Memorable Day - St Pete Beach

 

Beach in High Key

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunset Over the Gulf

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On our winter getaway to Florida this year, we routinely took a long but leisurely bike ride each morning .  On this particular day we decided to walk the beach instead and what happened next made me so happy we did!

Along the shore there was a large group of plein air painters.  We stopped to observe and started chatting with one of the students.  She pointed out the teacher's painting, and I instantly commented to my husband that it looked just like Roos Schuring’s work.  Roos (pronounced Rose) is a painter from the Netherlands who I have followed for years.  In my dreams I thought maybe someday we would travel to the Netherlands and participate in one of her plein air workshops.  (Additionally I envisioned us visiting the homeland of Dutch masters like Rembrandt and Vermeer whom I admire so much.) 

Yellow Beach Umbrella Morning

Well here we were in Florida, and there was Roos in the flesh!   I was so excited that I had to approach and introduce myself.  Fast forward..we hit it off immediately and she generously invited me to paint alongside the class.  

I was mesmerized by her setup, process, colors and results.   It was truly a God-given gift to stumble upon the group and observe Roos and her students.   Although I was not an official class participant, I was welcomed by all and got to connect with my favorite "celebrity artist" who I now consider my friend.  It was an experience I'll never forget!

 

 

 

 

Favorite Hangout Area

 On St Pete Beach, there is a fun and funky place right on the beach that draws a big sunset crowd each evening.   It's an informal fish fry type place called Paradise Grill where you order at the walk up window then sit to dine at picnic tables or on the many colorful Adirondack chairs that are at the edge of the beach.   Both of the paintings in this post were done at this spot.   The first was an afternoon capture of the pretty tropical water as a backdrop for the two rescue surfboards that lean on a tall rack.   Fortunately they never moved as far as I could tell during the trip.    The orange life jacket popped out against the turquiose water which caught my eye immediately.   The board was actually a black underpainting and maybe that is why the colors look extra bright.    

Rescue Boards

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The small but colorful sunset painting has a high key chroma for me and I'm going to say it took less than an hour.   My husband and expert consultant came over and implored me to stop right there and leave it as loose and colorful as it was.    I actually listened this time.  hahaha.   I do like the wild strokes and it has a nice tropical feel.   Hope you like it too!

Fans of the Sunset

 

Sunset And Shell Hunting

 

Sunsets are probably what Saint Pete Beach is best known for, and from what I’ve observed, shell hunting is a close second. So that’s why the first two paintings I did while staying there this February capture those two topics.

Each evening people are drawn to Florida's west facing coastline to enjoy the show, no two ever the same.  This fiery sunset happened from our closest shoreline, which was the Pass-A-Grille Beach. The high contrails and low horizon clouds were lit up in a full spectrum of orange, peach and yellow. As the sun sunk lower, the sky was more vivid and the sand and vegetation became cooler and bluer.   My canvas was a black board to start with and I was able to carve the shape of the figure with my scrape out tool, essentially leaving the substrate unpainted.   I feel like this is exactly the type of painting that will remind me of my favorite part of this getaway.

 

 

Fiery February Sunset

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second painting was done at the 1st Ave Beach Access at the southernmost tip of the St Pete Beach barrier island.  A very popular spot for shell hunters, people wade in and out of tidal pools looking for the holy grail of the shell world (sand dollars and spotted junonia).   I'm more of a seaglass gal, but I can certainly understand the theraputic benefit of just wandering through sand and water looking for treasure.

  

Shell Hunting at the Sandbar

As for the painting, I was attracted by contrasting shapes of the barrel shaped palm, slabs of concrete and the humans on the sand. I probably applied 80% of the paint with palette knives leaving thick, barely blended strokes.   I intentionally left much more warmth in the undergrowth and vegetation to convey a tropical feel.

Quarry Climb

Quarry Climb

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was 1825 when the Quincy Quarries were opened.   The granite for the Bunker Hill Monument, the Provincetown tower, and several piers around Boston sourced their stone from Quincy.  It was a major economic industry and active mining operation until 1963.

After the closures, the quarries themselves slowly began to fill with water.   They became popular - and dangerous - for swimming and cliff jumping.  Numerous people died jumping into the flooded pits, and eventually it was closed to the public.  

At the turn of the century, a novel solution was deployed during Boston’s “Big Dig” project.   The massive amounts of fill from the central artery tunnel was used to fill the pits, creating a safer perimeter for the large granite outcroppings.

Today the Quincy Quarries connects to the Blue Hill Reservation trail system and is open to the public.  People explore, rock climb, and enjoy views of the Boston skyline.   As depicted in the painting, some (many?) use their medium of choice (spray paint) to adorn large slabs of granite as well!

Wooden Wonder - Powder Point Bridge

 

Wooden Wonder - Powder Point Bridge

 

 Red sky at night, sailors' delight...

It's not quite red but the thick overcast was giving way to clearer skies, and setting sun was catching the underside of the cloud bank at the Powder Point Bridge.   This marvelous bridge is special to many on the South Shore of Massachusetts.  It's unique length and structure has made it into documentaries and movies over the years, and of course, it is a favorite of photographers and painters.

The bridge is, in fact, the longest wooden bridge in the United States at 2,200 feet.  When the original bridge was built in 1892 it subtracted seven hours of travel from the trip from Duxbury Center to the Gurnet which is at the furthest tip of Duxbury Beach.  The bridge has been a topic in this blog several times if you'd like to know more and see my past paintings of it.

This painting is large at 18x36 which makes it the perfect living room piece for "over the couch."

Capri Meets Boston

The "Stay-At-Home" challenge was presented to artist members of the Copley Society in Boston recently.   During the long storied history of the Copley Society of Art, there have been dozens of famous artists who were connected to or displayed at this historic Society.   We were challenged to choose a painting by one of the historic artists of the past and pay tribute to their work with a new creation.

John Singer Sargent was born to American parents in Europe, where he trained, travelled and worked.  Though very active in Europe, he frequented the Boston area in the late 1800s.   Many of Sargent's murals are found in the Boston Public Library, the Museum of Fine Arts, and Harvard's Widener Library. Sargent's largest scale works are the mural decorations that grace the Boston Public Library depicting the history of religion and the gods of polytheism. He worked on the cycle for almost thirty years but never completed the final mural. Sargent drew on his extensive travels and museum visits to create a dense art collection.  The murals were restored in 2003–2004.

Rooftop

Perhaps I should have paid homage to a Boston-based work, but his paintings from Italy are my favorites.  They have a flair all their own.   I particularly like this painting by Sargent because of the fun mood and carefree summer feel.  

Exit 11 at Sunset

Exit 11 Sunset

Thunderclouds were passing through at sunset as we were driving toward the highway.   I took an Iphone picture of the dramatic, dark blue band that was backlit by the sinking sun.    I forgot about the picture until a couple of weeks later while looking for something else.  Once I saw the photo, I knew it had potential for a nice painting.

Tropical Watercolors Jamaica

Beeline to Purple Spikes

I seriously thought about packing my oils for Jamaica, but elected to again bring watercolors.   They are so much cleaner, and lighter for packing, but as I've noted many times before, I'm not a watercolorist.   Watercolor experts are in a league of their own in my view.   I'll share a few amateur tries today. The colors look a little washed out - see?  I can't get good color! :)

Big Old Leaning Tree - Jamaica

Beach Huts at Dusk

View from my Chair

Summer Sunset at the Marina

Summer Sunset at the Marina

This painting depicts a favorite spot where we typically eat our Sunday night ice cream cones.    With one hand on the camera and the other on my cone, I would often capture the same scene which you could characterize as everything from peaceful to pretty to downright breathtaking.    This little 4x4 attempts to capture a particularly spectacular sunset.

Sunset Along Snowy Boulevard

Sunset Along Snowy Boulevard

This painting is a repeat, although I'd like to think it is better than the first one.   Winter sunsets are so pretty especially when there is a break in the cloud cover at the horizon.   The pink and purple are prevalent because of the lack of yellow light in winter.   People familiar with Day Boulevard in South Boston should recognize the beach, bathhouse and tree lined walkways.

Fenway Farms

Fenway Farms

Over the past few years, venerable Fenway Park in Boston has been improved, expanded and modernized in many ways - at least to the extent it can be.   Its tiny footprint in the middle of the city of Boston may be a drawback, but the special character and electric atmosphere at Fenway more than makes up for its old-fashioned aspects - for example, seat size!

One fascinating upgrade is the addition of a rooftop garden which supplies some of the produce for the wide variety of nice cuisine now available.    Here is a pre-game scene, an hour before sunset, depicting the long rows of mixed greens. What an unlikely location, all surrounded by brick and concrete.  Why the produce is as green
as the dazzling Fenway Park turf!

Blinding Bridge Light

Blinding Bridge Light - Strolling at Sunset

In the quaint village area of Mystic, CT, a 1920 vintage bascule bridge spans the Mystic River, and carries vehicle and pedestrians within the tourist district of town.   This amazing bridge is opened for five minutes at forty minutes past the hour for six months of the year.   The concrete filled counterweights hoist the 85 foot movable span into the air allowing boat traffic to pass beneath.   Rather than feeling inconvenienced for having to wait, most people, including us, seemed truly fascinated with this engineering marvel, a wholly mechanical spectacle in an (overly) digital world.

Toward dusk we began to walk over the bridge to find the spice shop we had spotted on our map.   The sun was directly ahead, a golden, blinding type of glare, and it was casting long figure shadows toward us.   The light and shadows on the bridge made fascinating shadow effects, and the sun obliterated the bridge crossbeams, creating a blindspot effect that I have tried to mimic in the painting.

Frozen Boston Skyline

Frozen Charles River at Dusk

New Year's Eve 2018 we celebrated along the banks of the Charles River just behind Boston's Science Museum.  What a view of the city from inside our room at the Sonesta Hotel!  The John Hancock building and the Prudential Tower were the tallest and most recognizable buildings from here.  The historic Longfellow bridge with its "salt and pepper" shaker shaped central towers was visible as well.    The whole scene was breathtaking and especially spectacular at dusk.

In the painting, the Charles River reflections may look watery, but it was ice that was picking up the reflections. People in the Boston area may remember that this was an absolutely frigid weekend, with temperatures well below zero.     The only water was a very small patch at Charles River boat club moorings. Around some shrink-wrapped boats, water pumps were running, presumably designed to keep the icy from forming around these fancy boats.  This dark watery area had attracted several geese that were huddled together at the edge, literally not moving for hours.

Soaring at Sunset

Soaring at Sunset

It probably isn't difficult to determine that I am a morning person.   Most of my plein air painting is typically done in the first part of the day, and there are few sunset paintings.    This is an exception.   It depicts the Green Harbor River channel with sunset approaching.   The light cast by the low sun was purple and pink, except for the large, high clouds which caught more yellow rays.  Even the seagull soaring overhead was tinted pink.

Blakeman's at Sunset II

Sunset at Blakeman's II

At the Duxbury Beach Reservation in Duxbury, Massachusetts, there is a seasonal fish shack called Blakeman's.   The place is just about as casual a restaurant as you'll find, a perfect dinner option for tired and hungry (even barefoot) beachgoers.     With the right timing, you may get to enjoy a gorgeous sunset over Duxbury Bay like the one that inspired this painting, as you consume your fish and chips.

The south facing side of the pavillion building is covered with colorful lobster buoys and in this scene, they are bathed in shadowy blue.   Non-shadows had an orangey glow that spilled onto the roof peaks, sandy gravel and seagrasses.   This blue/orange harmony is one of my favorites, especially for sunsets.  I pumped up the color by using the more extreme tinting power of Prussian Blue, contrasted with a cadmium red and yellow blend.

This painting was created for the Duxbury Art Association 2017 Exhibition commemorating its 100th year.  If selected, it would be part of a larger panel exhibit and/or auctioned to raise money for the DAA community programs.    Alternately, it could be auctioned off or put
on display by DAA, so I will keep you posted!

Copper as Canvas I

Copper Sky

A couple of years ago, I experimented with painting on pennies and at the time I produced thirty-five tiny images directly on the shiny copper surface.  Recently I revived my interest in painting on copper and started to explore the larger scale use of copper as a painting substrate.  To my surprise, I learned that many masterpieces over the centuries were executed copper and other metals.  There are fine works on copper that have survived for centuries by such master painters as El Greco, Brueghel, Reni, Wtewael, Chardin and Rembrandt.   Preservationists say that copper is more durable and stable than many other surfaces, and undoubtedly more immutable than wood or paper.

I mounted a strip of roll copper onto a piece of reclaimed walnut using copper tacks.   The surface had some impressions of the wood beneath.   I decided to hammer the surface to create a mottled but consistent pattern.   Another copper substrate curiosity pertained to the handling. Apparently fingerprints tend to linger and/or become more pronounced over time so I was careful not to let my skin touch the painting surface of the copper, but instead I handled it with a paper towel.

I did not pre-glaze or underpaint the copper, but rather painted directly on the copper surface.   The paint dried very quickly, which seemed counter intuitive.   Wouldn't a slippery surface without the ability to absorb just result in the paint sitting there?  No, the surface was ready for more paint within an hour.

The dimensions of the vintage walnut is 6x10 inches appropriate for a long beach scene.   A copper colored sunset was the idea I had in mind from the time I first decided to try this metallic.   I used a Green Harbor photo in which a row of dark beach houses were backlit by sunset at low tide, and the wet sand was reflecting the houses and sky.   The copper still shows through which I love.   I let the hammer pattern of the sky dictate the shapes of the clouds.

Spooner Swans

Gulls, Ducks and Swans

Spooner Pond often catches my eye when travelling along Route 3A toward Plymouth, MA.   A stoplight across from the water sometimes allows time to see the swans that live there.  It was late in the afternoon on this cloudy November day when I decided to pull into a parking area along side the pond and get a better look.





Spooner Swans - In Progress

There were water fowl everywhere so there must have been plenty of fish.  There were probably 100 seagulls sitting on the roof of a small office structure next to me, and a few dozen ducks were quacking in circles below where I stood. 
Swans were also swimming around - more swans than I have ever seen at one time (ten).   They say swans mate for life and before this, I had only seen one adult pair per pond.   So it seemed amazing to see such a large group in one place.  This had to become a painting.   I set up and worked on the "post-peak" foliage and reflections all the while enjoying the interactions of seagulls, ducks and swans.   The swans were the last element to be added, seven in all.  You know, so that I have the option to give the painting a very obvious title!

Castle Island Just Before Sunset

This scene was painted from a photograph that I took while aboard the Hingham-to-Boston Ferry.    The ferry passes by several Boston Harbor Islands and although this is Castle "Island", that is a misnomer today because it has been connected by land for a couple of centuries.  The fortress shown is Fort Independence which is located at the entrance to the Boston Inner Harbor.   A large fishing pier can be seen in the foreground as well as a towering obelisk honoring shipbuilder Donald McKay and the fast and beautiful clipper ships that he had designed and constructed in Boston back in the late 1800's.



Castle Island Evening

A trip to Castle Island for a hot dog at Sullivan's and a walk around the fort is an institution known well by most Bostonians.  It is not unusual to see a crowd on any day of the week and among them are tourists, school busses of children on field trips, lunching blue collar and white collar workers enjoying the cool sea breeze just adjacent to Boston Harbor.  With Logan International Airport just on the other side of the channel, a constant flow of jets roar overhead, thus a jet is a must for this painting.
The photo reference was nice enough because of the low angled light and long shadows, but as is often the case when painting from a photo, the painting is just nicer.     The light has a warm feel to it that the photo's light doesn't.   I didn't fuss over the people on the pier and walking.   I just placed dots of color that might suggest their clothing on this beautiful summer evening.


Tropical Watercolors - Loose

View from Mars

Yellow Lady Slipper

I was fortunate to be able to travel to Aruba this year and just like in years past, I brought my watercolors.  Watercolors, although not my preferred medium - provided a nice to change.   I used 4x6 inch and 6x9 inch Canon brand blocks, but I relaxed my past ways.  Rather than using photos or framing tight little scenes,  I just tried to match scenery color, only loosely matching the view.   I let the colors flow into one another using lots of Caribbean Sea water.   


This was more like playing around and experimenting, with no expectation of a worthwhile end product. What was worthwhile was more the process and relaxation of staring at swirling color starting to dry under the strong Equator sun.

These few are the "loosest" of the watercolors.  A forthcoming post will include some "tighter" watercolors.




Yellow Flower Spray





Sea Monster Emerging at Sunset





Tropical Fish

Winter Sunset over Carson Beach

What a brutal winter we have had in 2014!   Usually by this time of year, there is less additional snow piling up and most of the snow pack has melted.   This winter, not only has it continued to snow regularly, but the temperatures have provided a steady state of refrigeration preventing Spring from breaking out.  I know that I stated that there would be no more snow paintings this year, but I forgot about this one which I did a month ago.

Billowy snow clouds were competing with a bright firey sunset over Carson Beach in South Boston. There were snowflakes in the air while a nice blue/orange harmony illuminated the entire scene (from From H Street at Day Boulevard in South Boston.)  The rooftops of the Carson Beach Bathhouse were visible because of their full snow cover, but were a dark blue against the treeline at dusk
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