Back to School, Part 5

Pelican Party, 18" X 24", water mixable oils on stretched canvas.
I think this painting is finally done. I haven't posted it yet to my website in case I change my mind. I painted this with palette knife and brushwork. I didn't put in as many pelicans as were in my original photo. The pelicans were at the Laguna Beach State Marine Reserve (California). There were some other birds on the rocks too, probably cormorants or terns. I couldn't tell from the photo, just saw some black birds.

It was actually fun painting with the palette knife, but the downside is that the paint is so thick that it takes a long time to dry. That meant I couldn't add the pelicans until the painted rock was dry. I used a brighter blue than I usually use for the Pacific Ocean (Phthalo blue/red shade). I also made some mixes with white and with cerulean blue. I thought that really brightened up the painting.

I used an olive green and titanium white mix for some of the rock and some of the guano. I used raw umber mixes for the browns.  I didn't really need too many different colors for this painting. There is a little bit of sap green to show some moss or grass on the rock (you can enlarge the view of the painting by clicking on it).

I am finished with my 12 week oil painting class at New Hampshire Institute of Art. It was hard work, but I feel that my skills with this medium have improved. I still have one more painting to finish (below).

By the Sea, WIP. Since this is the Mediterranean Sea, the sea colors are very different. I used mixes with Viridian.  I'll try to finish this one within the next week or two. These two paintings are really the first time I have tried seriously painting seas/oceans. I am working on this one with brushes, not palette knife (I had enough of that for a while with the last one.)

Then I took a break and did a little illustration with gouache, pen and ink. This one is on Canson 140 lb. rough paper. I enjoyed playing with my old paints, although some of them were a bit dried up. Even though they were dried up and I had limited colors, I was still able to make a study I was happy with. I don't like the image enough to spend time painting a larger painting. This is the view of Fort Constitution (from Fort Stark) in New Castle, NH. The water is the Atlantic Ocean.

I think that's it for a while on ocean/seas/water paintings. I have prepared a hardbord with gesso to play with next. I'm thinking about flowers to go on it. Spring is slowly getting here and my daffodils are open now.  I keep watching for more plants/flowers to open. Our bikes are ready for their first ride of the season and I'm looking forward to that too.

I ordered some new business cards from Vistaprint. It was actually cheaper to order cards from them than to keep printing a few of my own each time I do a show. The paper is a very good quality too. They have sales periodically. I waited for a good sale and I'm happy with the cards. My next scheduled show is July 26th in New Castle, NH.