Sunset Lake

This is what the summer looks like around here...dramatic skies, water and boats.  I prewet the paper, which is unusual for me since I usually work wet on dry...and just let the pigments flow. Then when everything was dry (patience comes in at this point) I painted the hard edged mountain silhouettes and the boats.

Pop sun shade

The last page of my sketchbook was filled by this painting. They are two poppies from my mother's garden and one was out in the sun and the other was in the shade...it made for such a dramatic difference between the two and shifted their color tremendously.

Peonies

The Peonies are rain soaked and wind blown around here and almost gone...that's too bad, since they are such beauties and unfortunately are only around a short time. I used to host a peony painting workshop in a wonderful garden...maybe again some day, but until then plenty of pictures to work from.

Face time

I have found that painting from life has really helped me "see" in other aspects of my painting....we are so familiar with faces and we think we know where something goes, but I find that true observation, measuring and comparing are keys to getting a recognizable shape. Where I improvise is the color application! (See purple and green hair!)

Lily Blue

I have tackled this Lily several times in the last year or so...every attempt is a new opportunity to learn something about composition, color, technique and value...oh and different surfaces since this one was done on printmaking paper...BFK Rives. Still time to join me at the Landgrove Inn, in Landgrove, Vermont for a 3 day floral workshop...link on my website and blog sidebar.

Montreal sketch

This is the sketchbook piece I spoke of in my previous post...this was done from an overlook at Mount Royal Park in Montreal. It was a cold, windy and drizzly start to the day and then it became warm and sunny...Plein air painting perils...