Blog

Color is just one tool artists can use to make a painting their own. Just because the water was dirty green does not mean you have to paint it that way! The same goes for a boat; purple and turquoise make a great combination, don't you think? Quite often when I am painting plein air, I will experiment with color. After all, as long as the values are correct who cares what color the boat is? This was painted looking down on a shrimp boat from the deck of a restaurant at the Galveston Marina. I wish I could remember the name of the restaurant but they have great shrimp poorboys. This is one of the 8 paintings I painted in 4 days at Plein Air Southwest a couple of weeks ago in Galveston. I had a great time and would be thrilled to do it again, but it has taken me a week to get over it! Quite a few of the artists at this event are on the Plein Air Circuit. It's kind of like a golf circuit only they travel around the country painting at these events. You have to be judged to get in and I was honored to be chosen but I must say it is also Hard Work! Interesting way to make a living don't you think?

When you are in competition with excellent painters, you will do anything to stand out. The Hutchings House was one of the houses on the Galveston Home tour which coincided with Pleinair Southwest, so I thought I would paint the house at a weird angle, (something maybe no one else would do.) So I spent an afternoon getting a crick in my neck looking up at this house agonizingly drawing the angles correctly. Alas, I didn't win anything for my efforts but I still think this painting is a success. The Sealy and Mary Hutchings House was built in 1896 and is now owned by a darling couple and their young daughter. They live on the third floor and rent out the rest of the house. The gardener, (at my request) took a very unflattering picture of me, but I did want a document of my discomfort. The things we do for ART! However; overall I had a marvelous week painting many historic houses and scenes of this elegant and historic town. Galveston is much more than just a beach!

THE BEST LAID PLANS

Every Spring, Trader Joe's sells daffodils for a song, and every year I buy bunches to celebrate the season! Naturally, this year I wanted to paint them in my new antique pitcher, but not so fast! The daffodils I bought just died before they had even opened (not once but twice) so I went back a third time to Trader Joe's thinking I would paint them FAST but RATS, no more Daffodils! So I bought Sunflowers, but again, NUTS, the pink pitcher didn't look right with the more casual sunflowers so, in the end, I had to switch out the pitcher as well. Sigh! The lesson here is to be flexible and just go with what works. It's also a good trick to decide where you want to focus and just suggest the rest. My focus was on the front sunflower and the antique pitcher so I blurred the back flowers and put the lemon in shadow. So much, however for the Best Laid Plans... A Quote from Philosopher David Hume, "He is happy whose circumstances suit his temper but he is more excellent who can suit his temper to any circumstances."