Saturday, September 26, 2020

Beaver pond

 Riding on the bike path and came across this scene, both beautiful and melancholy, with the bare ruin’d choirs of dead trees white in the late afternoon light surrounded by marsh grass and lily pads in the beaver pond. I only had one page left in my sketchbook, a failed and partially scrubbed out sketch of my trusty climbing structure, so I attempted take a page from James Gurney’s book, so to speak, and build the new picture on the ruins of the old. I managed to finagle most of the original elements into the new picture except for those lines in the sky.

Watercolor sketch of pond with marsh grasses, dead trees, and trees with fall colors.


Sketchbook page with partially scrubbed out image of climbing structure.

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

Screen porch light and shadow

 A little 5” x 7” oil sketch of the back porch. I love how the light blanches the screen, leaving the true color to come through in the shadows. I used the mini pochade box I put together to use with my kayak, but realized I could mount it on a regular tripod to do a small painting in a confined space. It’s not quite where I want it to be, but I think I’ll let it ripen a bit and then either work on it more or start a larger version.

Oil painting of corner of screen porch, seen from the inside. A yellow couch in the foreground with two chairs behind it. Brightly lit foliage is visible through the shaded areas of the screen; the sunlit areas appear almost colorless and flat.



Small pochade box fashioned from a cigar box, mounted on tripod, with porch interior behind.



 

Close up of small jar affixed to front of pochade box, containing mineral spirits and plastic scrubber material for washing brushes.