Being Thankful

I have so many things to be thankful for this year despite all the pain I've been in with a torn meniscus and osteoarthritis.  I'm thankful that I will finally be having surgery next month and I'm hopeful it will get rid of the pain, or at least diminish it.  I was very sad this year that I could not go hiking, but I enjoyed a couple of easy walks in the woods and viewing my old photos from old hikes.

The painting above is a small  (8" X 10") oil study that I am working on of the California poppy fields in the spring. I was there in 2010 with our children and grandchildren. That part of our family has now dispersed from that area (Antelope Valley/Mojave) to Idaho, Oregon, Colorado with only one grandson who has decided to remain in Mojave.  I have good memories of our time visiting there.  We plan on moving to Idaho sometime in 2017. That will be a big move for us after being in New England over 40 years.  Except for my years in Belgium (1969-1974), I have always lived somewhere on or near the East Coast. I'm looking forward to the move, but not the packing up of the art studio and the rest of the house.  We need to make a few improvements to our house before we put it up for sale next June.  We've been here over 30 years and some things are pretty worn out. Also have some puppy damage too.

Sculptured Rocks Geologic site (NH) study. This is one of the trails I was able to walk a little on. I could not go down to the creek below because I was afraid I would not be able to hike back up even though I had my hiking sticks with me.  I played with my acrylic paints for this one, 11" X 14". I still need more practice with shadows, but I was trying to get the light showing through the trees in the background too. The rocks were very interesting there.

I am only doing one craft fair this year, on Dec. 10th in downtown Manchester (1000 Elm St., Holiday Market).  I still have most of my paintings up on display a the Provident Bank in Bedford, NH (115 River Rd). The bank made a lovely reception for me this month, but I didn't sell any paintings. I had to take two down since they needed space for their holiday decorations, but there are still 18 more paintings up there. They have a great program that helps artists get exposure by giving them space in their branches for 6 months at a time.

I'm really and truly thankful that my wonderful husband encouraged me to take art lessons late in life. Painting is very enjoyable and while I may never sell many original paintings, people do seem to enjoy viewing my paintings and they buy cards and prints.  I get to enjoy the whole process of creating something beautiful.

We went to an interfaith service last night. The topic was "gratitude" - appropriate for Thanksgiving.  So tomorrow I cook the turkey and stuffing to bring down to family on Thursday.  I am grateful for the family here on the East Coast and will miss them when I move out west, but I'm looking forward to new challenges ahead and spending time with the family out west.

Happy Thanksgiving all.

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.