Evening Waterlilies, 12x24

As I was leaving the pond....

.....after painting the last one, I noticed a glow start to form across the water as the sun was moving toward night.  With that in mind I began this one a few days later around five o'clock and hoped that if I worked quickly there would be enough light to finish.  

At 6:30 it was difficult to see the darker passages and judge the color balance so I packed up.  Fortunately I found it pretty much finished when I got home and could see it in good light.  There were only a few spots that had to go darker, but they were easy adjustments.  

Three blues (Ultramarine, Pthalo, Cerulean Hue), two yellows (Cad Yel Pale, Alizarin Yellow) Cad Orange, three reds (Cad Red, Indian Red, and Rose Madder deep) and, although I don't usually use it but did selectively and very limited in this one, raw umber.  Three brushes: a nondescript 3/4" flat, a rigger and a very cheap Simply Simmons 1/2" flat watercolor brush I swiped from my gouache kit.  Most of it was with the last one.  Done on a gessoed hardboard, 12x24.

I'll try to get out again this week to do another.  These flowers don't last long and "If not now, when?".

Thanks for looking.

Megunticook Isle, 12x16

The warmth of the Maine afternoon sun....

.....was just waning when I got my big idea.  It was an idea I had been wanting to try for several years but when I saw a photo of Colin Page doing it, and on this very lake, how could I resist?

My only problem was I didn't have a boat.  Yet here I was staying in a cabin not 60 feet from the shore and there were, after all, some kayaks hanging about....and one was open cockpit.  Admittedly there was not a place to set up my easel in it and it didn't have an anchor....and the wind was blowing hard.

And yet I had to do it.  So I found a hunk of cord and an old propeller to use as an anchor, threw my stuff in the bottom and headed up the lake into a brisk wind.

Finding a sheltered spot I carefully climbed over my gear to the front of the boat and threw in the anchor and played out the line.  Making it back to the seat, again carefully, I jammed my palette between my legs and began painting.  Only one foot was wet by this time.  Not bad.

All was going really well until the paddle fell overboard.  The physics of a kayak are interesting.  Something about for every action an equal and opposite reaction kept coming to mind.  Reaching for the paddle caused the boat to move in the opposite direction.  The paddle was now further away.

Scooching my butt to try and wiggle me over had a similar effect.  

I began using my hands to paddle to it yet each time I got close the action of my hands made it drift away again.   The wind was beginning to catch the blades. 

As a last effort I grabbed my largest and longest brush, stretched out as far as able without getting swamped and tickled the paddle back to me.  My seat was now wet.

So.  Basically that's how I painted this one....but I haven't told you about the cramp in my leg from being bent up around the palette for so long or how the wake from motor boats came over the side.  

I came back smiling anyway....they call this plein air.

Thanks for reading.

Be back soon with a larger piece I've been working on.

Water Experiences

Port Blakely Harbor, 12x24 plein air

Here are three....
....paintings with water, harbor waters actually.  This is one I did last weekend while the weather was very uncertain.  Most of it was done before the rain got really heavy but I still had to come back the next day to nail down some details.  It's a long piece that was challenging to compose but I think I'd like to try another one.

The pilings are what remains of the town that was here, the posts being the support for the boardwalk and the buildings that rode high above the water.  It was the Largest Sawmill in the World for a couple of decades and I've seen pictures of this harbor with wall to wall tall ships loading on the lumber.  It stopped when the old growth trees were gone.

Port Madison, 11x14 plein air

Port Madison Harbor, normally a harbor teeming with boats and kids and all, was very quiet on this day making for a nice experience.  I liked the patterns and shapes set up by the docks and the water between.

Originally I painted what I saw which made that far zig zag dock similar in darkness all the way across.  Of course that split the painting and prevented the eye from getting out to the far water....so I used a little lighter reddish paint to still represent the dock but give the eye a path to get through.  Seems to work.

Water Shack, 8x10 plein air

Poulsbo Harbor.  Notice how the sky in these paintings is very similar.  Gray.  We really do get blue skies and had a great summer yet all of these were on 'iffy' days.  I like the orange glow from the underpainting and that spot of glowing yellow.  I also like the perspective and wish I had been able to do a bit larger version....like a 20x24.  That would have been fun.

Thanks for looking.

 (I got the blogger comments turned back on if you care to leave something.  Don't ask me why they went away.)

Quayside, 12x12

It's been two years.....
.....since I was last in Maine, but I will be there again soon.  Later this week, so lucky me.  As I was walking along it was the vibrant color in the evening that struck me, quickly followed by the simplicity of shapes.  It had to end up in paint.

The same thing happened the other day when I was walking down Seattle's Second Avenue and happened to cross over to see what was so interesting in the Patricia Rovzar Gallery.  Z. Z. Wei was having a one person show of his large evocative landscapes.

Their impact kept me mesmerized long enough that the ferry left without me.  Terrific pieces.  I came home and looked up his website, saw more work but, if it hadn't been that I had just seen his paintings in person I wouldn't have been half so impressed.  His website is HERE.

I kept searching the web for more about him and came across an interview at Triggerfish which is one of the best interviews of an artist I've read.....or maybe it just hit me where I'm currently at.  Some of the things he says remind me of the lessons I learned from Sunny Apinchapong Yang, who I was fortunate enough to study with several times.  A link to Sunny is HERE.

Among many other things, Sunny taught me to not take it all so seriously.  He said it once as he was flinging a demonstration painting into the woods.  "I suppose now I'll have to go pick it up...." but he was laughing.

 In this interview with Steve Parker Z. Z. Wei says things which also give me a fresh take on it all.  I encourage you to go read the whole interview but here is a segment that said volumes to me:

SP:  That’s fascinating, thanks. It sounds like some sort of shamanistic relationship with paint. Does the paint represent part or parts of yourself in that process, or do you think it has some objective life of its own?

I’ve been wondering how I would describe you to someone who had never seen your work. Do you have a name for what you do? I mean as in do you in any way see yourself as part of a school or a movement? Who have been your biggest influences or mentors? We mentioned Giorgio de Chirico a while back. What other artists do you like or see as important? I know that’s another big question.

ZZ: I am not familiar with “shamanism”, but for sure I am not“possessed” when I paint. I like the scientific, analytical approach of your questions, but I might disappoint you. My answers are likely allegorical/fabular. I think that my relation with paint is more like life’s relation with air. Is it parts of a whole? No. Can they be separated? No. (This is oriental thinking.) I think you have a difficult task. We don’t know each other and at the same time I am a person without “stories”. I understand stories are a big part of any article (even so for articles about art) and I am sorry that even the materials I can provide you are also scarce. I always feel strongly that artists are on the back stage of their work. It’s enough to just enjoy my work. If you like the eggs, it’s not necessary to meet the hen that lays them.
I don’t belong to any schools or movements. (I know that art history, especially history of modern art, is mostly about the evolution of schools and movements.) I am merely an “individual” living in today’s world, who enjoys painting. I express my feelings, and I hope to move others. I know it’s comfortable to “swim with the flow”, but I prefer those styles that are different from what’s trendy, and the artists with unique artistic skills and feelings. The list is actually very long, and should include roadside graffitis and shop signs of some country stores. Let’s just forget about listing the names. Once we start labeling, we are limiting and restraining ourselves. As a poet, you must be agreeing with me that we learn about art not just from art history. Life and living are what’s most important.
As for mentors, I think my father, an unknown art enthusiast, is my most important influence. The reason why I say this is not a “gesture”, but is based on facts. Because of him, I am passionate about art, nature, painting and reading. In my childhood, only when I was painting and reading was I allowed to stay up late way passed my bedtime. He taught me that art has to be “real”—to truly express one’s true feelings, not as a tool to obtain fame and wealth by pleasing the crowd with bombastic words and deeds. I think it is the traditional value of the Chinese scholar gentleman of his generation. Arts (in the forms of string instruments, strategy game of go, Chinese calligraphy and Chinese painting) are their required accomplishments and important part of life. Of course, it won’t be practical in today’s society. Art is still my “occupation”.  (Maybe they were a group of people who didn’t have to worry about their means of living.) However, my father’s belief in honestly expressing oneself still deeply affects me. It enables me to remain independent from the often massive and momentous, “populars”. Behind the Dazzling forms there are often commercial hypes. Obscure terms and theories are usually created in need to fill the void of substance (or lack of contents?). What do you think?

That strikes a whole keyboard of chords with me, especially his comparison of paint to air.

Hope you enjoy that interview.  I hope to meet him someday.  

I'll post more when I return.

Hazy Morning, 14x18

Amber color....
......and haze suffused everything.  Standing on the shore my eyes burned....but the early morning color was so unique; unworldly but yet softly beautiful.

It was from fire smoke on the other side of the Cascade mountains and, while the source is very sad, the effect on color was certainly out of the ordinary.  Normally this scene would be of deep green trees and very blue or blue green water sparkled with sun reflections.

Because little was as expected I had to do a lot of careful looking and mixing.   Curiously some parts of the scene seemed to have ramped up color saturation.  It was an interesting painting to attempt.  The abstract patterning in the water was the most fun, not only to make it look like water but to lead the viewers eye around and about.  This deserved a bigger canvas.

And I got to meet a lot of nice tourists and residents of the boats who stopped to chat.  Unusual, no one mentioned that they had an aunt who could really paint.

On another note, have you checked out John Crump yet?  I mentioned in the last post that he had a new video which I like....but I've really enjoyed all of his vids.  Yes, I feel like an art pusher....but I don't even benefit from mentioning him....except to send you some place I think you'd enjoy.  Head to the last post for the link.

Thanks for looking.  And wishing safety for the fire fighters and the people living through hell....

Coastal Ledge, 10x12

Now That I Have....
......my ticket I can begin to get excited about my almost annual trip to the Maine coast....interrupted last year by going to Italy.  It's a tough life but I'm doing my best to keep up.

I love painting in Maine.  It has all kinds of quirky twists and turns and the fiberglass luxury yachts take a back seat to real working boats, net sheds, farms and towns with as much anglo history and dignity as can be found anywhere in this country.  Interesting shapes and color are everywhere.

With that in mind I thought I'd post this painting of rocks at a beach I don't remember exactly how to get to anymore.  I think I did it two years ago.  Check out those big and little shapes of color that bounce around everywhere.  Mostly variations of blues and reds except for that green ribbon weaving itself from side to side.  Immensely satisfying to me.  I wish more of my paintings had the qualities of this one.

So think of me during the last half of September working away on as many paintings and drawings as I energy for....but with a smile on my face.

Thanks for looking....

Sunday Sketch, 12x12

Port Madison...
....was once a harbor for the tall ships when they were shipping out milled lumber from the Northwest.  Now it is an upscale area of the island with little easy access.

My friend Mick and I went there on last Sunday's overcast afternoon looking for a little bit of color.  This scene was about a block and a half across the water and, while it did get back in this position several times, the boats were swinging around in the wind and tide.

We stood on a wobbly floating dock making it challenging to get down an intentional stroke of paint.  Much of what I tried to place would end swooping up like a duck's tail or get moved an inch or so in another place altogether.  For the mast lines I remember waiting and planning for just the right calm....but still they went in several times before being sort of right.

Remember I titled this a 'sketch'.

This second painting is one I found stuck in a box because I was dissatisfied with it.  It's from about seven years ago over on the Teanaway River and can see some different thinking going on and some experimentation in places.  It looks better than I thought it did at the time.

Speaking of experimentation, changing the colors on your palette can be liberating.  It makes us look and work differently, coming up with new color ideas.   I found a website that lists the palette colors of many well known artists, some historical and some current.  Some of my favorite artists are on this list which you can find HERE.

Cool Water, 12x16

Thanks for looking.  I will be back soon.

Bloedel in Spring, Two Paintings

'Reflections', 11x14

After Painting a Bloedel Reserve Diptych...

....(posted recently) I still had some time for another try and ended up in this lovely secluded place.  A few guests at the Bloedel Reserve wandered by but left me alone.  Well, there was this group of Japanese tourists who had seen me painting the diptych that asked me to pull it out so they could see it.  But then they got shocked and miffed when I said I couldn't because it was back in the car.  I'm thinking there was a translation problem as they kept looking deep into the water after I told them.

This was enjoyable to do but got difficult for me when I got to the multiple reflections in the water and how to distinguish the fallen log from the light coming from the bottom of the pond.....where they thought my other painting was.  I'm satisfied with how it turned out and I learned some things.  Always good.

The next day I went back and did two more pieces.  This one, 'Strolling the Buttercup Forest', is in a part of the park that is unmanicured, left natural.  The light there is airier, the color is higher in value and there are fewer tourists looking in the water for my stuff.  

It was a great day to be painting.

Thanks for hanging out.

Everything But Frog, 12x16

Stumbling through the studio.....

......I literally fell into this painting from about a dozen years ago....(I really need to do some straightening up).  It didn't break or tear, which was fortunate, but it did make me think that doing a lily pad series this summer would be interesting, especially if I approached it in a more abstract way.   The ideas for that are beginning to flow.  Stay tuned.

A few years ago we were touring Monet's estate, walking around his ponds, gardens, house and studio.  It was a huge studio....more like a garage for buses.  He painted his lily pad series, immense  paintings that covered 12x20 foot walls, later in life when his eyesight was beginning to fail.  He would do those pieces by running (well, maybe he didn't actually 'run') out to the ponds, taking a quick look, and returning to the studio to add what he could to those canvases.....day after day, week after week.  I read somewhere that soon he was to lose his ability to even see color, still able to paint because he knew where the colors were supposed to be on his palette and what it took to mix new hues.

It was his initial 'concept' that kept it all going....plus a huge dose of experience and a dedicated talent.

So, taking a lesson from one of the Masters, I'm working on my ideas.  I'm also working on where to find some lily pad ponds.  Suggestions are welcome.

Thanks for looking.

Godfrey Spit, 12x12

Composing to a square format....
......has it's challenges.  When it works it's a size that I find enjoyable....and I also enjoy the challenge of trying to find that illusive arrangement of shapes that can make it work.

This piece keeps me off-balance which is intriguing.  I had to change some elements in it to keep my eye moving.  Most of what was changed was in the foreground floating walkway.  In life it had more small uprights and the whole thing was backlit keeping this side fairly dark.  It became a visual fence that was hard to cross.....so out went some uprights and everything got lightened with some gray blue and warm tan bits.  My hope is that you can now get to the intersection of the sky, distant land and that boat perched on the dune.

Rob Weiss was painting just to my right out on the spit....or is it a bar?.... and his FB post about it is (HERE).  The photo doesn't do the piece justice but you can get an idea of what he painted.

Mitch Abala's recent blog post has some good thoughts on the continuum from ultra realism to total abstraction.  Since every successful piece of art is based ultimately on abstract concepts, it's good to have some idea where on that continuum you fall as either an artist or as a collector.  How much of either extreme can you tolerate before a piece no longer 'sings' to you?  Check out his thoughts (HERE).

Speaking of abstraction,  Cathleen Rehfield has a beautiful little sky piece posted on her blog (HERE)  I'm sure you will be able to place her somewhere along Mitch's continuum.  In her description she writes a line about Ultramarine Blue that cracked me up......'is Ultramarine blue such a ubiquitous blue that any ultramarine will do?'.    I don't know.  I think it was the rhythm and rhyme of it that affected me.....I went around for half a day with it playing in my head.  It's only one of my afflictions.

Ok.  Take yourself out and have some fun doing what you love.

Thanks for looking.

Unexpected Quiet, 10x12

Only a block or two....
.....from a major shopping mall you can find this hidden sanctuary of quiet.  I missed until Rob Weiss told me about it.

The day was overcast and drab and I almost fell into the 'there's nothing to paint, go home' trap....but I went ahead despite the cold and gloom, tramping the painting gear down the trail.  I was still unconvinced but no sooner had I sketched it in than the sun lightened the sky long enough to let me get the essence of what was there.

This one really is just 'big shapes' and 'do-dads'.

Speaking of Shapes and Doo-dads, this is a good time to answer the question I frequently get: "What's the difference between Notan and Marker Drawing?"  That question has been bothering you, right?  So here you go.... I'm doing this so you can sleep at night.

Notan on the Left, Valued Markers on the Right

So here are 2x3 inch drawings done in each method.  While these are done from the painting it's the same method, but larger,  I'd use out in the field before committing to canvas or paper.

Both are design tools, used to accomplish the purpose of studying our world.  The information they provide is slightly different and they build on each other.

Notan gives quick immediate feedback on the overall dark and light pattern in a subject and, since drawing and painting are really just illusions about the effects of light, this is absolutely necessary information.  Light and Shadow/Dark have to be kept separate or there is no illusion of form.  Notans  are fast to do and re-do as you modify your design concepts.

Valued Marker Drawing is almost as fast as Notan however, where Notan gives a broad graphic definition, valued markers move things up a notch toward rendition to include some detail.  Here the detail of the sun bleached curved trunk focuses a point of interest lost in the Notan study.  Other do-dads, such as reeds, water reflections and tree shapes are also part of the overall design and feeling.

The Valued Marker Drawing only adds one more value if you disregard the black ink from the drawing.  It keeps the Notan structure but adds in more of the transitional values.  It's here I can make decisions, within the structure, of how to guide the eye.

I do both, but decidedly more valued marker drawing because when I wander the world I'm not always interested in the graphic structure in black and white.  Notan gives me intellectual information.  Valued Markers also let me have some fun.  I recommend you try both.

Having said that, I teach a Marker Drawing workshop on March 21st.  Mitch Albala teaches a Notan workshop in the beginning of May.  Check them out at the Winslow Art Center website HERE.

By the way, Gabor Svagrik has a good blog post on making progress with your painting when you are feeling artistically blocked.  Great advice.  I wish I had written it.  Find it HERE.

Foggy Friday, 11x14

'Foggy Friday' is a continuation.....
......of the previous post, 'Estuary'.

This is the morning painting when the fog was just barely beginning to lift.  Rob Weiss was close to a finish about the time I began so his painting got the full Friday fog feeling.  (Alliteration....couldn't help doing it....)

Rob's painting, a similar view, is on his Facebook page HERE.  Scroll down and find the painting (he also just posted it on his blog HERE)....and notice the great painting he did for Black History Month while there.  Outstanding.

In this one the light in the sky was beginning to show more color as things progressed, doing a little color mirroring of the driftwood. That wood actually took most of my time.  So many little color shapes to balance.....

By the way, here is a shot of what happens when you put three thickly painted wet portraits (two of which I liked) in the back of your van next to a rolled up sleeping bag.  That bag had sat back there for months without moving a bit....until that day.  Every time I took a corner it removed a little more paint.

And I didn't even get a monoprint out of it.

Estuary, 9x12

Friend and Dedicated Painter.....
.....Rob Weiss (his blog is HERE) gave me a call last Friday to say he was just down the street painting, so why not come too.  Within five minutes I was out the door.

The morning was pretty foggy but slowly clearing and Rob did a couple of terrific pieces from the same spot but looking different directions.  He had to leave about the time I was beginning this second one and the sun was breaking through the first three layers of clouds.  

There was something about the design of the water channel and the patterns in the sea grass that was intriguing.  As the sun broke through, the trees on that opposite bank began to contribute their glow and the painting fell together.

Now I want to do a larger one but maybe on a squarish panel.

I'll post the morning piece later.

Running Into Fall, 14x18

It was an experiment.

I got some unexpected energy last week.....pneumonia recovery is unpredictable....so I wondered what would happen if I painted a piece using only three colors.

There was an old plein air work hanging around that was done on a Montana autumn afternoon while deep in the forest.  It seemed a likely candidate to be put to the test.

In the Tuesday painting class I've been talking about using three primaries (red, blue, yellow), or colors close to primary, as a way to expand color mixing vocabulary.   On pieces I've done before like this the results have been intriguing.   For example, I like to paint in acrylic outdoors using only Thalo blue, Cadmium Yellow and Burnt Sienna.

Below is the original plein air sketch.  I've modified the scale, format and paint application to do the larger piece and I like the result.  Being a bit wider I think it better represents the sense of flow and the bottleneck caused by those two large boulders.

What colors?  Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Red Medium and Quinacridone Gold. 

Marrowstone Morning, 10x12

 

First I saw the trees....

....silhouetted against the sky and decided to paint.  Then I got even more interested in the puzzle pieces in the sky and land that tended to mimic one another.

The trees are still the main actor but all those in the supporting cast are sure busy.  That distant hill and the trees are the calm parts.  The rest of the painting has 'ants in the pants'.

Like so often happens, I had a tendency to unconsciously 'organize' the scene, not paying attention to the necessary randomness needed to make it 'right'.  As a result, it got wiped out several times before calling it finished.

Warm and cool, warm and cool.....

Say.  I think I just saw a crocodile....see him?

Reflecting Magenta, 11x14

On an overcast day......

.....colors catching a little of the bright sky can appear very intense. The effect is enhanced by the subdued shadowed hues around them.  It was true the other day at the Bloedel Reserve and the constant unchanging light made it easier to study the effect.

The sky reflecting at the bottom of the painting is an idea I stole from Monet.  Those reflections were there but another time I might have overlooked them had I not been looking at some of his waterlily paintings the other day and realized what he had done.  It is a nice effect but that sky value has to be just right not to overwhelm the rest of the painting.

I like this piece.  It makes me feel calm yet intrigued.

For those who asked about the gel, I occasionally use Gamblin's new solvent free gel to improve paint handling and reduce drying time.

The idea of going to Italy is exciting me.  Montisi is in the hill town area of Sienna.  Small twisty roads, farms, streams all topped off by these old narrow streeted villages.  If you are interested in going you can find out more HERE.   Use Google Earth to actually see Montisi closeup.

Spring Runoff, One and Two

Field Version and Studio Version.....

......can you tell which is which?  The one from the field is 12"x12" and was painted standing on the only vantage point I could get, a slanted rock that I was half falling off of.  The studio version is 20"x20" and was painted from the study in my friend Tannis's home studio on a day that was too wet to be outside.

I like them both and found the grays intriguing to mix.....but there are parts of each I like better than the same parts on the other.  This art thing drives me crazy.....it's so elusive and complex.

But maybe that's why we keep trying.  I talked to an artist friend recently who had decided to quit, hang up the brushes, throw in the paper towels.  We didn't get through even one cup of coffee before he realized even quitting was a lost cause.  The art thing finds you, you don't find it.  He could no more quit than stop breathing.

Here is the other one.....the field study.  Which do you like better?  Tell me, I'd like to know.

The energy is building for the Painting and Drawing Trip to Tuscany!  The hill town we are going to looks to be a superb place to do art.  Martha at the Winslow Art Center can answer all your questions.  Don't miss this!  Imagine painting for a while, relaxing for a while, eating Italian food for a while......sounds good to me. 

In For Groceries, 10 x 12

 

'How do you know when a painting is finished?' asked someone in class the other day.  I smiled politely and muttered something unintelligible.  I can usually tell when the dishes are finished, the gas in the car is finished or the day has ended.  Paintings, at least in the case of this one, seem to go on forever and stop only when I am lying on the pavement or studio floor gasping for breath.   (That might be a bit of an overstatement.)

I still puzzle over how some simple subjects can be a struggle and seemingly complicated ones can roll off the brush.  This is not always so but often enough that I take notice of it. 

Attracted by the orange/blue thing of the boat, dock and water I was unaware of how delicate a balance they had with each other.  I still don't think I it is 'right' but got tired of picking myself up one more time to give it another go.

At this point in my life I know nothing more to do so I guess it's finished.  Time for another one. 

Four Studies, Plein Air

 

 

Do you live someplace other than the great Northwest?  Go outside.  Bask in the sun.  Do it for me because I'm counting the days until the weather begins changing from constant rain to a bit of occasional sun.

These four studies, done one morning in Maine, are from those glorious sunny days when painting outdoors was actually possible.  Each image brings me back to the scene I was looking at, with warmth on my face and a gentle breeze blowing.....OK, so there was a slight gale that blew over my easel.....I was still outside painting.

'What Do You Do When You Can't Paint Outside' is the title of my upcoming class beginning on January 17th.  While I will have a couple of still life setups around, most of the class will be about painting from photographs.  We will explore the pitfalls of photography and the possible work-arounds that can keep them fresh and exciting.  Open to all levels in oil, acrylic and gouache.  Find out more at the Winslow Art Center website.

This will be great practice for when plein air becomes doable again as the same principles of design, value and color will apply.  Come join us if you can.

Cape Naden, 12x16

Post 5.5 in the 'Make a Comment and Win a Painting' Contest.  (Why 5.5?  Because I have this idea for what #6 should be.....wait)

Dianna Shyne let me tag along at her acrylic workshop for a day and I sat on the beach and painted these.  If you want excellent instruction in plein air acrylic contact Dianna.....she's the best.

The blue boat is the Cape Naden, a 100 foot Alaskan fish 'packer' boat from 1908.  It has been redone with 5 staterooms below and a huge diesel engine.  It's for sale for only $47,000....I should buy it for my roving studio.

'Along the Dock' is only 6x8 and was done with no predrawing....just blocked in the big shapes and carved it out.  For both of these I used only three hues, Quinacridone Burnt Orange, Thalo Blue, Primary Yellow and, of course, White.  Amazing what can be done with a limited palette.

Make a comment.  Only one more post to the announcement of the winner.....I promise.