Hot Time in Gloucester

PKR (center) with workshop gang

Last week I joined a great group of artists on site at the Castle Manor Inn, in Gloucester for a week long workshop with Peggi Kroll Roberts who never faltered during five days of 90 plus degree heat, topping out at around 98* on Friday! 
These are a couple of exercises I did in class and of course a group shot. (missing Susan Dragoo Lembo).

Model in sunlight

value exercise in grayscale and in color

Gulf Sunset

"Gulf Sunset"

6x6 oil

Our theme for June's Girls Just Wanna Paint challenge was the ee cummings poem, "For whatever we lose (like a you or a me) it's always our self we find in the sea", and who doesn't love the sea? 
When I'm in Naples, Florida I'm an afternoon kind of beach girl because it's not as hot then ;)  
"Squadrons" of pelicans glide along the beach and suddenly plummet into the Gulf of Mexico to feed. Pelicans are most entertaining and I love watching them as the sun sets into the water. 
This is as close as I was able to get to the colors in the actual painting which took on a life of it's own and turned out to be a palette knife painting. There's a tiny touch of glare but it couldn't be avoided with this kind of surface. I'm really happy with this one.

Workshops and Tutorials

"After Carol Marine"- Painted from an ArtByte tutorial NFS

I've taken two workshops with the amazing Carol Marine who's a seriously good painter and teacher, as well as a funny, down to earth, young woman. Yes, I have a bit of a soft spot for her too ;)
Anyway, I haven't been painting regularly, having been busy with all kinds of summer activities, like beaching and visiting, so being a bit rusty, I went into my DPW ArtByte Library and chose one of her step by step paint along demos, figuring I could use the refresher course. 
This took hours, just so you know, and I had to back the video up and pause it many times, but I got there!
Besides Carol's demos there are ArtBytes by Patti Mollica, Taryn Day, Jelaine Faunce, Cathleen Rehfeld, David Morris and Mary Maxam to name but a few. 
I continue to take workshops, classes and tutorials because it keeps me fresh, is great practice and helps me give more to my students. Try it, you'll like it.

Thayer Academy

Thayer Academy

6x6 oil on panel

This painting is a late entry into this month's Girls Just Wanna Paint challenge. I know. I'm bad. Check out their paintings and stay tuned for news about our GJWP Fall show at Thayer Academy. We'll be showing our challenge paintings and since the gallery can accommodate larger works we'll have a few of those too.

You Gotta Have Friends

"You Gotta Have Friend's"

6x6 oil on panel
Click to Buy

What's not to love about bright orange Gerbera's,  which were a little token of my affection for my partner in crime, Kelley MacDonald. We spent a wonderful day together, having lunch at the very cool Providence Art Club and then we painted the daisies, and then we had a pizza party on Kelley's riverside porch with a view to rival any! It was awesome and I'm thrilled to be home in New England!

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
SOLD

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
SOLD

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

SOLD

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.