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.