October 27th.

Today was the first day of deer season here in Maine, but I did not remember that until I got home from my early morning walk, safely.  I heard a shot when I was coming out of the woods, but I just assumed it was someone after birds....

I took this reference as I came out of the woods, it was a foggy morning, punching up the intensity of the colors.  This is a mixed media, starting with a triad of watercolor, then a little acrylic for fun, and then I rescued it with a dash of pastel.  Then I spent a productive but painful hour breaking my pastels in half.  It hurt a bit, but they are much easier to use this way, and I have room for more!

Rainy Morning in the Studio

We stopped for a picnic at the newly landscaped scenic turnout at the "height of land" just south of Rangeley.  I painted the typical view of Mooselookmeguntic, but as I was getting in the car I looked up the road and took the reference for this.  It was a perfect day all around.

Today rain kept me inside and I did this quick pastel sketch.

Summers Final Month

I did this pastel two weeks ago, it almost ended up in the woodstove, but after careful consideration I kept it, for now.  It was one of those very hot humid days, and a winter scene was in order.

Owyn, and getting back on track.

I purchased some velour at the art store in Rockland, and decided to actually try it out instead of saving it, (for what?).  Owyn is my grandpuppy, and he is a cutie.  Some parts of this really bother me, and I will try again, but one thing with velour, you cannot remove the pastel and it gets full, so you can not add any, so at some point you are done.  I am fairly satisfied with this, as it does look like Owyn, and people keep telling me I am to hard on myself.

I have a still life on the easel and I am going to try to get back to painting daily.  Looking back I could see that I was making progress, and now I have to start all over.  Daily painting works.

Fourth of July in Weld

This pastel is the view of Tumbledown I had from my kayak this past 4th of July.  I will someday work on painting from the kayak, but for now I have my trusty waterpoof bag and camera. Yesterday I made a few more sheets of pastel paper, using old failed watercolor paintings and gesso with pumic.  I still have to perfect the technique, as the brushstrokes in the gesso interfere with the pastel application.  This was a quick study, and that is why I want to reuse material....still worried about wasting paper.  Under this scene is a pretty horrible painting of birch trees.

Life has certainly been in the way of my painting lately, with the latest thing being the death of my father.  He of all people would be telling me to get back to work.  And so I dedicate this and all my future work to my Dad, Arthur Davis. I doubt he will be spending time reading my blog from where he is, but I know he is watching!

And after a bit more time on the easel, I calmed the greens down a bit, I hope!

Tumbledown Plein Air

I finally wrenched myself out of bed today, loaded up my gear and went outside to paint.  The only goof I made was not packing the bug spray.  I am not sure how many times I have attempted to paint Tumbledown Mountain, but this is the first time I have done it plein air and I feel pretty good about it.

There are a few peaks that are a bit sharp, but I am making progress outside.  A wide brim hat and no sunglasses help tremendously with the colors.   I am afraid I really do need some more pastels however, as I had a hard time with the greens...and some bug dope!

Back to painting after a week in Acadia.  I did get some sketches done, but not enough.  

Spring showers!

Our daffidills are nearly done blooming.  We are finally having a good hard rain, and we are watching everything turn green, it is amazing.

 Technology has had me miffed for a few weeks.  My laptops motherboard quit, but I had enough warning to subscribe to Carbonite, so my new laptop has all my old photos!  Then my old camera's memory sticks are too old for the new laptop. and Sony does not make a driver for my camera to hook up with Windows 7.  I did not want to buy another camera, so I hunted around cyberspace until I found a way to work around the problem.  It is not perfect, but it works.

The whole camera issue made me long for my old film camera.  I have a huge telephote lens, which would be awesme for my digital.  They do make some digital cameras that take the old standard lenses, but of course, not for my model.  I don't think I can go back to film, but I can't quite say goodbye either, so it hangs in a bag and collects dust.  I like being able to manipulate my reference photos easily.  I finally got comfortable using Picnic, and that went away last week.  Now I will have to use some program with monkey in its name.   I guess I will have to stop getting used to things and keep embracing change, because everything certainly does and frequently.  A new week ahead and I will try to fill it with ART!