The Walk Home

I'm having so much fun with these gesture paintings. They aren't about correct perspective or anything else, they are just a grand time!

When I first started really getting interested in painting, it was because of an artist that specialized in skewed perspectives. I can't remember her name off the top of my head and I have her work packed up in storage. It's the same kind of thing pen and ink with watercolor washes does for me; keeps me away from photo realistic. Anyway, I enjoyed slopping the paint on the paper and painting this.

Stormy Sea

Had the first storm blow in today that we've had in a while. When I took the dogs down to the beach to see what the sea looked like, I decided to try to paint the water hitting the rocks and some of the turbulence of the rest of the ocean. This was my first attempt at trying to really capture the movement of the water. I found out how important it is to preserve those whites. It's ok, some things I like about it, some feel over worked. I'd love to get some other opinions on what I could do better and how...

Gesture figures 2

These were my gesture paintings for today. These things are so much fun to do. There is something very freeing when you primarily work tight and controlled, to just drop the paint on the paper and see where your imagination takes you. The first one that I did, "Rainy Afternoon", I wasn't overly pleased with. I liked the figures but over did it on the windows. The second one, "March of the Clowns" I loved even before I decided to put Emmett Kelly up in the sky. To me they all looked like they were heading somewhere and the largest figure looked like a clown, hence the name. I did have to look up a picture of Emmett Kelly to try to get a resemblance of him, and found out that his birthday was Dec. 9th. The last one, "Girl Friends", just looked like a bunch of friends laughing and talking, one of the things, at the moment, that I am sorely missing. Can't wait till tomorrow to see who or what shows up to visit.

Gesture figure 1

I've been playing around with gesture figures all day trying to get a little practice in. Tonight I decided that I'd just paint a figure and then create a scene around him/her. Well, here it is. I hope these get better over the next few weeks. In the meantime, if you stop by and are inclined to say, "what the hell is that?", it's just me practicing...

Dinner Inspiration

It's Crab Season! I knew this because of all the pallets and pallets of pots that I'd seen lining the harbor a couple of weeks ago. Then one day they were all gone, so were most of the working boats in the harbor.

Yesterday I took the dogs for a hike along the spit; the sand bar created where the Klamath River meets the sea. It has the most spectacular waves that I have ever seen, when they break on the shore they are often at least 10 foot high. That's not an exaggeration, there appears to be a ledge just beyond the sand that pushes the water back on it's self creating these tremendous waves. Anyway, while I was out there I saw quite a few crab boats out toward the horizon. Walking back to the car I found this crab claw and decided that the pull for fresh crab was just too strong, so took myself out to a very nice crab dinner accompanied by a spectacular sunset. On the way home, as dusk turned to dark, I saw strings of lights out on the water; the fishing boats headed for home. A fine day!

Battery Point Lighthouse

Today was just pristine clear. I went down to Crescent City, looking for subject matter to paint, when I saw the lighthouse (this is the back side from a few days ago) I knew I wanted to paint it. However, I was scared stiff. I drove away from it twice before I decided to go back and just have a go at it in my sketch book. I am rather pleased with the way it turned out although, I sometime wish someone would just take the brush out of my hand before I can start mucking it up. I love this "accidental" larger sketchbook. I didn't realize how cramped I was in my small one.

Trees at Sunset

This was intended to be a quick 15 - 20 minute painting. After all, it's only on 5.5 X 8.5 paper, but when you over work something, it's never quick. Part of the problem was waiting till after dark to paint. My shadow gets in the way, in the chair I'm painting in and heaven forbid that I sit at a table like a normal person. The end result is OK, not exactly as crisp as what I was aiming for, but I painted and the was the important detail. Maybe tomorrow I will get an eariler start.

Foggy Road

The past couple of days when I've made the 20 mile trek into town the fog has been thick and low to the ground. I love the way it obscures things, leaving them mystical and undefined.
This will be a subject that I try again. It got over worked while I was trying to get the road right but I got a lot of the trees the way that I wanted them.

The great funghi

One of the really cool things about living in the "rain forest" is that there are so many amazing types of mushrooms! No, I don't pick wild ones to eat but I do love to stop and look at them.

This painting however, was headed for the trash on several occasions just because I kept getting stuck with how to handle the background. I'm still not totally happy with it but it is what it is. I'm not crazy about the shadow either but over all, I pushed my self out of my normal comfort zone and learned a few more things...

EDM challenge #93 Egg Carton

I threw this egg carton in the fire the other day, as I watched it burn, I remembered the challenge to draw and egg carton. I knew this was how I wanted to do it so I grabbed the camera and took a picture.

This is a fairly close representation of how it looked and since I couldn't come up with anything better for today's painting, here it is.

It's the simple things

We had a pretty soggy and windy storm move in this afternoon. One of those days where the best things in life are drinking tea out of a favorite cup and eating fresh baked oatmeal cookies while sitting by the wood burning stove. Ahhhh....

Quickie of Crescent City Lighthouse

This was a quick sketch of the Crescent City Lighthouse, from yesterdays outing. If I'd have been thinking about "darks against the lights to pop the center of interest" when I stated painting this, I would have done the sky with much darker, more dramatic colors. Oh well, it's all part of learning and at least I painted a building!

When I get a little better, I want to paint it from the other side, there are a lot more roof angles and a cylinder. Not quite there yet...

Dog Beach 2

I know, I uploaded this picture yesterday. I'm trying to learn/remember to place darks against lights for depth and center of intrest. So I added some darks and reposted. Let me know what you think...

I'll post something new this afternoon...