Standish Shore, Duxbury

Standish Shore 8x10 oil on Pintura Panel
Click to Bid

I went to the studio today with the idea being to paint something from a photo I had hanging around the studio. Anything, and not procrastinate and look at every photo and become overwhelmed. This was done from a photo of a painting I did years ago of an old house and a little shed on the shore of Duxbury's Bay Road. In the distance is Cordage Park, an old rope making factory in Plymouth from the ship building days. Mission accomplished.
Don and I arrived home last Sunday to crisp sea air and lilacs in full bloom! It is great to be home :)

Fishing on Naples Pier

Fishing on Naples Pier

6x6 oil on panel
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One of the favorite places to fish, stroll and people watch is the 2000 foot long pier in the heart of Naples. This painting is going to the Art Boutique, my gallery at Tin City. I have new cards and soon will have new giclees of this and other local scenes. Be sure to visit.  

Garlic Demo

Three Garlic Cloves

6x6 oil on panel

A little block in done for my class. 

Busy here. Very busy ;)

Captain Ray and Ryan

Three Gardenias

"Three Gardenias"

6x6 oil on panel
SOLD

My girls never made a peep about having to paint these flowers today although I may have detected a bit of a grimace when they saw the setup. I started this for my demo and finished it up this afternoon. Last night I had a hard time sleeping after the unbelievable terror bombings in Boston. I have no words.

Pink Pig

"Pink Pig" 6x6 

oil on panel

I did this demo today for my students. It's a Carol Marine lesson where you block in everything with burnt umber and wipe out the values until you have a three value design. Then you can add color. My 'girl's" worked hard on this tough lesson and the results showed that they got it. I have a thing for these Dollar Store pigs and by now they are expecting them ;)  I have a blue one too.

Sunlit Palms

"Sunlit Palms" 6x6 oil 
SOLD

This month's Girls Just Wanna Paint challenge is 'sunlight'. Plenty of sunlight here in Naples. These palms are next to my house and glow in the late afternoon sunlight.

Soaring

'Soaring' 

6x6 oil on panel
click to buy

I snapped a few shots of these seagulls wheeling and diving gracefully above the Vince Lombardi Rest Area on one of our drive by's. I cropped the ones I wanted to paint and focused on giving the composition a sense of movement. I've also been sketching pelicans, which are most interesting birds. Teradactyl-like, they cruise over the Gulf in the late afternoon and are fantastic divers. Meanwhile, gale winds and low temps here in Southwest Florida today, are keeping all but the most intrepid beach goers away from the shore. 

50 Shades of Grey

"Grey Garlic" 6x6 

oil on panel
SOLD

Well, not really, but values are incremental and we can only create about 3 to 5 discernible values to depict light in our paintings. I mixed up a large amount of dark 'grey' with Cad Red, Ultramarine Blue and Cad Yellow. It leaned a bit toward brown but when I added white it was a blue gray. I blocked in the garlic using burnt umber and then using three values of my grey I painted in the values. After I got my pattern down I went over it with some color. By the way, I must be the only one in the world who hasn't read that book. I did order it from the library but this is one you have to buy, the wait list is that long!!

my palette

Ruminating

JoAnn Sanborn Studio

I've been busy visiting with family, sweet baby Win, teaching and beaching. I'm in my Florida mood ;)
Today, I got some needed inspiration through a visit to my artist friends on Marco Island. 
JoAnn Sanborn, a wonderful painter of the Everglades and Betty Newman whose shimmering abstract work thrills me, have studios at the Esplanade, a waterside development of residences, shops and restaurants on Smokehouse Bay. 
I've been thinking about doing some new work but only have snippets of ideas as to what it might be. I call it ruminating, and we shall see where it takes me. 

Meanwhile, click on their names to enjoy the work of these two ladies.

Betty Newman in her Studio

Tropical Roses

"Tropical Roses"

6x6 oil on panel
click to buy

Tropical is the theme for this month's Girls Just Wanna Paint challenge, which even though I am in Naples, Florida, did not go well for me. Roses can be tropical, right?

Be My Valentine

"Valentine Roses" 6x6 oil on panel
click to buy

This was my demo today for the fearless students in my Painting a Day Class. They work so hard and they are all so dedicated to improving. They tackled these silk roses with nary a whimper. That's what I love about them.

Turps Can

"Turps Can Inspired By Carol Marine" 
6x6 oil on board
click to buy

I've been super busy since I arrived in Naples, which is really not an excuse for not completing my 30 in 30, but it works for me ;)

I enjoy doing my drive by paintings and will definitely be painting more of them. 

Meanwhile, Thursday we welcomed a precious new baby boy into the family! I spent the day at the hospital Friday, rocking him and admiring his teeny weeny-ness while his daddy, my nephew, took care of business and his very tired mama got a chance to take a nap. Yesterday I made the new parents a crock pot meal and offered to stay and hold baby Win, while they ate. 

They fell for it ;D

Painting at the Von Liebig

#14 Oranges on Blue Ground

5x5 oil on board

10 intrepid painters joined me for my second class at Von Liebig Art Center. I am always amazed at how well my students handle the exercises that I give them. I'll let my demo stand in for my 30 Paintings in 30 Days.
Here's one painting from a student who hasn't painted in years and wanted to break out of her artist's block. She did!

Student, Sue Riger "Teapot"

Drive By #13 Bonita Srings

Drive By #13 "Bonita Springs"

5x5 oil on board

It looks like I'm going to make only half of my 30 Paintings in 30 Days but Leslie did say that there were no rules and that we should have fun with it, which I have. I've been non stop teaching and visiting family and doing since we arrived here two weeks ago and I need to slow down.
This is the water tower at Big Carlos Pass in Bonita Springs with some Florida clouds. I'm loving the Drive Bys and I'm also working on some paintings of Naples for The Art Boutique at Tin City. Right now, I'm off to teach my Painting A Day class at Von Liebig......Stay tuned....

30 in 30 #12 Miss Piggy

"#12, Miss Piggy"

6x6 oil on panel

Yesterday, my two fabulous ladies came for their first painting lesson this season and we painted the white pig for the value lesson. They said that they'd lost their skills after all this time, but they hadn't. This is my pig demo which is standing in as today's 30 Paintings in 30 Days entry.

Drive By #11 GW Bridge

"Drive By #11, George Washington Bridge"

5x5 oil on board

Why do I choose such complicated subject matter when I'm under pressure? No answer for that.....I'm behind....with my 30 in 30......gotta go!

30 Paintings in 30 Days #10 Piggy Bank

30/30 #10 Piggy Bank

5x5 Oil on Board

Yesterday was my first Painting a Day class at Von Liebig Center for the Arts and 12 adventurous Ladies showed up to paint with me.  One thought she was in over her head and was about to bolt when we talked her into staying. She ended up surprising herself.

I must say that they were fearless and unaware of their abilities and, we had fun which is the prerequisite in this class.

I did this demo of my dollar store pig which counts as 30 Painting in 30 Days as I'm sure Leslie Saeta would agree.

Drive By #9 Yellow Truck

"Drive By #9 Yellow Truck"

6x6 oil on gesso board 

I took an extra day to recover from the big drive, but here's the first make up in my 30 Paintings in 30 Days painting challenge organized by Leslie Saeta. This cool overpass is at the beginning of a decent into the Newark, New Jersey area. The yellow truck was the big score in this photo from a previous trip. This time it was foggy.

Naples

I am itching to make up the Drive By paintings which have been on my mind for this entire drive by. I did snap 424 photos along the way, like I'd never seen any of it before, but, it's about the light and the light is always different.
We had a great trip, except for 12 hours a day in the car with each other ;) and two cats who were intermittently vocal, and the ultimate 'Pet friendly" DIVE (think cooties) of a room last night. Just kidding. You have to have a sense of humor to be doing this, and we do. 
We toasted our 10th season here in Naples as though we had never been here before and it was a new adventure, which, it kind of is.
I am setting up the studio tomorrow and will be ON these paintings, which as I've painted them have spoken to me in that way that makes me want to paint many more views of life on the road......so stay tuned...
Thank you all for following my 30 Paintings in 30 Days  journey, it keeps me going ;) ;)

Drive By #8 Road Signs

Drive By #8 Road Signs

5x5 oil on panel

The real Drive by begins early tomorrow morning. Car is packed. We are pooped and I will probably be doing some make ups with my 30 in 30. We'll see. Thanks for all the great comments. I know you all love a road trip!
* photo taken in lamp light and is not the best.

Drive By #7 The On Ramp

Drive By #7 'The On Ramp"

5x5 oil on panel

The 30 paintings in 30 days challenge is working pretty well considering I'm about to embark on the annual Drive By, haven't packed a thing, or cleaned the house, have to work today, etc. etc.. 

The point of this is to act and when I finish one I choose the next one and block it in. Decisive and committed. Wow, who knew?

Drive By #6

"Drive By #6 Mystic River Bridge"

5x5 oil on panel

There was no traffic on the Mystic River Bridge that day. Really.
See the 30 Paintings in 30 Days painting challenge at Leslie Saeta's blog.

Drive By #5 In the Bronx

Drive By #5 

5x5 oil on panel

I don't know if this was really in the Bronx but I like the sound of that word. Bronx. So let's say it was.

This is #5 of 30 Paintings in 30 Days. 

Drive By #4

Drive By #4 5x5 oil on panel

* I am currently unable to create PayPal buttons. All of my available paintings are in my DPW gallery

Somewhere along the Jersey 'Pike heading North. You know I love industrial scenes and there are plenty of them along there. Railroad tracks and bridges. Again, I had to invent color because the photo is quite monochromatic and I removed some phone poles that were in the foreground after deciding that they added nothing to the composition.
Check out 30 Paintings in 30 Days to see the rest of the work. 

Drive By #3 Late December Light

"Late December" 4x4 oil on panel
SOLD

I painted this view, looking up my street, in watercolor once before and from that study, I did this, for day 3 of the 30 in 30 challenge. Problem is, I couldn't paint yesterday because I was working, so this is going up on day 4.  Leslie has it worked out so that we can add our paintings to the previous days posts within an allotted timeline. BUT, it has to already be posted to the blog, or it can't be uploaded. So I'm posting it and uploading it and getting right onto days 4 & 5 :D

Are you confused yet?  

Oh, what I love about the late winter is the fiery afternoon light.