DREAMS OF LAKES & MOUNTAINS

Early this summer I fell in love with waterfalls. 

 In late summer I fell in love with lakes...especially ones surrounded by mountains...

...with big pines and islands sprinkled across them.

Lake Wentworth is a gem.  It is in the "Lakes Region" of New Hampshire where the distant White Mountains are dusky blue in the distance. 

This week is our vacation week which means;  My husband Marcus and I don't have to be anywhere at any specific time for six whole days ! We grabbed this big open window to wander and paint wherever the impulse took us.

On this perfect late summer day a fellow painter spotted us near a bridge between Rye Marsh and Lake Wentworth.  Frank paints watercolors and spends his summers at his house near by.  When he spied us working away he pulled over to check out our paintings and chat for a bit. 

I sketched a bunch of different views today. I loved the bright open water on the lake in front of us and the intimate scene on the marsh behind us.

Marcus set up and dove into his huge painting of the lake and wind whipped waves.  Marcus is on a "huge" painting trend this summer. They keep getting bigger and bigger.  Pretty soon they won't fit into the car...we will need to get a trailer for them!

 We had a great view facing west across the water. I knew the light would change drastically as we moved toward sunset. To be ready for anything I set up two easels  and palletes waiting to go at a moments notice.

The bit of land we were parked on between the lake and the marsh was very narrow. I had to pay attention. If I stepped back from my easel too far I'd fall into the marsh! 

I looked in the direction of the sun and started a small study of the lake, islands and mountains back lit by brilliant sunlight. 

The smallest brush I am using today is a 10 bright. I'd use the edge and corner of the brush for small spots.

I keyed in my painting and only put the colors I was using on this limited palette. 

The sun dropped down in the west and the light started to reach the "luscious" level.  I finished the "sun on the water glow" and put the wet panel in the car. 

I moved to a new canvas and started painting the marsh behind me that was now face lit by the setting sun.

The wind was calming down, and the surface of the water became still. The colors of the trees and grass were warm and golden in the setting sun. 

 I didn't have a lot of time left to paint this scene.

There was barely a cloud in the sky as the sun set over the distant mountains.  

Small breezes skipped randomly across the water.

Up close to me near the shore line it was very still and the water was a deep inky midnight blue.

I had the colors on my panel and most of the scene painted as the sun disappeared behind the mountains.

People drove past us on their way home from work.  A few lights came on in cottages across the lake. We cleaned up our paints, put the new paintings in the car and headed back through the woods toward home. 

PAINT EAT SLEEP

Lions, Deer and Angels at Creek Farm

Around the turn of the century Creek Farm was a big, rambling summer cottage for a wealthy Boston family. It has remnants of formal gardens, long sloping lawns,  a rocky shoreline and a bit of pebbly beach.  It has a cove that was a damned to create a natural salt water swimming pool.

It sits on the edge of Sagamore Creek in Portsmouth. NH, looking across the water to Newcastle, NH.

Two stone lion creatures guard the entrance to what was once a terraced formal garden.

Marcus and I set up on the lower lawn to sketch and paint views of the house ...

...and the lions...

Marcus worked diligently on the details of the multi-level cottage.

My sister Ann joined us for the day.  She chose to sit on the lawn in the formal garden where she had the long view of the creek and Newcastle. 

To add to the natural show in front of us, the Blue Angels suddenly appeared in the sky to the west performing a number of dangerously daring formations.   What a thundering roar those engines make!  The stuff plein air painters see is unending! 

As the sun dropped in the sky we decided to pull out the acrylics and go for a few small sketches.

Marcus & I are taping canvas to a board to paint several different sketches on the same sheet.  This is nice simple way to do lots of studies. 

Acrylics are dicey.  Painting a la prima when them is a hoot. I'm using the regular fast drying type.  I have dry paint on my palette in minutes ! Marcus has Golden's open acrylics, so they are a bit easier  to deal with.

As we prepared to leave, a doe with two fawns wandered across the lawn happily munching their grassy dinner.  They didn't even care that we were 30 ft away packing up our paints!

In the Marshes with Acrylics

It was one of those warm, late summer days so we stayed out to paint till dark... 

This marsh is part of the Rachel Carson preserve and its in the flyway, so near sunset all these migrating birds stop for the  night. Flocks of geese settled in all around us.  

Marcus is working hard at learning to paint en plein air with acrylics.

 A family came by on a leisurely walk. They wanted to see the paintings. Marcus whipped out my canvas sheet of small paintings.  He kept saying I'm a beginner.   I told him to stop saying that.   Who cares ? Everyone is a beginner at some point.  He's got guts to just try and get out there and paint !

The wind died down. The mosquitos hadn't found us.  That was nice. 

My sister Ann stopped by and the painting stories and joking started. She was soon off out looking for some lobster for dinner.

I decided I had plenty of light to do another sketch.  Light?!  Who cares about light with acrylics?  I have to paint at break neck speed so the paint doesn't dry !    

The sun was now completely behind the trees.

A family out for a bike ride to the harbor stopped and had a lively bunch of questions about our paintings and how we chose our subjects. 

We had a pile of visitors and It was a good painting session! Marcus is still trying to decide the best way to fold up the french easel. I think I've seen him do it 3 or 4 different ways . Sometimes I think he's doing it just to make me laugh. Its very entertaining having him out painting with me. 

Salt, Sun and Acrylics

Some of you may know that in my secret life I am children's illustrator . I've always used watercolors for illustration. I don't know why but I reached for watercolors when I was asked to do my first illustration.     

Last year was the first time I used watercolor en plein air when bad weather forced me to work in my car on a painting trip to the Berkshires. This summer happened to be the "plein air trial run" for acrylics. Acrylics?  What's an oil painter doing painting with acrylics?

 Its all because of Marcus - he wanted to paint with me outdoors and thought acrylics would be easier to start with than oils. So we decided to just dive in and go for it. 

I had a bunch of acrylics in the studio. We grabbed the colors I had and headed to Wells Harbor for our first experiment.The clouds, water and boats were spectacular!

We set up easels side by side so we could take notes from each other.  We taped large sheets of canvas paper to gator board and we each painted 4 small studies on it. This was Marcus' very first time painting so he'd keep asking, "How did you mix that color?" What a brave guy- and he's doing this outdoors? Its hard enough to mix colors indoors! 

We discovered we didn't have any red ! What a hoot! We had blues, greens, yellows, white and black.  We pretended ochre was our red. What a color harmony! Still we could paint recognizable trees, sky and water. 

As evening set in people gathered next to us to fish off the rocks. They were all on vacation and having a great time. The night before one of the girls caught a 20-pound striper, so everyone was hoping for a rerun.

As the sun set and the fishing crowd grew they came by to look at the paintings and talk to us.  Acrylics are very fast drying. No time for chatting.  Not only were we losing our light but our colors on the palette were drying up fast!  

Marcus graciously took over public relations. He packed up his brushes and joked with the guys. 

The clouds started to catch the really warm golden light from the setting sun so I went for a small fast sketch before it got dark. I can tell I am going to really like acrylics. They are like a combo of watercolors and oils. When I get used to this super speedy drying I'll be fine. I ordered some reds so soon we 'll have all the colors we need to make some decent paintings. Let's just hope we have a nice, long, warm autumn to help out!