Snoozin at the Beach

Snoozin at the Beach
24" x 36" - acrylic on canvas - SOLD

I worked on this painting all of last week and finally finished it yesterday. I have been thinking about doing a largish version of this subject (based on a photo I took several years ago) after painting smaller, separate versions of each figure, last year - which you can see here and here. 

The first challenge was to draw each figure accurately on paper, and then to draw them accurately on the canvas, positioned where I wanted them, slightly off-centre. Once the initial drawing was done, I used a grid to transfer the image onto the canvas. Painting the figures was relatively easy, however, as I proceeded I had to correct drawing inaccuracies made on the original drawing (and transferred to the canvas) and then re-work the chair legs which were not as clearly visible in the photo. This I did by locating a similar fold-up beach chair and drawing it instead.

I love this relaxed couple, dozing in their chairs in the Florida sunshine, and I am very happy with the final painting, and glad  that it is now out of my 'painting' system!

Here are some details - but  please note that once again I have had problems photographing the reds - in actual fact the skin tones are not quite so sun-burnt!

  

Sketchbook Figures Encore

Sketchbook Figure #8

Sketchbook Figure #9

Sketchbook Figure Drawings, continued....

Some more drawings, done with watercolour pencils, in a recent Open Life Figure Drawing session at the Longboat Key Centre for the Arts. In drawing the figure I often draw using a the 'blind contour' method, which results in distorted forms and exaggerated contour lines, enhancing, I think,  the expressiveness of the pose.

Sketchbook Figure #5

Sketchbook Figure #6

Sketchbook Figure #7

Still on my Easel....

The landscape that I have been working on currently looks like this........

Not sure what the next step is exactly. I am considering changing some of the tree trunks.

I think I will leave it, again, for a week or so while I work on other projects.

On My Easel.....

This is the second of the two landscapes that I 'left', just before Christmas. I finally took it off the wall earlier this week and decided to get back to work and loosen up all those stick-like tree shapes and the horizontal lines that were masquerading as branches. This is how it evolved over a few hours.......

Not huge changes, but I am feeling better about it, liking the looseness. Next step will be to tone down some of the colour! It's even a little wild for me.

Figure Studies.....

Two more 'studies' from my sketchbook - done in an open life drawing session last week......

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure Studies

Figure #4

Figure #1

             

Some figure studies from my sketchbook - done last Friday in the Open Life Drawing session at the Longboat Key Centre for the Arts, on Longboat Key in Florida. There is nothing like drawing the figure in a variety of creative and artful poses, over a 3 hour period. I used mostly water-colour pencils, and in the rest times added some water to my lines for a little colour pizzazz!

Ontario Northland

Ontario Northland

30" x 40" -  acrylic on canvas  

SOLD

I finally finished this work, one of the two landscape paintings that I had been working on before Christmas. Both  were challenging and unresolved in different ways, so I decided to leave them in hopes that I would find a way through to completion.

When I posted this in December it looked like this....

.....and though I really liked palette, loose forms and surface brushwork, there were areas I felt needed more development. And, once again, I went from looseness to control, but I also really like the result. 

Post Modern Apps III

Post Modern Apps III

16" x 16"  -  acrylic on canvas  

SOLD

This is the third in a series of 3 paintings - essentially apple portraits. In the first work I really played with colour, and in the second the real local apple colours began to re-appear. In this work I placed the apples on a plate which created the beautiful asymmetrical curves and shadow areas around the apples. I love the resulting composition, and the way the curves of the plate echo  the round apple shapes - and how all are contained within the square canvas format.

Tangled Garden Abstraction

Tangled Garden

9" x 10" - watercolour on arches paper - $25

The more watery paint that I added, the more abstract and looser my forms became. I think it works!