Wendell

Wendell  April 5 1996-October 25 2010

And God asked the feline spirit
Are you ready to come home?
Oh, yes, quite so, replied the precious soul
And, as a cat, you know I am most able
To decide anything for myself.

Are you coming then? asked God.
Soon, replied the whiskered angel
But I must come slowly
For my human friends are troubled
For you see, they need me, quite certainly.

But don't they understand? asked God
That you'll never leave them?
That your souls are intertwined. For all eternity?
That nothing is created or destroyed?
It just is....forever and ever and ever.

Eventually they will understand,
Replied the glorious cat
For I will whisper into their hearts
That I am always with them

I just am....forever and ever and ever.

 Wendell and his baby picture

Our 14 year old Wendell recently become ill and there was no hope for recovery. 

We had to let him go. Our home was filled with joy, amusement, and affection by the huge personality of this wonderful being.

He was the love of our lives.

Value Studies

After my recent workshop with Carol Marine I'm aware that I need to study values to strengthen my paintings. When she had us mix a 'middle' gray, no one got it. All were too dark. So, I mixed and matched values right on my gray scale value chart. If I squint these grays blend into the backgrounds and that's how you know you're right on.  Values and composition are the most important elements of a painting. I also did a color wheel using Prussian Blue, Quinacridone Red and Cad Lemon.

Pour Me a Cup

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I picked up this little teapot in The Mother Load a cool little shop in Bonita, Florida. This is the first painting I've done of it and I think I'll take a page out of my friend and teacher Carol Marine's book and paint the thing until I turn into a teapot. That probably won't happen, of course, but you know what I mean.

I am also holding a 3 hour painting class on Saturday mornings from 10 to 1 through December.  I'll do a demo and then we'll paint from a still life concentrating on good composition, accurate values and carefully placed brushstrokes. Email me at WENDL15@verizon.net to sign up. 

Daily Catch

This is an experiment with a complicated subject. It's done from a photo I took in Woodstock, Vermont last Fall. I can see that some parts are a little fussy and overworked but the area just to the right of the fisherman is my favorite. This is 9x12 on Pintura panel and will be available in my Open Studios Sale November 20and 21.

Lurking

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Tonight I met up with some of my fellow Girls Just Wanna Paint 'homies' and had dinner at a fabulous local restaurant called 'Hola' right here in town. We viewed our collective 'door' paintings and had a fabuluos meal. Here is my latest struggle with reflective surfaces. The lurker is the onion ;) 

Lobster Boat, Green Harbor

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This is the finish of the plein air painting I started a few posts back. I finished it off using artistic license, eliminating unnecessary elements and adding color where I thought it would work. It is most important to remember to edit your paintings while composing the scene. All of the elements must work together to lead the eye through the painting to the focal point. The problem many painters have is to try to literally reproduce the scene, often including confusing or odd elements that just happen to 'be there'. 

Standing By

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I picked up this cool bottle at a yard sale for 50 cents. It has lots of green in it so I used a lavender background and a light teal ground to set it upon. I love to paint white carnations because of the dramatic lights on the petals.

Going Green

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Okay, it's a corny title but it's late and the Red Sox are losing (eliminated) and that's my story and I'm stickin' to it :D

It was fun painting this, anyway. 

Purple Door

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Love this purple door with the morning glory vines. 

Yes, it is a tad crooked but hey, it's an antique house.

Check out our Girls Just Wanna Paint challenge for their takes on doors.

Two Alike

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I think white eggplants are just beautiful. 

Plein Air Study

I met Sally Dean at Green Harbor this morning for a plein air workout. Trust me, it was a workout. Let me count the ways things can go awry when painting boats. The tide is going out. The sun is moving. The boats are moving. After fighting the composition by wiping out some of the boats, I settled on just making a complete statement and spent the rest of the time making the painting work. Using artistic license I eliminated the rest of the houses and boats and made the trees look like Maine. I didn't see it until I photographed it but there's a major tangent running from the cabin of the boat up the edge of the house. I think I'll give it another try tomorrow.

The actual scene

Back on the Horse

I needed this week to catch up with myself after an intense Labor Day weekend that segued right into my Carol Marine workshop. Here are some photos of one of the first exercises Carol gave us which was to map out the values to include a dominant value, a secondary value and a 'smidge'.  Carol has an uncanny eye for the subtle grayed color/temperature changes that move into the shadows. Her workshop is just packed with information and I've never met anyone who gives more of herself to her students. This girl is a powerhouse!! I didn't get this kind of instruction in Art School. Really.
Forgive my indulgence in posting this photo of my sweet little boys who are growing up too fast. I enjoy them SO much!!!

Carol Marine Workshop Wrap

It was fabulous!!

Carol Marine Workshop

Next week I'm attending my second Carol Marine workshop hosted by Kelley MacDonald in her Warren, Rhode Island Studio. The dates are September 8-10. Carol has blogged her way to success with over one thousand and counting, daily paintings most of which are snatched up on eBay. It seems that there is one slot left if anyone would like to come. I highly recommend it.
You may have noticed that I'm slacking a bit on the paintings and it's true. I've been busy with summer fun but I have been doing a couple of 16x20 studio paintings of Cape scenes which I'll reveal soon. Don't forget to check out Fresh Paint Daily Painters where I am one of the featured artists. They've added some new artists and they rock!

Michael Costello Opening at Julie Heller Gallery

I'm taking an overnight trip to Provincetown to attend my friend Michael Costello's "Gods and Monsters" show at Julie Heller Gallery.

Michael is seriously good at both representational art and the kind of art that really stops people in their tracks. He tends to portray his models as the 'not conventionally beautiful people'. He's a hardworking fearless artist. Check him out.

Take Me Out #2

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I love these little take out cartons that are sold in the party stores. My favorite kind of food is already cooked (not by me) and just lands on my table.  The painting is, as always, more subtle and fresh in the 'real'. I don't even want to talk about the difficulty of taking and resizing photos ;(  Be sure to check out the Fresh Paint Daily Painters site to see the work of some of my fellow artists.

Black Eyed Susans

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I have a new setup and some new lighting angles for my still lifes. Also, I use tissue paper for many of my backgrounds. I also have a new camera and am having a hard time getting good photos. It's time to read the book :( The color in this painting is much better than this photo shows. 

Bennett's General Store

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This is an iconic scene here in Duxbury, Massachusetts. In the winter this jeep wears a hardtop roof. Lettered onto the sides of the Jeep are the items the store carries. Ice cold beer, Wine, Spirits, Deli, Subs, Breakfast and Sandwiches. I don't think I've ever seen a painting of it. Am I the first?

Check out Fresh Paint Daily Painters, a new group of artists I was invited to join.  

Cosmos

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My 'kids' left to go home to Naples but we had a wonderful time and the weather couldn't have been better. Very unusual summer here in New England. Today I got back on the horse so to speak. I say this whenever I haven't painted in a while and it's true. It's almost like I've never painted at all.

I'm Away from My Desk ;)

Ray and Chrissie at Green Harbor

My favorite niece Chrissie and her sweet husband Ray are here on a rare vacation from their business in Naples, Florida to attend a family wedding and are staying with Don and me this week. The wedding which took place on Saturday evening was a fabulous family time. I saw cousins and relatives I've not seen in too long. It was a magical day and we're all still under the spell. I will paint again soon. Really ;)

Melissa and David~ August 7, 2010

 

 

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