My Mama

Anna Marie Sheehan 6/11/27-9/15/13

Dear Friends,

There's no easy way to deliver this news but I lost my Mama on Sunday morning after a mid August surgery which although successful, was followed by one complication after another.

She was 86 years young and still living alone, driving, visiting with her friends on most days at her favorite haunt. Up until three years ago she was still driving to Naples, Florida by herself! 

I'm so grateful that she was herself until the end and did not have to face life dependent on others. I have been able to devote myself to her needs during this past month of her hospitalization and bring comfort to her and to myself.  

Two days ago I discovered a fabulous (months old) voice mail message from her and it made my heart sing. So glad I'm negligent in deleting those things. 

The services are today and tomorrow at Russell-Pica funeral home in Brockton, after which Don and I are taking a previously planned trip up to Bar Harbor, Maine.

The blogging community is a big part of my life and I needed to let you all know what has happened to cause my prolonged absence. 

Thank you for your support through the years. It means so much.

Mary

Perfect Summer!

"Myrtle"

6x6 oil on panel
SOLD

Wednesday my sister and I went on an adventure to the New England Aquarium in Boston where we saw a fascinating IMAX movie about great white sharks and then toured the newly rebuilt Giant Ocean Tank which holds 2000 species of fish including sharks, eels, rays (my favorites) sea turtles and fishes. It is a work of art and an amazing glimpse into the undersea world! 
We started at the top of the tank and then walked down a descending spiral walkway all the way to the bottom seeing the creatures from different vantage points as we did. 
This magnificent Sea Turtle is about 80 years old! It was difficult but I managed to snap a decent photo of 'Myrtle', (all turtles seem to be named Myrtle) as she swam by. There are two giant turtles in the tank so I can't be sure that it was Myrtle, but let's pretend it was ;) 
We then had a fabulous lunch at The Reef, the aquarium's informal outdoor tent restaurant on what can only be described as a glorious summer day here in New England. 76 degrees, bright, warm sun and cool breezes, awesome lobster salad sliders and great company. My sis and I are soul mates ;) 

Red Roses

"Studio View"

6x6 oil on canvas panel
Click to Buy

I don't think I realized how much I love the color red in all of its variations until I began to use so many different reds in my painting. Since it's a primary, red cannot be mixed and so I have a grab bag of reds which are a must have, particularly for flowers.
Today in the studio I set this little vase of wild roses (clipped from an abandoned building near my studio) on the window sill, backlit against the treescape outside the. The yellow flowers look to be some form of dandelion. 
My friend and fellow GJWP artist, Lisa Daria Kennedy was the inspiration for this very loosely painted bouquet of reds. This is a subject she favors and she has plenty of experience considering she's painted over a thousand daily paintings!

Travel

"Italian Ice Vendor"

6x6 oil on panel

This month's Girls Just Wanna Paint challenge is "travel", which can be pretty broadly interpreted as you can see by my painting of an Italian Ice vendor at Wingaersheek Beach in Gloucester. I went over to the beach one night after class while I was at the PKR workshop because many famous Cape Ann painters painted there and I wanted to see it.  That is the travel part ;)
There are huge rocks in the water and there were several of these little carts sprinkled around the beach so I walked on the rocks, waded in the water and took many photos for future reference. There was a storm brewing and I loved the combination of the strong sunlit grass and cart against the dark sky.

Lazy Hazy Summer Days

"Green Harbor"

6x12 watercolor and ink

Honestly, that's all I can say about this summer. The heat has been unbearable and even though it's calmed down some, we are still in AC mode most of the time.  Saturday evening was beautiful though, and I took myself down to the harbor with a chair and a sketchbook and had a lovely interlude watching the birds and the boats and the shimmer of the late sun on the iridescent marsh grass. Yes, in a very short time the cold will be returning and we'll all be complaining. Well...maybe not all.... :D
I love summer but does it have to be so uncomfortably hot?

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?