Roseate Spoonbills WIP

On my easel, work in progress. These were roseate spoonbills that I photographed while I was in Costa Rica.  I hope to finish the painting in next week's class. This is an acrylic painting, 11" X 14" on canvas board. My teacher suggested I leave out the jungle background and just focus in on the birds at the water's edge.

Another 11" X  14" acrylic painting on canvas board.  This was done from a spring photo of magnolias.  I didn't want too spend much time doing detail, so I made them more in an oriental style.  I felt that the verse from Psalms went well (I left that space empty deliberately so I could put a verse there) and made some cards from it.  I will sell these at craft fairs.  The actual painting doesn't have a verse. I take a digital photo and then manipulate it, either with Photoshop, or simply in Microsoft Word.

I am happy to be back home and back in my studio again.  I cleaned it up a bit today. There has been a great deal of pollen (from oak trees) blowing in the windows. I put a fan in the windows for today. Suddenly it is hot in NH. Weather is very variable in New England, so in a few days it will be mild again.

California

Traveling this week. Short post only. This mural in Laguna Beach, California reminded me of Diego Rivera's murals.

We saw this sign on a store at the marina in Santa Barbara. Loved it.

I posted more in an album. Not sure if this link will work. If not, I'll fix it when I get home.

Snowy Egret in Costa Rica

I finished last week's painting in my class and posted it to my website. I also worked on the exercise I was doing from the book (see last week's posting for more information).  I was not happy with the finished painting, but I cropped a part of it and made some cards.  I can sell those at a craft fair.  This technique is probably one I wouldn't use in the future, but the book was worthwhile in other ways.  I liked the way the author showed the painting mixtures and their ratios for each lesson.

This is the cropped version I will use for cards.

A beautiful weekend with art, hiking and more

I'm having fun experimenting with some new work. The snowy egret (on right) is on "Ampersand Hardbord". I gessoed it and sanded it first.  I am working on this one in my class. I enjoy getting the shapes of the branches and leaves in so that there is some dimensionality to it. I still need to work on the top layer of leaves (not in yet at all) and the layer underneath that also needs to be lightened up. Then I can put another layer on the egret and work on the reflections in the water.

The painting on the left is an experiment from a book, "Brilliant Color, painting vibrant outdoor scenes" by Julie Gilbert Pollard. The book is really for oil painters, putting acrylic undercolors on the canvas first, but I'm planning on using acrylic for the whole piece. That is on the standard canvas panel.  Both of these are 8" X 10". The under layer is done with watered down acrylic paints, just like watercolors.  It is an interesting process.

We did some hiking over the weekend and took the trail up to the fire tower at Oak Hill Trails in Concord/Loudon, New Hampshire.  Fire danger is very high now. Beautiful views from the tower. I saw some pretty blue, very small, butterflies. I think they may have been Karner blues because they are in that area. I think that is Mount Monadnock in the distance on the first photo below.

And to finish off a wonderful weekend, we took part in an event in Derry, New Hampshire at the Etz Hayim Synagogue. Joe & I had a craft table there and sold cards, prints &  books.