Hopes and Plans / oil abstracts

This is my car sliding through New York City without having to stop in a traffic jam because it’s early on a Sunday morning and I’m sailing across the Tappan Zee Bridge which I found without getting lost even once.

This is me making piles of things I need for my vacation which will all fit in the trunk of my car and I’ll have all the art supplies I need in Maine which I couldn’t take along if I flew there.

Unless these abstracts look like something else to you, in which case whatever you think is right, good or bad, because the art viewer’s interpretation is the correct one despite what the artist intends, so they said at the academy.

pointillist painting progress report and plan

close up photo with horse hoof still showing up in the underpainting stage on top

I got a start on my 5 crabs and 1 crab claw. I’ll have to go over the crabs again when this dries. You can see a lot of the underpainting gray showing through the dots. If I fill that in with more dots the crabs will be brighter and more solid looking. It took hours to dot the first crab colors but the second layer of paint will be a little faster and easier.

On Oct. 1 I’m leaving for my vacation in Maine. I’m counting down the days. Art camp is Oct. 6 to the 13th. I’m driving so I think I’ll get to Acadia on the 3rd and I’ll have a couple days to scout for the best locations to paint and maybe get a sketch. One week isn’t much time for me to do a painting since I go through a slow process ( I won’t try to do pointillism ) but I got 2 paintings done at the Ghost Ranch in one week and if I don’t finish a painting in 1 week I can stay a few extra nights in Bar Harbor if I want to. There’s no reason I’d have to rush home.

The thing I really like about art camp is that they advertise it as “no drama” which means no pressure, no contest, no judgement, etc. All the Plein air painters there will be knocking out a painting every day, some will be doing more than 2 a day. But I’m free to do whatever I want to and I won’t hear anything about it if I don’t put my painting up for display every night. Because I don’t really want to paint like that.

Also, the food will be great if the Ghost Ranch was any indication of future food plans. I’m a big fan of Eric for putting these great art vacations together, I’ve wanted to go to Acadia for 20 years. 20 years ago I entered an art show in Kennebunkport and got accepted so I shipped my painting and my daughter went with me to the opening. Acadia is North of Kennebunkport but I wanted to see more of Maine and when we got to Acadia it was cold. It was warm in VA. and she didn’t bring her coat so we just drove around the loop but didn’t hike.

Phone reception and internet access might be spotty up there but I’ll take my camera and lap top so I can do a blog post from art camp if possible. And I hope I can finish this still life before I go.

Rudee Inlet panoramic sketches

This is the view from the window at the end of the hall on the 6th floor in this hotel where I’ve taken up temporary residence. (facing South) It’s charcoal and chalk. I worked on the sketches off and on for 3 days. It was cold and windy so I ducked back into my room to warm up and then went back to it later.

I’d like to paint the scene but I don’t know how long I’ll be here. I might be able to find an apartment this week. The ones I called last week don’t have availability until May. Not that I’d feel bad about staying here a whole month, but this isn’t a residence hotel, I should move on.

I might have time to finish this in pastel. There’s a bridge I want to sketch first. The bridge scene would be great for a nocturn. It’s something I’ve always wanted to try. The lights reflecting on the water at night are real pretty.

This is the same view as seen by my camera. I don’t think the photo does it justice. I’m posting it so you can compare my naked eye perspective to the camera’s perspective.  I don’t need a photo that’s half parking lot. Big yawn! haha

I must have stayed at this hotel long ago but forgot this was the one with the view I wanted to capture. I remembered it has a great location when I was faced with the prospect of being locked down. Then when I got here I said to myself, “OH YEAH!”

The bridge is out the room’s window. (facing West) I don’t have to go out at all to draw it.

The boardwalk is open. Guys are out surfing. A lot of people are out getting exercise but traffic is light.

Beach in charcoal and chalk

It was hot but cloudy with wind, so that made it tolerable for sketching the view from the overlook on the boardwalk going over the sand dunes. The bench was too hot to sit on, though. That’s ok, I like to stand up to sketch. I didn’t stay long.

I’d like to try to paint this with watercolors at home. I took my color swatch charts and picked some colors to work with. It’s almost a monochromatic color scheme, especially since it got cloudy. I’ll keep it kind of monochromatic with some faint tints of color when I paint it and see if I can get the values close to reality. The horizon line was fuzzy from the distance and straight so I’m going to try on a scrap of paper first to get the look I remember. If I use gray in the sky, I should probably use gray in the water and avoid the bright blues which I’d rather use.

That’s the plan. Keep your fingers crossed.

Magnolias / pastel

These flowers are so big when they open that only one will fit on this size sketchbook paper. If the weather holds up I’ll go back with more paper next time.

If I do a painting of this tree I’ll only do a few branches not the whole tree. Maybe next year. I’ll put a piece of glassine paper over this sketch to save it. Most of the time I just put the sketch back in my sketchbook and they get smeared.

There’s also some lichens I want to sketch before it gets crowded at Seashore St. Park. I love their texture.

And I have a great plan to produce a video of a conceptual art piece on the beach. It’s still too cold for that but I’m excited about this movie I want to make. It’s a secret. You will freak out. My daughter said she’ll help me with it.