GJWP Challenge “Unity”

“Grays Beach, Yarmouth”

6x6 oil on panel

This month’s Girls Just Wanna Paint topic is Unity. I painted this en plein air, on Grays Beach in Yarmouth a few weeks ago and the unity is the wind, the water and the sand. I love the beach!

Beach Day

Beach Day

8x8 oil on panel

COMMISSION SOLD

This painting, Beach Day, is my entry for the Girls Just Wanna Paint December challenge "luxury". 
I was sketching this couple on the beach in July of 2014 and she noticed and came over to see the sketch. 
Recently, she emailed me and asked if I'd ever done a painting from the sketch. I hadn't, so I did.
I sent her the image and she loved it but, told me that her husband had passed after a long neurological illness he'd been suffering from even as I did the sketch.
It saddened me as I'd been thinking that she'd give it to him for Christmas. Sitting on the beach in the summer is a wonderful luxury, but time is the luxury we forget we have.

Happy New Year to all. 

Live. Love. Laugh. Paint. Do.

"Gimme That!"

6x6 oil on gesso board 

I'm painting on the smooth boards again because  the surface is great for the brushwork I do. I order them unprimed and give them three coats of gesso before I use them. I always like painting wet sand. There is so much color in the reflections and I love to play with the complimentary color harmony. Fun!
This is my painting for the 'Beach Time' challenge  at Girls Just Wanna Paint. This one gull was aggressively stalking the others and snatching things unseen, out of their beaks.

Surfer Boy

 Surfer Boy
8x8 oil on panel

In New England you can't count on the weather (can you anywhere?) and these last two weekends were perfect beach days. I was lucky to have my little boys visiting both weekends for which I am so grateful because they're growing up way too fast. As I was walking down to the tide pools I saw this tiny little boy surfing. I complimented him on his surfing prowess and asked how old he was and he told me five and a half! I took enough shots to make sure there'd be a good one to paint from and then joined Ryan and Colin and my brother Tommy at the tide pools where we spotted lots of crabs and shrimp and snails. Perfect Day!

Kenny

Wow, it's August already. Summer goes too fast. Thank you all for your visits and comments. YOU make my day! and just because we have a cat subject, here's a photo of 'the girls' almost a year old. Abba on the left and Wolfie (Wolfamena) on the right.

This painting of Page's cat Kenny is our July subject for Girls Just Wanna Paint. 

Beach Boys Two

 SOLD

This is a 6x6 version of 'Beach Boys' (my nephews last September). The difference between painting on the very small cotton panel as opposed to the 4 times larger, very smooth birch panel is obvious in the finish. I think I prefer the smooth.

In Transition

Abba and Wolfie looking skeptical

Just so you all know, I didn't just hang it up after getting a record amount of comments on this last painting. I spent last week getting ready for the trip North which takes a lot out of me. I'm not a good transition-er.  Each year I swear I'm not going to take too much stuff to Naples...yeah....right. We left Friday morning, spent two days on the road and arrived home Sunday afternoon. Initially the girls were a bit anxious. I never saw cats pant before so I released them from their cages and that calmed them some. All those big trucks going by was a new experience for them. It was a good trip and we're home and it's Spring!!

Picnic Tables and Lupine W/C 7x9

I sat on a small bluff next to our cottage and painted this watercolor looking towards the Pier which would be just slightly to the right of this frame. I think of this as more of a study, to grab some color notes and some practice on the spot. The little cottage with the red shutters is just a doll house and looks out over a large patch of Lupine to the Lighthouse. The view from my previous post, which I shot from behind this Lupine, is behind me. Heaven.