Monday, May 31, 2010

Green surfer

Oil on canvas panel, 6" x 8"
A young man with his lime green board heads back in to the water. I always love having a spot of red in an otherwise cool color scheme.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

View from the dock-sold

Oil on panel, 8" x 10"
We went painting in Newport the other day- the weather was gorgeous, and we got there early enough to set up on the dock, in the shade, of the lobster company before business got going and we'd be in the way. I loved this boat and reflection- I was assured by some guy walking by that it was an antique and wouldn't be moving, but shortly after that the owner backed it out of its berth and left. Luckily I had taken a photo so was able to finish a few details at home.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Umbrella and chair

Oil on stretched canvas, 6" x 6"
By all means, bring those chairs and umbrellas to the beach with you! You never know when you might want them.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Peonies, peaches and plums

Oil on linen, 18" x 24"
I planted these pink peonies last year and was thrilled to see them not only come up this spring but with four big buds. I haven't been painting many florals lately, but if I didn't paint these I wouldn't have forgiven myself.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Brunch at Olga's

Oil on stretched linen, 6" x 6"
I keep going back to this place during good weather to photograph the people sitting outside. Someday I should actually eat there.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Adjusting-sold

Oil on stretched canvas, 6" x 8"
Another image from the RISD street fair. The difficult thing in painting these is editing; there is so much going on in the background, people milling around, trees, buildings, and all kinds of extraneous stuff. I decided here to focus  on the light hitting the objects in the foreground and to subdue everything else.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

A view of the cove

Oil on canvas panel, 6" x 8"
This is the same cove, seen from a different direction. It was cold and windy and difficult to paint delicate details because the wind was blowing my hand around.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

The Egret- sold

Oil on stretched canvas, 14" x 16"
We went painting in East Greenwich, RI last week where I started this painting. I took photos but really wanted to finish it from life, so we went back yesterday, but the tide was out and I found myself looking at a mudflat. So, I worked on the trees and grass but finished the water from a photo when I got home. Can you see the egret?

This is an interesting spot. It's a new park that used to be a landfill, and now has grass, picnic tables and a walking trail. Because you're on top of a plateau, you have an overview of the marsh and cove, which is a little unusual. It wasn't until I got home that I started to wonder, why would they ever put a landfill on the waterfront? The things we do...

Saturday, May 8, 2010

The customer-sold

Oil on stretched linen, 6" x 6"
I've been learning a lot about painting skin tones from doing this series; in this case, painting them warmer where they're getting a lot of reflected light from the ground and cooler where the light is from the sky. In the actual painting, the skin colors aren't as blotchy looking as they seem on my screen; the values are actually a lot closer. My efforts with Photoshop did not yield the desired effect.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

The yellow dress

Oil on linen, 5" x 6"
I struggled with this one- I liked the image of the yellow dress so much, when I tried putting other people in the painting they seemed to be too much of a distraction. I ended up painting out the people on the other side of the table, and cropped a little off the right side of the painting.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Earrings-sold

Oil on stretched canvas, 8" x 8"
Does anybody ever have enough? Of course not...
Email me for price.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

The art fair-sold

Oil on stretched linen, 6" x 6"
This past Saturday was the Rhode Island School of Design Alumni art and craft fair. It was a gorgeous day, as evidenced by the sundresses, straw hats, ice cream and dogs out walking their owners.