Empty

This is a quick study of my friends camp here in Weld. She has moved away, and it is empty. I tried to capture the feeling by seeing through the window to the lake. Flowers in the window boxes are tended to by family as the camp waits to be sold.

Here I used a limited palette with Ultramarine as my blue. I have become intrigued by the Painting a Day movement again, and I think I just might jump in soon.

Lilies, Aunt Betty Pond, Acadia

We just got back from a bike riding vacation in Acadia National Park. The carriage roads are the perfect place to bike, and we were able to cover most of them the week we were there. I bought a cute basket for the front of my bike so my camera and paints would be easy to get to. The basket ended up heavy and interfered with my steering. We hardly stopped for pictures, one spot was Aunt Betty Pond, where I took the reference photo for this study. I am not very happy with the result, but I will take a mulligan. If this blog is a record of my progress, then I guess this should be here.

Camden Maine is one of the prettiest towns I have ever been in. We spent the night last June, and early in the morning took a walk around the residential part of town, where I took the reference photo for this sketch. I think I could spend a month painting in Camden and not be bored. The harbor is quaint, the architecture amazing, and the food choices are abundant.

Camden also is the home to one of my favorite little shops, French and Brawn. I always need to stop for some of their horseradish cheese and dried Kiwis.

Sea Weed

We like to vacation in May at the shore. Long walks on the beach and soaking up some sun after a long Maine winter gets us ready for the busy summer ahead. This year I took several pictures of sea weed on my last walk of the week. I intended to do a series, and hopefully will, but here is my first.

Lily
I think I have finally found a new muse. Lily was adopted from an animal shelter. There are a lot of bunnies in shelters, and with Easter coming, I am afraid there will be more. Adoption is so rewarding for both the animal and the owner. Lily has found her forever home!

I had to hold myself back from overworking this study. To reward myself I am working on a very tight pen and ink of her now. I limited the colors and tried to keep it loose.

A day spent at the coast yesterday, it was to cold and windy to paint outside, but I soaked up the scenery and came home with two tubes of paint and some other art toys. We met a really nice woman in the art store, who shared her little journal with us. She keeps it with her all the time, it is small and just full of the beauty she sees every day. You can also see she is a very proud grandma! I love talking with other artists, you can exchange a lot, using sentences that don't make a ton of sense to other people.

Will's Toad

My Facebook friend Will took this photo, and with his permission, I used it for my first painting on Masa paper. I learned so much, and really enjoyed the results.

It has been a very dry summer here in Maine, and so with my art work. The loss of my muse has been crushing, (my horse of 23 years). I think it is time to get back in the studio and get to work.

This weathered farm in Weld has always inspired me. I took the reference photo years ago (24) before the field was taken over by trees. The roof crept out over the road last week after collapsing under one of our heavy winter snows. The building was pulled down in order to reopen the road safely.

This is one of the few things I have ever been inspired to paint twice. I am going to tackle it in watercolor again soon.

This oil was done very quickly, and it is one I am happy with, as I put down the colors fast, and did not fiddle with it...I ruin a lot of paintings buy overwork. I will eventually frame and hang this one as a reminder to stop when the painting is done!

Looking at this also reminds me of taking my son around Center Hill when he was a wee one in need of a nap. He would get so wound up the only way to get him to fall asleep was a car or snowmobile ride. When I look at this scene I can still hear the Disney tape we used to play....