Overcast Brant Rock Dawn

I got an early start this morning pulling into a small parking area overlooking Brant Rock by 6:30 am.   It was a mild morning - about 40 degrees with thick cloud cover.   I've come to appreciate the beauty of a cloudy day.  The water and sky hinted at shades of green, blue and pink.   It takes very little chroma to prepare the paint needed to capture the day accurately.  The tide was especially low revealing a lot of dark rocks, a nice contrast to the pale, gray day.

Stepping back I could focus back and forth between the scene and my canvas to compare values and color.   The painting came together quickly, which was good because it was damp and cold.  It's February so it could have been a lot colder, but with no sunshine and standing still, I became too cold to stay long....pretty lame, huh?

Cloudy February Morning at Brant Rock

I'm satisfied that the result shows the experience.  I saw a grayish mist over everything.  It felt good to be outside painting in the chill.   I thought about the extra low tide timing working out well to produce a painting with good contrast.   If it had been high tide, I would certainly have framed a different scene. 

It was one unique morning never to be repeated in exactly the same way ever again - and a painting to prove it.

Valentine Roses

My wonderful husband sends me red roses every Valentine's Day.   There is no obstacle too great that roses will not reach me on this special day.   One year, I was in Japan on business on Valentine's Day and did not expect any roses.   I was wrong.   I returned to my room to find roses, some red and some pink.   I later found out that my husband had called a Tokyo florist to order them, and amid language difficulties, ordered all the remaining red roses they had (eight), along with the remainder in pink.   Yes, I know how lucky I am!

I have enjoyed this year's roses for several days now, and decided to create a still life with some of them before they finally drooped and shriveled.   I mixed up some bright piles of red, greens and gold, a welcome sight after working on snowscapes for almost four weeks.

I cut three roses to size for my set up and grabbed a fat old water pitcher.   I played around with the set up deciding on the arrangement to the left.   I placed my spotlight in front of the set up which I think created a more dramatic light.   I grabbed a canvas that had been a painting of pink roses in a previous life.  Even after toning, the previous painting's rose shapes and bumps were still ghosting through.  I liked that.

The initial sketch revealed that this would be a larger than life painting.   I struggled throughout, but it was a good learning process.   Part of my problem was that the underpainting was not dry enough and my bright beautiful piles of red, green and gold were getting muddied by the dark underpainting.   The size of this painting is 18 x 24 inches, and I worked on it for about four hours.



Gold Pitcher Red Roses - 10 Minutes



Once you have painted something, you know it well, so I decided to grab a smaller canvas and repeat the painting and only spend a few minutes on it.  I love the look of loose, messy florals - I just don't paint that way right now....well, that is, until this one...