Pink Roses

New Mop Brush

For a golfer, it may be that new driver, for the tinkerer, an antique tool, and for a chef, perhaps it is a new cooking gadget.  No matter what a person's passion may be, the new tool (i.e. toy) has the potential to simplify and/or improve the result which is something we enthusiastically look forward to.

For me, a painter, it was a new brush, a fancy mop head brush. I have been quite excited about it and even have put off using it for just the right moment.   {"Get a life," you may be saying?}  It wasn't cheap and I'm not so adept at using it yet but I'm learning.   I used it on this painting of pink roses to soften all of the edges prior to the final application of the lightest lights.   I think it enhanced the pretty subject matter and helped the light on the petals look more translucent.  Using it for the background light rendered a somewhat ethereal feel.  

Pink Roses

I usually do not paint flowers.   I have found them even more difficult than faces in some cases.   I did like how this came out, so maybe my new mop brush is helping!

Greenish Seascape

Greenish Seascape Tide Rising

This east facing shoreline was rocky and the tide was rising fast.   Rocky scenes have more interest than sand and water, so I wished I had gotten there sooner!  Rather than work on the sky and water first as I typically would, I started right in on the rocks, before the water covered them.
The wet rocks were dark with deep green moss clinging to the undersides.  The dry rocks right in front of me were paler shades of blue, gray and yellow. 



Greenish Seascape

As for the sky and water, the mostly cloudy skies caused the water to look more gray than blue away to the north.  To the south, the water was paler green and gray, a result of the sand and sunlight refracting in the water.  Every few seconds a three or four foot breaker would hit the jetty and spill over so for the painting, I tried to make that the center of interest with some shape dark and light contrast.

Stone Church Ruins - County Clare, Ireland

Stone Church Ruins - County Clare, Ireland

Iconic images of Ireland's countryside invariably include stone walls bordering the green patchworked hills.    Many old churches and castles were also built from stone, now in various stages of disrepair and/or preservation.   Thick textured paint lends itself perfectly to depicting these rough surfaces. The lichen covered stones had a distinctly green tinge and I don't think it was just the reflection of the emerald green pastures.  The stonework in the shadows was a crimson shade of grey on the side of the road in County Clare, Ireland, northwest of Ennis.   Here is the close-to-done painting.  

Watering Can with Carrots






Watering Can with Carrots

This week I was sorting through seeds and planning my 2016 vegetable garden.  I guess I am officially "thinking Spring."   I was remembering last year's buckets of tomatoes, a bumper crop.   I typically take pictures of even mildly noteworthy things so I was sure there must have been some summer harvest photos.


Composition Thumbnail

I found a decent photo of some freshly pulled carrots piled in front of my old watering can.   I used that shot as inspiration for this painting, at least for color and shadow.   The photo's overall composition was lacking so I re-arranged the objects on a 3x3 sticky note trying for more pleasing shapes.