looked like this for several days earlier this month.
 

MORE DRAWING AND PAINTING TREES

   Thank you to all who have commented in the last few weeks. I really do appreciate you encouragement. The class with Deborah Paris is still keeping me busy and I'll be getting back to paying more attention here after this coming week.

Here are a couple of monochromatic  underpaintings that I did in the last week.

 oil painting 11x14 inches

 

oil painting 14x11 inches

I've been concentrating on the local trees.  I was able to get outside this last week as the sun shined for a few days and temps were in the 50's F.    The deciduous trees are just starting to show some leaves, there was a dandelion in the yard and the slugs are back, so our spring is here, though now it is raining hard again.

MORE TREES

Here are a couple of tree drawings I did this last week for my online  class with Deborah Paris. The first one is done with charcoal as seen from my window. I drew the second one on the one dry day from my car.  I've had to resort to photos or coping masters for the others.     There is a lot of reading assignments and I've been searching the internet for more information and images.  I've fallen in love with works by Russian artist Ivan Shishkin.

For the remaining two weeks, we will be painting.  And the weather is suppose to get better.... into the 50s.