Sliver Stream (watercolor 5 x7) SOLD

Like yesterday’s paintings, I did this little watercolor at the gallery last Wednesday.  Postcard sized paintings work really well for gallery shifts.  Space at the gallery for painting is limited and I want to be able to drop whatever I am doing to greet and talk to patrons.  At this scale there’s hardly ever a bad moment to stop painting.

These little paintings make good sketches for working out larger work too. It’s so much easier to experiment with composition when the paper I’m risking is only 5 x 7.

The subject is Agate Beach in Newport at sunset.  If the stream has a name, I don’t know it.  And it wouldn’t surprise me to discover it seasonal runoff.  It’s course over the sand varies every time I visit.  But it’s always wide and shallow.  This Spring the it’s mouth was over fifty feet wide and perhaps two or  three inches deep.  I liked the silver reflections in the late evening and early mornings.

The palette is burnt sienna, new gamgee (yellow), quinacridone deep red rose, cobalt blue and phthalo blue.  I painted the sunset colors in tandem working first in the sky and then in the reflections and back again to the sky as I added new colors.  I began with the yellows, then worked along through the oranges, reds, and purples.  The purple is phthalo blue and quinacridone.

Craftsmen Lantern (11 x 14) reserved for La Salles show

Last week’s art show was on OSU campus in Corvallis.  Early Friday morning it was dry and clear and the morning light was stunning, but I had no time to do anything but rush inside the Memorial Building to finish setting up.  Sunday was dry, clear and cold too, so I went early and wandered the campus taking photos on the sunlit buildings.  Not only was the light dramatic, but since all the leaves have fallen much more of the buildings were visible than last time I was on campus.

The reflected trees in the arch above the main entrance to the Womens Building caught my eye.  Closer up I noticed the sun on the craftsmen lantern.

The palate is mostly cobalt blue, dioxin purple and burnt sienna. The extreme highlights are raw sienna and the deepest shadows contain phthalo blue.

I began by painting in the windows in cobalt. I added the reflected trees with a mixture on cobalt and burnt sienna. The metal mullions are layers of cobalt, violet, and burnt sienna built up one over another. I painted the lantern and its reflection next to establish the darkest values. I saved the raw sienna for the sunlit portion of the lamp and echoed it it the sunlit side of the arch.

I showed to my painting friend when I had finished. She introduced me to a new word, “tenebrism.” It means the use of extreme contrasts of light and dark with small amounts of light shining out of vast darkness. I love extreme contrast, and I’m happy to have a word to describe it. I’m not sure that this painting as a whole is an tenebristic, but the lantern and its shadow certainly are, and they make the painting.

Prints available at Fine Art America.com.

New Dawn in the Late Afternoon (8 x 10) $100

I painted this little picture while vacationing in Colorado.  Obviously I didn’t work plein air.  I used a photo I took last summer.  We love to walk along the Newport fishing docks in the afternoon when the boats are all in and the fishermen are cleaning up.

This is the New Dawn in dock.  I painted her because of the lovely reflections in the water.  But while I began it because of the reflections, I found I enjoyed the subtle shades of gray necessary to give the boat volume too, especially where the floats colored the shadows.

I painted the reflection and the parts of the boat reflected first beginning with the red boat side and the gold float.  Then I added first the lighter water background and than the darker reflections and waves in it.  The lighter water is cobalt blue in the foreground and cerulean blue in the distance.  I used burnt sienna to gray and darken and gray the blues. I used a little raw sienna to make the greens.

Then I painted in the dark rail, the lifesaver and the the floats to help me “see” the rest of the boats.  The rails are phthalo blue mixed with burnt sienna.  I used burn sienna and raw sienna for the floats and lifesaver.  The background came next to define the masts.

With that road map in hand, I set about adding all the various shades of gray.  For those I used all three blues grayed down with burn sienna.

Or purchase a print from Fine Art America.

Low Tide at Agate Beach (12 x 16) $225

I love the ghostly look of the beach at low tide on a foggy morning. The beach stretches out forever half hidden in haze and strangely reflective, making the beach and the sky much the same color. The ocean swallows up all sound. All is quiet mystery.

But I have a hard time painting it. It is essentially nothing with variations. Here, to emphases the space and provide life are my daughters striding companionably into to that great emptiness filling it with sound and movement.

To paint the picture I masked the white waves, the foam and girls, but not their reflections. I painting the sky with burnt sienna and cobalt blue in multiple wet into wet layers. I painted the beach first in yellow ocher and than followed that with burnt sienna. I painted various mixtures of burnt sienna and cobalt blue wet on wet over the sand. The waves are a darker mixture of burnt sienna and cobalt blue painted wet on dry.

After the wet paper dried, I lifted the mask and painted the girls. The were actually dressed in brightly colored coats, but I painted them in more burnt sienna and cobalt to keep the monotone foggy feel of the beach. Then I dampened the area under the girls and painted in their reflections wet on damp.

I placed my signature carefully since in all that emptiness I knew it would be a design element.