Painting at the Beach

It has been an earlier than usual spring with lots of lovely days. This past week I've gone to the beach a few days and have worked on a couple of oil paintings and these little watercolors, all looking the same way, west towards the Salmon River.  Garden work has started, but today is raining and so a good day to put some things for all to see.

Plein Rein Retreat

When I returned to Alaska last month, I stayed a weekend in Juneau to join the Plein Rein painters at a retreat out the road in the Jubilee cabin at the Shrine of St. Therese.  I did several paintings and drawings, enjoyed being around other artists and ate lots and lots of good food. 

                                         

We drank a lot of good wine too.

Sketchbook Paintings in Florida

Better late than never.  Here are some of the little paintings in my sketch book that I did in Florida.

 The waves were a challenge..... just too fast.  But I got the color right and enjoy the time sitting on the beach in the warm sun.

This is a view from the living-room of my son's fixer upper bungalow. 

This is no longer a mystery.  I found a painting of it I'd done a few years ago in Florida and had forgotten.  It is is a kalanchoe.

A View from the Ferry

I'm home from my travels with several new little watercolors in a little sketch book that a friend gave me just before I left home.  Above is the first painting that I did in it.  I did it from the ferry just before we left Gustavus for Juneau on the first leg of our trip to Florida.


Above is a scan of the book.  My friend purchased it at Uwajimaya, a large Japanese store in Seattle.  I like the paper a lot.  It is more forgiving than most of the watercolor papers I use.  it measures about 6x7.5 inches.

In Florida, no Scanner

I'm here in Florida for a while.  I must admit to not keeping to my intentions to paint 29 little paintings in February, but I did do about 20.  I got too busy getting ready  to leave home and we spent a couple of days in Juneau which were also busy.  Then there was jet lag.  In the last few days, I have done a few sketches and little paintings and yesterday took some photos of them.  I was going to post here, but discovered I didn't bring the cord to put them on my laptop. And there is no scanner.   Darn it!

What I did just do, which I'd been meaning to do for a long time, is post on my other blog about some books that I have had paintings and drawings included it.  You might like to take a look, here.

This is a little painting that I did in my sketch book on Spruce Island, near Kodiak, in 2014, and is on the back cover of Fran Kelso's book Alaska Attitudes.

Unless I come into contact with a scanner, I'll be back here after I get home in a couple of weeks.

Friday and Saturday

Saturday morning, about 5.5x8"

 I've gotten a bit behind in posting here, along with a few other things. Above is what I painted yesterday and below what I painted on Friday, both from the same spot, sitting in my car near the dock.  They are both in a sketch book that I just started using that I bought in England containing what I think is called cartridge paper.  These were done much more quickly than others this month.... drawing first with pen and ink gave definition that would have taken more time with just watercolor, and things really dried fast and I didn't have to wait to add more color..... using watercolor paper in this wet and cold environment, I almost always have 2 things going at once.  The bottom one was done in about a half hour.  The second one longer, as I worked more on the trees with ink.  
     

Friday Afternoon about 5.5x8 inches

February 9th and 10

about 6x6 inches

Yesterday, I went to my friend Kathy's house up the Salmon River and did this gouache painting on an underpainting of cool red.  I enjoyed the process very much.  The sun was coming and going again which caused some problems.

about 5.5x6 inches

Today was another dreary day of rain and I didn't leave the house.  I did this looking out the west window of my living room.  No problem with the sun coming and going, but towards the end of painting, it started getting dark and so did the painting.  I overworked it to death, but it never got finished.

February 7th and 8th

about 5x5 inches

I painted at my neighbor, Aimee's house yesterday afternoon and this morning.  The first one I finished yesterday when there was some fresh snow on the ground, looking across the river towards the beach with Pleasant Island beyond. 

about 4x6 inches

This one I finished this morning.  Lots of green on the ground.... moss mostly, maybe some kinickinick.  The knob on Pleasant Island  isn't right..... too flat on top.  I'll change it tomorrow.

February 6

about 5x6 inches

This afternoon was beautiful!  I drove to the end of the dock and spent a couple of hours painting and sketching.  The clouds were  changing constantly, the sun in and out.  Nothing ended up as it was started.  This is one of the 3 little paintings I did. I was looking south from the dock across Icy Strait to Chichikof Island.    

February 4 and 5

about 4x6 inches

Yesterday, another rainy day and another view from my studio window.

about 4x6 inches

Today, the weather couldn't make up its mind.  Some sunshine, some rain and a little bit of snow.  I painted this from a friends rain splattered window.  With the weather changing constantly, I was frustrated with my results. 

1,2,3

I didn't state it on my last post, but I vowed to do 29 little watercolors this month  and post here.   I did two today and half of one yesterday.  So now I will put my intentions out there.  We will be traveling to Florida on the 19th and I hope by then I will have some momentum going.  I hope to get back to my oil painting too, though there's a lot of inertia happening on that side of the studio.

about 6x4 inches

This is the half painting I did yesterday.... well maybe less than half.   I added the snow....

about 6x4 inches

 ... over this that I painted  from my window in October 

It has looked much the same for most of the winter.  Yesterday afternoon, we had the first snow  in over a month.  The willow and cottonwoods are budding out.  I think this January was the warmest on record.  And there was lots of rain.

Today, I called my friend Kim and asked if I could go over and paint this morning.  She has a much better view.  I did these 2 from her window towards the mouth of the Salmon River.

about 5x5 inches

about 4x6 inches

Four Little Sketches

I did these little sketches to fill the last couple of pages in a sketchbook I'm retiring.   In it there are some nice little watercolors that I should have posted over the last few months.  Maybe having my scanner 2 floors above my studio has something to do with my lack of posting, and maybe I should do something about that.

The two on top are from my studio window, the two on the bottom from my car at the beach. 

South of the Airport

These two paintings were done from a pencil drawing I did last year in April, north of the airport runway. There was no snow on the ground but I put it in the second one.

watercolor, about 6x4 inches

watercolor, about 6x4 inches

Blue Waves

watercolor 5x5 inches

I picked these blooms off of my blue wave petunia plant that is still blooming on my porch despite temperatures in the twenties.

More of England and France

 I'll try again to get this blog going again with some more of my journal paintings from my trip to England and France.  All but the last are about 7x7 inches.

And now I'm making a promise to myself to add something more recent this coming week.

Across from Tentagel Castle, Cornwall

 

 

Merlin's cave is supposedly around here.  I don't know if this is it.

Train Station at St Erth

 I missed a train on a day trip to St. Ives and spent an hour waiting for the next one.... long enough to draw and I added the paint later.

 

Dart River, Totnes, Devon

 

 

 

 

 

The tide goes out here and leaves the boats on the river bottom.

Branscombe, Devon

Anne's teacup

 I loved this little cup.  It seems so French.

England and France

After returning from a wonderful trip to England and France earlier this month, I've decided its time to start adding to this blog again  Friends and I started in London and traveled to Cornwall and Devon and then to Paris and the countryside near Angouleme France.  My friends were really into walking long treks most days and my knee wouldn't allow me to keep up, so I spent a lot of time sitting and painting.  These are some of my painting in my journal and are about 7 x 7 inches or smaller.

Lemorna Cottages, Cornwall

 

Alone Circular walk from Port Isaac, Cornwall

View from Pendaris B&B Port Isaac, Cornwall

View from Tentagel Castle, Cornwall

Along the Dart River between Totnes and Dartmouth

                        

Anne's house near Angouleme France

Anne's garden shed  France

End of the Runway

watercolor 4.5 x 6 inches

 I  painted this on Friday from my car at the end of the airport runway.  I moved a mountain and lots of trees.   It was very cold with wind but I parked where the sun was shining on me.  I spent most of the time with the line of spruce and cottonwood and would have gone back the next day, but nothing guarantees a change of weather the next day as much as me going out to paint.  I finished as well as I could in the studio.  We had a weekend of snow.

Sky on Thursday

watercolor painting 3x4.5 inches

I sort of resolved to start posting here more often at the beginning of the month, but ddn't get very far.  Well, now I'm going to start again.  I painted this little watercolor on Thursday.  I think I nailed the color in the sky pretty well. 

January 3, 2015

5 x 6 1/2 inches

I painted this from my car this afternoon.  It was a very cold clear days and the Fairweathers were beautiful.  This was the last spread in a little book I've been painting, drawing and writing in since June. 

January 2, 2015

I hope I'm not getting too ambitious here.  I signed up again for Leslie Saeta 30 paintings in 30 days challenge and started posting them on my other blog.  Since some are going to be small watercolors, I think I might as well put them here too. 

4x6 

I painted this after a spectacular sunrise this morning.

30 PAINTINGS IN 30 DAYS COMPLETED!

Here are 25 of the paintings I did in January.  I could figure out how to get all 30 of them in the template.  Leslie Saeta sure deserves a lot of praise for this challenge.  I don't know how she does it. Besides painting, she teaches and hosts a radio show.  You can hear a radio show about the challenge on  Artist's Helping Artist's

DAY 30 OF 30 PAINTINGS IN 30 DAYS

watercolor 6 x 6 inches

Whoo hoo!   I'm posting my 30th painting for the month and sitting down with a glass of wine to celebrate.  I started cutting mats for them this afternoon and was so rewarded and pleased with myself looking at them all.

Tomorrow, I'm going to return to work on my year of the snake print until it is done..... I have one block cut already.  My studio needs a day of cleaning up, and I'd like to cut some more mats.  I could list a dozen other thing that need to be done,  but I want to keep painting. 

For the month of February, I'm setting a goal to paint at least two small paintings a week and also to spend 6 days a week painting for at least 2 hours.  I'm hoping and pretty sure I will do more and spend more time than that.  I'll see if I need more commitment to get more done.

This last painting for the challenge is of a cup that my husband gave me for one of my birthdays and it is my favorite.  Tea always leaves a residue with our hard water, so I don't use it very much because it is hard to get clean.  My dear husband appreciates this since he does most of the dish washing around here.

DAY 29

watercolor and gouache 6 x 6 inches 

With only one day left of the challenge, I'm beginning to be a bit apprehensive about ending my daily painting, afraid that without the challenge and commitment that I will not keep painting.  This month of painting everyday has been very satisfying and I really want to keep the momentum up,  but  I have other things that I need to do that I've put aside this month.  And I want to work some on larger paintings.   I know I need a commitment to myself, including painting some larger pieces and some almost daily painting.... I must decide just what exactly that promise to myself will be.

DAY 28

 watercolor and gouache 6.5 x 6 inches