Ambergris Caye, Belize

6" x 8" oil on panel
$75.00 + $10. s/h
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Our family just got back from 7 days in Belize. Both of our kids graduate from college in 2009 (our daughter this past June, our son in December), so, this was our graduation gift to all of us. It was a really fun week! We stayed in the town of San Pedro, on Ambergris Caye, an island off the coast of mainland Belize, at the Mata Rocks Resort. This is the Mata Rocks beach. This was the first time I'd taken my paints, etc overseas, but it won't be the last!

This is the beach from our balcony deck. I painted the above painting under the far palapa. I was set-up in that circle of shade. The bar area to the right is where we had breakfast every morning, and drinks were available all day.

This is more or less the view I painted. I left out the kids and dock. This is the life! Painting on a beach!

Lily Pads

6" x 8" oil on panel
$75.00 + $10. s/h
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Yesteday my plein-aire group painted in the PEO House garden. We usually all congregate toward the pond. It was a cool, cloudy morning, unusual for this time of year. Everyone had on layers; one painter was wrapped in a blanket from her car trunk. Due to the constantly changing sky, this was a challenging , but fun, painting. I started with the lily pad, thinking if I got the light correct on that, everything else would follow. By then, the light and color were completely different. I guess that's always the joy of plein-aire painting.

From the Front Yard

SOLD
6" x 6" oil on panel
$75.00 + $10. s/h
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Our yard is filled with daisies right now. Even the front yard, which, due to the abundance of deer in our neighborhood has only a few varieties of flowers, has more daisies than I can put into bouquets.

Daily Painters of Colorado

6" x 8" oil on panel
$75.00 + $10. s/h
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I have been invited by Kimberly Conrad to join Daily Painters of Colorado. I'm thrilled to be a part of this daily painting group! You can click on the Widget to go to the site. I hope you visit regularly!

Our house borders Bear Creek Park, a 573 acre county park on the southwest side of Colorado Springs. I can step right out our back yard and be in the park. I've posted a lot of paintings from there: paths, meadows, hills, trails, snow, benches. This one is done on the far side of the park looking toward our house. I abstracted the neighborhood rooftops...they could be a rock formation from this far away.

Sunlight on Another Barn

6" x 8 " oil on panel
$75.00 + $10. s/h
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I tried to use all the color study lessons from last week's workshop while painting these barns. The sunlight might have been a liitle warmer on the main roof, but since the roof is metal it still appears cool. I'll have to keep looking, and pondering that one.

Studio Incamminati Workshop Day 5 -- Last Day

This is our class from the Studio Incamminati workshop, Color Study: Still Life and Figure Painting for Art Educators, taught by Natalie Italiano. Teachers came from Utah, Colorado (me!) & Ohio, as well as locally NJ and Pa. There are lots of workshops offered here. It's a pretty amazing atelier with incredible facilities.

Again, we had a critique after the 2 days of figure studies.

Here I am w/ my studies from the last day...seems to be a little glare on the paintings.

It was a great week. Tomorrow I'm off to the Jersey shore. I'm looking forward to that, as we don't have beaches in Colorado.

Studio Incamminati Workshop Day 4

Today in the Studio Incamminati workshop, Color Study: Still Life and Figure Painting for Art Educators, taught by Natalie Italiano, we continued to learn to see color by looking at color relationships, but with a model. Here Natalie is starting the study with a grisaille drawing.

In this photo she's blocked in the first four color notes: the brightest, easiest to see notes.

Here's her color study almost completed.

These are the 4 color studies I completed today. Studio Incamminati has an extensive palette which is listed on their website under supplies. Many of these colors are not in my normal palette and it's really exciting to use them!

Studio Incamminati Workshop Day 3

Today in the Studio Incamminati workshop, Color Study: Still Life and Figure Painting for Art Educators, taught by Natalie Italiano, we continued to learn to see color by looking at color relationships. Each day the still life set-ups have gotten progressively more complex; today's had boxes and simple still life objects, which created many planes of light on color. In Natalie's demo above, she is emphasizing laying in the color masses in relationship to the surrounding masses.

This class is very organized, sequential and well thought out, as well as fun! Today we received handouts on the color philosophies of Henry Hensche, Nelson Shanks (the founder of Studio Incamminati) and Lois Griffel (a student of Hensche's).


These are the 3 color studies I completed today.

Studio Incamminati Workshop Day 2

Today in the Studio Incamminati workshop, Color Study: Still Life and Figure Painting for Art Educators, taught by Natalie Italiano, we continued to learn to see color by looking at color relationships. In todays exercises, she stressed: 1. seeing the light hitting the form and how that changes the local color 2. making strong color statements, and 3. constantly comparing one color mass to the surrounding masses.

These studies are started with a quick grisaille drawing, then painting in the strongest color note. The above photo shows my grisaille and my first two color notes.

I got several comments yesterday about why I was painting on the back on the back of stretched canvases...I'm not really. I taped smaller canvas pad sheets onto the back of the stretched canvases to make it easy to stack them to get them back in the box to take on the plane back home.


These are the 4 studies I completed today. Each one was started as mentioned above, with the main color notes, then when all the color shapes/masses are finished, you make another pass around the canvas adjusting the colors.

At the end of the day, Natalie led a critique of the all the paintings.

Workshop at Studio Incamminati

I am spending the week in Philadelphia taking a color workshop, Color Study: Still Life and Figure Painting for Art Educators, at Studio Incamminati. Color study is a way of learning to see and understand color as the effect of light on form. It was inspired by artist Henry Hensche, and shows us how to see beyond an object’s local color and to understand how light, whether naural or artificial, influences how we see color. Instructor Natalie Italiano (in the above photo) is explaining how to see and paint light and shadow masses as individual colors using painted boxes.

This is my first piece. We painted a simple grisaille of a box which included about 5-7 color notes/shapes. We then started by painting the most easily seen color, which is usually a color in light. In this case the top of the box (in my painting, the top is a little brighter/lighter, I don't usually photograph my paintings indoors.)

This is my 2nd piece. Again, I started w/ the top of the box, in my painting it is a little more violet than the photo indicates. I can see here, that I should have made the table cloth a little warmer. That's what tomorrow is for!

Sinton Pond

11" x 14" oil on panel
$125.00 + $10. s/h
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Yesterday my plein-aire group painted at Sinton Pond, which is right next to Sinton Dairy, one of the oldest dairies in town. When our kids were small, one of their milkmen delivered our milk every week.
It was a beautiful Colorado morning. One of our members brought freshly baked blueberry scones (with enough extras that we had some to take home!)
The walk to the pond was down a trail, under a train track, up a hill, and around to the bench in back. I had arthroscopic knee surgery last week , and at my age, the recovery seems slow. I was a very slow walker to the bench! But, I got there!

Tomorrow I'm off to Philadelphia to take a workshop at Studio Incamminati and to visit my sister.

Wild Rose

SOLD
6" x 6" oil on panel
$75.00 + $10. s/h
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There are only a few more days worth of beautiful buds on this bush. I had to get a few more paintings in before they are too far past great blooms. Then it will be time for the lilies. That's one of the wonderful aspects of gardening. There's always something new! And, there's always another painting! As well as another bouquet.