Wednesday, August 19, 2009

ACADIA ~ Mountains, Islands & Sea

After a full tilt spring & summer painting and teaching I am reviewing field sketches and segueing into my fall painting mode. I'll be painting some larger paintings this winter from these sketches. Here are a few tidbits from my Acadia National Park trips.

We drove up from southern Maine and when we arrived at Mt Desert Is. it was early evening - just in time to get up to the Blue Hill overlook to catch the sun before it set. We were hoping this sunset promised good weather !

Here I am the next day just beyond Sand Beach. It's awesome painting on the park loop road in Acadia National Park- you can pull your car over in the right lane and park. I set up like this to save time and go to many locations in one day.


This was a view of Otter Cliffs that I could see from the road. Here's the 8-10 min sketch I did in markers & watercolor. This summer is the first time I painted outdoors in water color. It is so fast its mind boggling.

After I finished the watercolor I did a 20 min field sketch in oils. Then I packed up and drove to the next location.
The weather was changing the whole time. Hey, its part of the territory ! I set up on the road again at Otter Cove. Here is the 10 min watercolor sketch.

My wonderful husband Marcus came on this trip and he took the pictures of me painting. Here I am in the thick of painting my 20 min field sketch. I love doing these as I learn so much and can go to many different locations in a day. You can tell by my gloves it was windy & cold on the water... I stayed warm by painting !


Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Thunder & Tobacco

I took a short road trip to Hatfield & Whatley, MA; small towns in the Pioneer Valley in western Massachusetts. Thunder storms rushing in from the Berkshires shortened my painting and sketching time. A field and tobacco barn in Whatley before the rain hit.

It was really great to see these clouds roll out of the foot hills across the flat area of the Connecticut River Valley. You could see the lightening and hear the thunder from clouds way back in the Berkshires.

Here are the super quick sketches I did of the edge of the storm just arriving and after the rain at the diner ( with gray tone markers and a field sketch water color box.) I am trying out at least 5 brands of paint right now. This is Sakura. Nice handy box and great water barrel brush but the colors don't touch Daniel Smith's.

I had no time to even set up to paint when the rain hit and blasted through the valley. By the time we got to the Whatley Diner everything was drenched and the sky was beginning to clear.

The next morning on our way back to Maine cool air and puffy clouds were floating above the fields in North Hatfield. It was a perfect summer day.

A quick road and barns sketch with the Sakura Koi box. These are all on basic all purpose drawing paper.

The tobacco barns are such nice classic worn structures and add a strong visual geometry to the wide vistas.
On this short trip time & weather limited me to sketches and watercolors . The last two sketches are the same location slightly different design and with Daniel Smith colors. Love these paints. I can use any old brush, any old paper and the colors sing. If I ever meet Daniel Smith I will hug & kiss him !