Palette Box

Rectangular Wooden Palette

Palette Box with Foam Core Lid Closed

I use the same rectangular wooden palette for painting both in my studio and outside.    I prefer this arrangement because it eliminates the time and expense of loading and maintaining two palettes.  Since I mostly paint everyday, the fully loaded palette sits on my studio sidetable ready for use.   I don't cover my palette in the studio but I always wipe my mixing area clean at the end of the day.   The piles of paint may develop skins over them, but I simply cut into the pile of paint with my palette knife and draw out what I need from the smooth wet paint underneath.    Every couple of weeks I completely scrape off old paint on the palette and start with fresh new piles. 



For taking the paints outside or into the car, I use a palette box that has been retrofitted with a foam core lid.   The cover is lightweight, opens like a cigar box lid, and is just sturdy enough to protect the palette full of paint inside.





Foam Core Lid Open

Velcro strips that secure palette to palette box

On both the bottom of the palette and the palette box, Velcro strips hold the palette in place within the box.   Even if the box were to tip on its side or even upside down, the palette of paint would stay stuck within the box.


I also have some Velcro strips on the outside of the palette box to secure in on top of my art supply box on wheels if I have to walk a greater distance than usual.

I know there are fancier systems, but this is what I do.





St. Stephen's Green - Dublin

St. Stephen's Green, Dublin

This painting is the third 8 x 8 inch canvas done with reference photos from our trip to Ireland in September.   St. Stephen's Green is an urban oasis located in the middle of Dublin.  It reminded me very much of the Boston Common and Public Gardens.   The perfect Sunday weather (yes - again, no rain) drew many people who were enjoying the sprawling greens, ponds and full, floral splendor. 

The people in this scene were sitting in small groups, most with at least one musical instrument in their midst.  The light and shadows were stunning.   The light was so bright that it caused an illusion of yellowish-white in the branches and leaves.   The shadows were so long that they grew wide as they moved away from their source.   The many figures looked like spots of color, only the sun rimming the tops of their heads gave evidence that this was a crowd of people.  The small impressionistic dots of color look chaotic up close but from a distance, I'm thinking - hoping - they look like figures sitting and walking in the park.

Sunny Day at the Beach

Wet Sandy Beach

This painting was done on a beautiful day last April.   For some reason, I didn't finish it at that time, nor did I publish the blog post.   I pulled the painting out this week and gave it a critique.   I tweaked it a bit, and here is the blog.  I think I am longing for a day like this, given it is 3 degrees outside right now.

What a glorious April day!   I wore my long down coat even still - just to be sure I was warm enough, but it was very pleasant.   The tide was dead low and the glossy wet sand stretched a long distance out to the shoreline at Burke's Beach in Green Harbor

My set up in the wet sand - or should I say - quick sand - was a challenge.  I had filled a plastic bag with wet sand and used a bungy to weight down the easel because of the strong wind.   The extra weight caused the easel legs to sink into the wet sand.   I countered that problem by placing flat rocks under each leg which slowed down the sinking.   Plein air on a wet and windy beach has its challenges!

I had quite a few visitors, others who were also enjoying the early Spring teaser.   A surprising number of grandparents with children came by.   Children playing nearby provided some figure ideas, and I even included them, but then wiped them off a couple of times.    A ten year old girl was spinning and spinning to make herself dizzy.  The littlest boy was digging happily, not really seeming to be looking for anything in particular, but rather just to have the wet sand oozing through his little hands.

In the end, I elected to include some rocks, yes, just rocks.  The Duxbury Beach shoreline is far in the distance, Plymouth Hills beyond that, as well as the (barely visible) Gurnet Lighthouse.

Busy Marina for January

First Subject Green Boat

On this grey mid-January day, it was about forty degrees and very windy.   I was dressed for ten below, so other than an issue of overly stiff paint, things were just fine.   I set up on a dock on the Brant Rock side of the Green Harbor River. I secured my field easel to a railing with a bungy cord and positioned it facing north.

Second Subject Red Boat

I was surprised at how much activity there was.   Some of the larger lobster boats were going to dry dock.  I'm surprised that these guys work all the way into January.   They must be finally conceding though, that the harsh New England winter is here.

I started painting a long green lobster boat (See first photo above), but roughly fifteen minutes into painting it, I realized it was about to get towed out of the water.  Next?  I turned a bit to the right. There was a bright red lobster boat (The Emily Rose) docked right next the parking lot.  The owner was taking advantage of high tide and unloading traps and stacking them directly onto the edge of the dock.  He finished in about twenty minutes, then drove the boat to its mooring, so - no more bright red lobster boat.

Meanwhile, I had been busy repainting the background to cover the green boat.  No red boat. Now what?

Turquoise Fishing Boat Named Underwing

The one remaining boat within the frame of my painting was a boat I have painted before.   It is the bright turquoise fishing boat that normally is moored in the middle of the Green Harbor River near the channel.    Thankfully it remained stationary, although further away in the distance than I would have liked.  It stayed for the rest of the paint out, and therefore comes out the winner as today's center of interest.

Cranberry Bog in January

Stage One

The deep freeze that had had a grip on us last week eased up and today was a paint out day.  It's mid-January but it was a whopping fifty degrees which felt like sixty-five to me.   I noticed that although most of the snow pack in the area had melted, the cranberry bogs were still covered with a white frozen layer.

I have painted at this cranberry bog along Route 139 and Temple Street in Duxbury many times, but never when it was frozen.   Usually the allure of the bright red cranberry harvest gets me to come here, but this winter scene was pretty in a different way.  I did the first painting facing southwest and the shadows were coming toward me.

Stage Two

There were tall, dark pines bordering the marsh on the far side, and another lower but more distant treeline beyond that spanned the whole background.   I liked the variety of tree heights against the skyline.  I wanted to keep the center of interest to be the tall pines and after I painted the foreground, I thought that those foreground grasses were competing.  I used a large flat brush to softly blur the foreground grasses and snow.

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Tall Dark Pines at Winter Bog

Temple St Bog Cedar - Stage One

The second painting was looking north and the sun was on my back (and the canvas).   From this angle, the frozen marsh was on the left, Temple Street was entering on the right and they converged at a big old cedar.   Not fussing with detail really makes the result better - I think.   I did pump up the color of the warm, gold grasses, for the sake of a prettier painting.    I really like the cedar's long blue shadow across the road.

Big Old Cedar at Winter Bog

                         SOLD

Snake Handler

Snake Handler

I painted this from a photo taken last summer on the Boston Common.   This man was displaying a large mottled snake to a small gathering of people. I don't remember what he was saying about the snake, but I remember being amazed by his deft handling of the creature.   (It may be a Southern Copperhead, per a snake identifier site online, if it matters to any readers).  I also found it interesting how the man's dark complexion seem to have many reflective colors, especially blue.

Ailbhe Profile in Charcoal

Ailbhe in Profile

Model Ailbhe is shown in this drawing in profile.  The light source was directly in front of her, shining straight toward her face.  I used a soft vine charcoal on Strathmore 500 charcoal paper.

After sketching in the overall head and neck, I probably spent an equal amount of time remeasuring and lifting out charcoal with an eraser.   After I finished my major first pass, I colored in the background placing darker values behind the lighter highlights on her head, and lightening the background behind her shadow side.     The squiggles in the background were done with my eraser; I thought it would be a bit more interesting and echo the wave in her hair as well.

I'm debating on whether to add clothing, maybe a scoop neck or a necklace because I'm not all that happy with the neck and shoulders.  I really enjoy translating people from their 3D selves to the 2D surface.  And she is a great model; she never moves a muscle.  :)

Irishmen Conversing

Irishmen Conversing

These two gentlemen, one on foot and one on bicycle stopped to chat on a busy Kilkenny, Ireland street.   Their dark silhouettes stood out against the sunny and festive street scene.  I liked their postures with the bike between them and activity all around.

The canvas used for this painting was the second of three 8" x 8" squares that I had underpainted at the same time with the same colorful abstract pattern.  The first square of the three was the accordion player that I posted a couple of weeks ago.

At least one adjustment still needs to be made before it can be listed in the shop, most specifically warming up the brightest areas of pavement (too white).   Please share any other suggested you may have as well.

Frozen Marsh

Tundra Photo

It has been a harrowing couple of days with a blizzard hitting the South Shore of Massachusetts hard.   I love a snowstorm, but since we live at the coast, invariably it means an ocean pounding.   I shouldn't complain; its a dream spot for around 362 days of the year.   An extra high tide combining with a storm is the worst, and the amount of water that comes over the seawall is astounding.

Frozen Marsh

This painting was done today, the day after the marsh (and backyard) was filled with ocean water and icebergs (the icebergs remain).   As the tide receded and the temperatures dropped to below zero, the marsh froze over and was actually very pretty, with a subtle blue/orange harmony.   On the far side of the marsh, the orangy grasses were still visible but closer to our side it was glazed over with layers of ice.   The straight lines you can see are the cuts through the marsh made by the colonists from their homesteads to the main Cut River, an inland man-made waterway.

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