Leaving My Comfort Zone

"Leaving Philly" 11x14 oil on panel

    I have been carrying this image in my head since the winter. In December when my husband and I were driving home from Philadelphia we experienced a beautiful sunset against which the jewel toned colors of the lights sparkled. I took several quick photos with my iPhone while sitting in traffic. What drew me to this particular scene was the purple blue of the illuminated industrial buildings in the distance against the warm tones of the sky, the curve of sparkling car lights and the twinkle of lights from the open work of the complex directly ahead.  I have never painted anything like this and I wasn't sure if I could.

     I became stuck nearing the finish on my 15th Street painting and decided it needed some closet time. I am not sure why this image flashed into my mind again but I suddenly had an urge to give it a go. I had a good panel at the ready which had already been toned with a mix of ochre and purple which I find a good base for nocturnes.  So, I did a quick color study in my sketchbook and liked what I saw. I went right to work using that study and my iPhone photo as a reference. I finished it quickly and am quite pleased with it. I was in new territory and felt happy that I was able to pull it off considering I hadn't had the confidence to attempt it before. The image may not appeal to many due to the subject matter but I will be framing it and will look for an opportunity to show it!

In Progress; "July Evening on H St."

"July Evening on H Street" 16x20 oil on linen panel

      This is what is currently on my easel and it is nearing completion. I apologize for the poor photo quality but it was taken in the dimming light and I have not edited it. We are having yet another evening thunder storm and I think we can safely label this monsoon season. It sure is wet out there! As I am typing this I am aware that the rain has ceased and we are experiencing the same lovely golden glow in the sky that I have pictured here. Mother Nature is being generous :-) We get to enjoy a sunny day, get a good dousing to keep things fresh and green and then are treated to a light show. This painting was inspired by this July weather. I have been in the mood to paint another cityscape so I chose H Street looking west as my subject rather than a landscape.

        Soon this view will be dated. Art historians ( Should I be so fortunate) will be able to date the painting as being pre H Street trolley. This deduction will be due to the fact that running down the center of H Street will be the new, bright red trolleys which are being delivered this month. I will have to do another painting of the same location when they are up and running. I think they will be a wonderful subject!

ON EXHIBIT: " The Noble Nocturne" www.salmagundi.org
                         " Images of Washington DC 2014" www.classicamericanpainting.com

The Noble Nocturne Exhibit

"At Rest" 10x20 oil on panel

      I am still loving nocturnes! Here is another take on the subject where the light of the moon is present but not the moon itself.  In preparation for this one I textured the panel rather heavily which gives a subtle movement to the atmosphere in this quiet painting. This one has been juried into the Noble Nocturne Exhibit at the Salmagundi Club at 47 5th Ave. NYC. The show runs from July 14th to July 25th in the newly renovated Main Gallery. The artist reception will be the evening of Friday, July 18th and a special live nocturne painting demo will be given by artist member Anne Kullaf at 9:00 PM.
       Also accepted for this show is my painting from the last post which seems to have been blocked for some reason. I have changed the title to " When the Clouds Parted" and I will upload it again for this post. Please visit the Salmagundi atwww.salmagundi.org I know all the paintings in this beautiful show will be uploaded soon.

        On the easel; Another cityscape and this one is an evening painting. It is almost finished so I will post soon!

"When the Clouds Parted" 12x16 oil on linen panel

A Full Moon Cycle = Another Nocturne!

"Timeless" 12x16 oil on linen panel

      I love nocturnes! I think I will be producing a number of them this year. This one was inspired by our current full moon cycle but rather than paint last night's sky as seen over and through the trees I combined what I saw with what I know. I transported myself to the beach in front of our house on the Outer Banks of NC and painted this scene that I have experienced many times. It is breathtaking to be surrounded with such a sky combined with the sound and scent of the ocean.
     I talked about the many variations of color in the night sky in the post about my Kennedy Center nocturne and in this painting I grayed the sky more and let some of the mauve underpainting show through.  The atmosphere is different at the beach than in a city. I intend to explore all of it

      Today I was supposed to meet friends at 9:00 AM to paint at a local rose garden but I wasn't feeling well so I had to cancel. I am glad I felt well enough to work in the studio and paint this nocturne and then the little still life study below. There are some similarities in painting cloudy nocturnes and painting silver. It was fun and used up the paint remaining on my palette.

"Silver and White" 8x8 oil on linen panel

      ON EXHIBIT:     This Saturday "Images of Washington" opens at American Painting Fine Art  in DC. This is a Washington Society of Landscape Painters exhibit and runs from June 14th to September 27th. I will have four paintings in this show and all have been posted here. You can scroll back over the last couple of months to see them in progress. The paintings are "Cafe du Parc", "Lunch in Lafayette Square", "Cafe La Ruche" and "Kennedy Center  Nocturne"
        Thanks for dropping in!

A Memorial Day Sunset

"Memorial Day Sunset" 8x10 oil on panel

      Last night was a super windy one but we were treated to a beautiful sunset here on the Outer Banks. I had my tripod and pochade box all set up on the deck and just waited for the moment to start. This was painted very quickly between 7:00 and 8:00 PM. I had to hold on to the lid of the box to keep the panel from rattling back and forth due to the heavy winds. I laughed at myself when I came indoors because I could have stood in the bedroom window and painted in comfort. For some reason I felt I had to persevere outdoors. I am really not that much of a purist.
      Except for picking out some "stuff" the wind plastered in the titanium white I don't plan on retouching this. I would rather preserve the spontaneity warts and all.  I used to paint a lot of sunsets but haven't done one in a while and it was fun. They are great for loosening up because all you can do is capture the essence of it and move the paint around intuitively. The light and cloud movement changes much too quickly.

      Here is my set up. I am a little sorry I didn't paint in the flag as I did in the painting I posted from that spot earlier. Adjusting the red and blue would have been interesting!

Silver and Blue

"Silver Sky" 6x12 oil on panel

      I had inserted an image of this painting at the end of my last post but apparently Blogger feels two images per post are all I get to be able to work with. I painted this one standing in the same place (our west facing deck) as I stood to paint my flag painting. I decided to eliminate the foreground trees so that this painting would be all about the sky and it's reflected color on the Sound. The green would have interrupted all that silver and blue.The clouds were wonderful! Large, shimmery and fast moving. I love watching huge cloud formations moving over a body of water and I find the light and reflections entertaining to paint.
      The photos from this post are from my iPad as this time the colors were closer to the original than those I took with my camera. It is strange how that happens sometimes. The light here is so intense that I find those from my camera a bit bleached out. If I could upload them on my computer I would be able to make some adjustments with Photo Shop to come closer to the original work. If I were a better photographer this wouldn't be an issue.

       Well, I should not have complained about Blogger because now I can only work with one image. I can't enlarge or caption the photo below but I can tell you that this is what I spent yesterday morning painting.  The painting "The Beach at Palmer's Island" was almost finished when I took this photo. What you can't see was what a windy day it was! Since this 8x16 canvas was too large for  my cigar box pochade I had it well taped to the lid of the box. I set my tripod low and sat while painting as this gear is light weight and I wanted to minimize the possibility of it blowing over. I was comfortable and protected from the sun by my beach umbrella and was happy to have so many orange and red umbrellas on the beach to paint. As I was thinking that suddenly an umbrella that was being put up inverted and practically yanked its owner off his feet. In the next second my umbrella was pulled out of the sand by the wind and I chased it while it tumbled toward the ocean! When I returned with it I was greeted by an upturned brush holder and all my brushes were loaded with sand. Plein Air is not without its perils :-)

Add caption

      Last evening we had a beautiful sunset and I was able to paint it from that same west facing deck mentioned above. I will post that in my next entry. I have to say the extreme winds made that one more of a challenge than this even with the relative shelter of the house.
       All in all a lovely Memorial Day and I hope yours was a peaceful one!

Morning and Afternoon on Currituck Sound

"Memorial Day Weekend on Currituck Sound" 8x10 oil on canvas

      We're back on the Outer Banks! The weather is spectacular, the ocean is warm and I intend to take maximum advantage of both. I spent the day painting and chose to focus on the Sound today because dramatic clouds were floating over it as opposed to the cloudless blue over the ocean. It truly is a blue and white world here on the Banks. Lucky for me that it is my favorite color and if you look around my studio you could say it is my signature color. Today, however I had the pleasure of adding the rich red from our flag to the view. It is our tradition on this weekend to place a flag on the oceanside deck as well as the sound side one. Memorial Day weekend signals the beginning of summer and the colorful beach umbrellas dotting the beach will provide inspiration tomorrow.

The painting in progress

     I am working off my iPad down here and don't have any editing apps to help my images so I apologize for the straight from the camera quality which is a little dark.
     I mentioned my love of blue and thought you might like to know which ones are on my palette. I always put out ultramarine, cerulean and cobalt turquoise. When at the beach I add indigo and Paynes gray. The latter two when mixed with cadmium yellow make a wonderful rich, dark green. I don't like to use tube greens so you will find my palette lined on one side with my blues and one side with my
reds and yellows and the top center is for white. My reds today were alizarin and vermilion and my yellows were cad lemon, and cad yellow light. Since I had forgotten to bring ochre I mixed a little of red oxide with the two yellows to come up with a rich, dark yellow.