Mid-June Morning in Green Harbor (aka Summer Serenity)

Summer Serenity - Green Harbor

Dawn occurs when the sun breaks the horizon; everyone knows this.   What dawned on me a couple of years after moving to Green Harbor was that the location of daybreak is vastly different between early summer and six months later - early winter.    In June, it seems like the sun is practically rising in the north and similarly in winter, the sun breaks the horizon line far to the south over Duxbury Beach.  This painting depicts a mid-June morning in which the sun has been up for a couple of hours, yet still hovers due east from our beach.   The colors in the clouds and water are tinged with spectacular pinks, turquoise and lavender, and the darker water to the right and left is a grey-blue.   The sun is poking through clouds and rays of light cast extra sparkles and glare,  but yet is not quite high enough to fully illuminate the boulders and sandy shore.  

I've heard it said that the French Riviera has similar light to Green Harbor.   And let's face it, if they said it, it must be true!

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Self Portrait

Black and White Start

I enjoy painting humans and would paint them more if I had the resources and a model readily available.   I've painted people from photos, but just as with landscapes, the camera tends to distort color and lose subtle details, thus, a live model is best.   The most available live model I have is me, so I once again this winter, I painted myself.  :)




First Pass at Color

I spent considerable time experimenting with the setup for this self portrait.   I have always loved the chiaroscuro style in which light dramatically contrasts with the shadows/darks.   I attempted to achieve this strong contrast by setting up a spotlight and turning off all the other light sources.    I stood in front of the large mirror in my studio and trained the spotlight on my face so that one side of my face was illuminated and the other side only had partial light.   Two full spectrum lights illuminated my palette and the canvas.    During the painting process, I alternated between two kinds of lighting in order to get the true facial shadows, 1) just the spotlight and 2) all three lights: the palette, the canvas, and facial spotlight.



Lighting at Easel

I started with a charcoal likeness and spent a lot of time placing facial landmarks, measuring and re-measuring.  If this stage is wrong, it can only get worse from here.   Once I was satisfied with the drawing, I used a spray fixative to seal the charcoal.  After an initial underpainting, I began the layering process.



I used the glazing technique for the flesh tones building up many layers of transparent color.    My tendency is to make my people too red, thinking ruddy Irish complexions.    Careful color comparisons reveal that we often have more greenish, grayish undertones, especially on flesh planes that are perpendicular to the light source.

Vezina Self Portrait

And I thought I knew what I looked like!  After all, I see this face in the mirror everyday (well at least most days:)).  So why does it seem difficult to objectively assess if the likeness on my canvas hits the mark?    If you know what I look like, you will quickly realize that the painted image is the reverse, since I used one mirror, not two mirrors.  Perhaps years from now when - or should I say if? - this is hanging in one of my children's houses, they will know to wedge it in a hall corner next to a mirror!

Universal Remedy

Tea and Honey

The low November sun was pouring into my south facing windows, illuminating this little stool with the nice crackle finish.   Such a little stool, but casting such a dramatic design!   There was a strong contrast between the bright light and deep shadows while the sunlight was passing through the honey jar, casting golden abstract shapes of its own.   A varied pattern of shapes like this generally improves the composition for any painting whether it is landscape, still life or figurative.

As for the subject, tea and honey ... a universal healing elixir, no matter where in the world or what in the world the issue is.  This particular honey is special because it was given to me by a friend who is a fairly new at  beekeeping but has been successful in pulling lots of honey this year.     It's tone is very pale and clear in appearance and it has a deliciously floral taste. :)

Tea with honey can make you feel better - and maybe a painting of it could make someone feel better too.


Blue and Orange Portrait

In Class Portrait Start

Our Figures in the Landscape class was forced inside due not to rain, but due to the heat.   To any tropical latitude readers, I admit we cannot take the heat here in New England!   We painted in the relative comfort of the North River Arts Society building.

I took the opportunity to do a head and shoulders portrait of our gorgeous model, a college student and daughter of one of my classmates.   Her manner was lovely and composed and when she spoke, it was obvious that she was a sweetheart.   So not only was


Portrait in Blue and Orange
  Post Figure Class

my goal to do justice to her flawless complexion, but to achieve an expression that conveyed a lovely person inside.

For the first couple of hours I worked on the accuracy of my drawing.   I worked on a smooth clayboard which is good for wiping out all the lightest lights while building the structure of the face. 

My first attempt at full color paint turned out very poorly and even ruined my underpainted sketch.   In a rage that only I seemed to know about, I vigorously wiped out and began again.   With only an hour to go, I had to buckle down and get the facial features done before time ran out. 



Portrait in Blue and Orange with Studio Fixes

The wiped down canvas still had the ghost of the first rendering, and some classmates and teacher Dianne thought I should call it done.   It did look somewhat misty and loose; I did like it.   However, I was shooting for a very good likeness and I didn't want to waste the opportunity to work on facial accuracy of a live model.

At the end of class I took some reference photos so that I could finish the portrait in the studio.   My goal was to keep everything loose and misty except for the facial features.   The first photo is the painting at the end of class.   The photo below contains corrections made back in the studio.  Prior to the final posting to my website, I may make a very slight modification to the lips and soften the eyes' expression in keeping with the little twinkle that our lovely model has.

Christmas Still Life

We always decorate for Christmas on Thanksgiving weekend.   In one of the boxes was a still life that I did in December of last year.      Now the fact that this painting got packed into the decorations last year means that I thought it didn't need any more work.     It was a red poinsetta to the left and a white tea pot in front on the right.   I stared at it in amazement.   The muddy pink/red petals were too uniform, lacking shadows and variety.   The green leaves and green ornaments competed with each other and were too light.   Rather than the spout and the handle of the teapot being aligned at 180 degrees, the spout looked like it came out awkwardly at about 157 degrees.

I grabbed it, marched to my studio and leaned it on the ledge over my palette.   Once a canvas makes its way to this spot, it is about to become a subsurface for a new painting.   Within a day the awful Christmas still life became a red, gold and green swirl of color.  It actually makes a very attractive abstract.   I wish I had taken a picture of it prior to putting the swirls on it so I could remember what it was that so disliked. Why didn't my eyes see the flaws last year when I first painted it?    You really do become blind to the distortion somehow.     So now I had a nice colorful ground for a new painting, but no longer had a Christmas still life.    Which brings me to the painting I did today.

Three of my favorite Christmas decorations are included.  They include a ceramic Santa moon wall hanging, a weathered looking French horn and a jingle bell instrument.   I like rustic looking items over glittery ones, and I chose to use a piece of black foamcore for the background.   My husband is a composition expert and he actually arranged the items for me.  Getting the Santa moon to be suspended against the background took some ingenuity.  (Fishing line, tape, spotlight, knot tying and a jar candle to be exact.)  

Placing the spotlight at a low angle produced some nice background shadows, especially of Santa's profile.  I like how there are three tangent circles in the Santa, the bells, and the horn.   There is too much wet paint right now to finish the bells, but I will be using my silver cup experience to improve those - hopefully.     I am also thinking about adding a sprig of holly that sort of sits on the back of the horn.    Comments?

Like last year's still life painting, this one will get packed away with the decorations.   It will be interesting to see what my impartial, fresh artist eye thinks of it next year.   Will it too become a ghost for a painting future?