Another forest painting

We have been so intrigued by the light in the Pisgah National Forest in the NC mountains.  Now that I'm back home in the studio I decided to work up another painting from my studies.  Here is one in progress - the soft light at the end of the day... its multimedia with layers of transparent tissue and thick palette knife acrylics.  Its 30" x 40."

Dreamer... work in progress

Finally back in studio with some momentum...  Here's a work in progress.  It's 3 x 5 feet.  I've been experimenting with some fluid bronze paint which provides some very interesting effects.  Still getting the hang of it.  My canvas is in front of the big South window though so my photo is showing a glare off of the metallic paint!  Zowie.  I'll post a better shot later, but wanted to go ahead and share this.  I've also snapped a detail of the paint...

NC mountains again

... it had been our hope to spend the entire dog-days month of August in the North Carolina mountains, but other projects got in the way.  We did manage to stay there for almost a week, and enjoyed the cool misty woods.  Now back home and back into the studio.  I started a couple paintings out there, now hope to finish them up.  Here's a shot of Michael on one of our hikes.

Summer storms

We've had some beautiful thunderstorms this summer... here's a shot of one that missed us, but we watched it pass out over the Gulf Stream.  Awesome.

Plein air fun...

Yesterday evening the local plein air painters group came to paint here at Crosswinds again.  Oh, we had such a great time!  We scheduled for 5pm to try to beat the heat, and it turned out to be a beautiful evening with a breeze off the water keeping the bugs and heat at bay.   I told them I'd have some snacks and beverages... that morning Michael declared that he was going to make a cassoulet (see below)!  OMG - it was terrific.... and then everyone showed up with delicious food too!  What a feast... oh yeah, and they painted too... ; )

I was beat from doing figure drawing that afternoon (takes alot of concentration), so I decided to simplify and just do some sketches in my notebook while they painted.  I did a scribbly sketch of the three gals painting out front - too tight...  Tried another sketch of Michael and Harry chatting in the adirondack chairs... parts of it were okay... then I tried it again, really trying to get into the "contour" mode where you try to imagine the edge of your pen moving along the edge of what you are seeing.  Its like the line just starts going and connects everything you see whether its man, plant or beast... this one was my favorite.

By the way, a cassoulet is a provincial French dish usually made with duck, sausage and beans.  Michael made a variation with chicken, sausage and white beans - quite wonderful...

And here's a shot of Eleanor, Susan and Barbara painting in the wind out front!  Great fun.

Seeing the forest for the trees...

I've been working on a 30" x 40" painting of the forest from studies I made while in the NC mountains last month... working to keep it abstracted.  At one point I was dissatisfied with it... turned it upside down to study the composition.  Then worked on it upside down for awhile.  When I turned it back "rightside up" it looked much better!   Go figure (have to trick that left brain sometimes I suppose).

By the way, my fun abstracted painting of Theo, "Model No Show" won a prize at the TRAA show in New Bern this week.  Yay!

Another Neuse River walk

Michael, Theo and I celebrated Independence day with an early morning walk along the beach at Pine Cliff on the Neuse River.  We got there at 8 am and walked for over two hours, only seeing a handful of other people.  Here's a shot Michael took of me and Theo at the far end of the beach... gorgeous morning.