Making Friends with Gray

Maine: Is 09 still on track to become the coldest wettest summer on record? Painters go up to Maine in summer because the light is so wonderful-- sunlight. We had two good mornings of sun, and 8 days of rain or fog. David shows us how to make luminous grays. We work on color for 2 weeks. He teaches us to do thumbnails, helping us to edit and see the big picture.

We none of us have any gray tubes of paint as far as I know. We mix our own. I have forgotten my gray chart, so I start another one adding some of my own favorites using the more opaque Holbeins. They find their way into my sketches. Which gray? They are not all the same. It matters which colors you use together. The wet is challenging but David is never daunted. He just gets on with it. One tries not to listen to the whiners.

As quaint and picturesque as Maine is, I did not come up here for the maple syrup or even for the lobstah. I am looking for colors to arrange on a piece of paper and relate to each other. Am I in first grade yet?

I have gained confidence and I share some of my gray mixtures with other students. They seem to like my work though it looks to elementary to me. I like my sketches better than previous years and I am less frustrated. Only one day I hated the painting I was working on and others liked it. Mainly I do not like mauve and I keep needing it in my gray paintings.

Fort Walton Beach

Painted a sketch of this while on the beach with my sister. I took photos and painted it again in the studio.  I need to frame this.  I think this is the almost finished photo.  It is about 9 by 12 inches, I think.  I had it gicleed.

SOLD
Title: "Out & Awash Norfolk"
The event was called Out & About Norfolk 2008, and it rained the whole 2 1/2 day event, thus the title.

Prize winner! The Marie Dornhecker Foundation "In the French Tradition"

In spite of the rain, this event remains one of  the highlights of my year for the 2nd year in a row.

It was begun as a sketch for a large painting, but the large one simply would not dry, so I decided to finish the small one at least. I was literally standing on the sidewalk with my umbrella, then walking over to my table under the arch and painting. Back and forth, back and forth.

d"ART center fed me on Thursday. Coffee and bagels free from Yorgo's on Friday.

Big crowd showed up for the Wet Painting sale.  Two more people told me they were going to buy my painting, but it was already gone!

What is a Giclee?

What is a giclee? It is French for "squirt". It is a high definition digital photograph reproduced with a high quality printer with ink jet technology. My giclee professional uses actual watercolor paper and the color is so accurate it can be difficult to discern which is the original. All materials used are archival (acid free so that paper will not yellow, and long lasting inks).

I have reproduced many of my paintings in this way. If you love the painting but it is sold, you can purchase a giclee for a fraction of the price. It comes numbered and signed.

"Near Martinsburg"
4" x 6" inches (if matted to cover the edges, 3 1/2" x 5")
study of hills and telephone poles

"Beyond Pittsburgh"
6 x 10 inches
unfinished study of hills and sky

Train Paintings

"Wisconsin by Train"
6 x 10 inches done on the train in the morning headed to DC. A study.

probably Minnesota, possibly Wisconsin or North Dakota. Too tired on that leg of the journey to remember. . Farm fields going by. You've seen this. The rows of crops are going by so fast, but you can see the straight one in the center while the other rows go out like a fan in a big blur. I love this one and want to frame it or a copy of it and put it on my wall. I will have it gicleed. The midwest, the bread basket of the world. I love the train because you can get a good look at it for hours and not have to watch the road.