Acadia National Park - Schoodic Penninsula

No pictures yet, but tomorrow I plan to start putting up work I'm doing, as well as a little bit about the area. So pretty here!  Fir trees, Birch trees, ocean, rocks, all waiting to be painted!  Amazing!  I got "home" to my little apartment here in the staff housing after a fun pot luck dinner with a group of the interns and volunteers.  Most are here to be working with kids that come with their schools to the S.E.A. program.  A program to teach kids about the environment of this area by staying out here for a couple nights, and learning all sorts of fun things.  All part of the Schoodic Education and Research Center.  I won't be here when the kids start coming (drat), but I'll talk to whoever else shows up.  I give two talks/demos, then take the visitors out to paint or draw.  The interns are mostly college or just out of college age folks, with some older people here also who volunteer/live here for the season.  The other "house-mates" in the "suite" that I am living in is a husband and wife team who have come here for several years to work in the park.

Tomorrow I will be out scouting for painting locations, and doing some work.  I will post what I get done, at least that's the plan.  I'll throw in some photos of the area, just to make everyone jealous! :)  Stay tuned!

Heading to Maine!

I'm behind in posting my 100 in 100, but I think I will be making them up in the next couple of weeks.  I have a two week Artist Residency in Acadia National Park in Maine.  I've been rushing around packing things, making panels, making boxes to hold wet panels, toning canvases, making piles of thing all over!  Can't wait to get up there and paint!  I will be doing a public talk to park visitors once each week, so I made a power point presentation for that (something I had never done on the the computer before!).  Part of my family will be coming up for the second week, which will be fun.  If you are ever interested in looking into artist residencies in the national parks, it is all online, and many, many parks and national sites have them all over the country.  The parks give you a free place to stay, usually have you do some public presentations, and donate a painting within a year.  Many of the parks put you up in wonderful, historic cabins and cottages.  Check it out.

I will be taking my laptop and will try to post as I do work.  Stay tuned in!

#9 and #10 of 100 in 100

The Beast

16x20 oil on canvas

#9 

Summer Snooze

8x10 oil on paper

#10

Here are numbers 9 and 10 painted during a plein air workshop I took this weekend.  It was taught by Ron Boehmer, who I have taken many classes from, and learn more every time I take a class from him.  We had a range of weather, from hot, sunny, hazy, and even some rain.  A great time had by all, even a lovely dinner sitting out on the deck of our hosts.  The location was an 80 acre cattle farm in the Shenandoah Valley, with all sorts of things to paint.

I have become interested in painting old trucks, ever since I saw Carol Marine's paintings on her blog.  Now I look for them, and found a great old dump truck this weekend.  He actually is called T Rex, but he was a real "Beast" I thought.

Now getting ready to leave for Maine in a week for my artist residency in Acadia National Park!  Have to get everything together! 

Goin' Wild!

Goin' Wild

16x20" oil on cavas

plein air piece

#9 of 100 in 100

price on request

I can see that the photo of this painting doesn't quite do justice to the bright colors.  I toned the canvas bright red, which comes through here and there.  I went a little wild wit this one, and had lots of fun.  This is a plein air piece done on the first day of a two day plein air workshop.  I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and really push and play with the colors.  Almost abstract.  It is # 9 of 100 in 100.  I started out thinking I would go on as usual, but that red was called to me!

#7 and #8, 100 in 100

Three's a Challenge

6x6" oil on linen panel

#7 of 100 in 100

$100

River Patrol

14x22" pastel on sanded board

#8 of 100 in 100

$400

Here are #7 and #8 of my "100 Paintings in 100 Days" challenge.  Both have to do with water, but are very different from each other.  #7 is an expansion of #6, which have one sailboat in it.  I had mentioned that the photo I have has three boats.  Liz Whiltzen suggested that I try putting all three boats on the small, 6x6" panel, using a large brush.  I love a challenge, so off I went!  Thanks, Liz!  I used a #8 flat brush for the painting, and it helped me keep things simple, although I think I still noodled around more than I wanted to!  If you see any dog hair in there, I dropped it as I was taking it off the easel, and with three big dogs who love to lay nearby while I paint, I'm sure there is some on there!

#8 is a pastel of a friend's Golden Retriever, Riley, who loves to play in the river.  He will dig for rocks, fetch sticks, whatever.  He has been in a painting before, "Riley's River".  I need to catch up and paint our dogs!  This one is a pastel, which haven't shown up in my challenge paintings yet.  But I'm sure you'll find more as the time goes on.  Painting in pastels is quite similar to painting in oils, despite the fact that one is dry and the other wet.  I think of them in very similar ways, such as both usually start out dark to light, thin to thick (oil), hard to soft (pastel).  Both mediums have their own special qualities which make them unique and fun to work with.

#6 of 100 in 100

Floating Dreams

6x6" oil on linen panel

#6 of "100 in 100"

$100

I have been itching to paint this scene.  I have a photo which has three boats with their reflections, but for this small piece, only one would fit well.  I loved the colors and festive feel of the scene.  Anything to do with water is wonderful.  It gives you a completely different perspective on things to look in on the land, and be a part of the water-world.  This little Sunfish sail boat, part of a fleet of Sunfish sailboats, are owned by a man on the Rappahanock River.  He finds them, restores them, then finds kids and families who can't afford new boats, and off they go to a new owner.  He also teaches sailing to kids and groups. We had a Sailfish, which never made it onto the water, but he was able to get her back into shape and she now is sailing off into the sunset with a family.  Thus the title.

Quote for today:

"Creativity is not the finding of a thing, but the making something out of it after it is found."

- James Russell Lowell

Ready to Rumble

"Ready to Rumble"

oil on linen panel, 6x6"

$100

An old truck that has been sitting outside of a local shop since July 4th.  I loved it as soon as I saw it!  I want to do it as a larger painting at some point.  I have seen several other people doing paintings of old trucks, and I have been bitten by the "paint-the-old-truck-bug"!