Rose Hips

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The latest Daily Paintworks Challenge required priming the painting surface with a bright color and celebrating the arrival of autumn. I started with a background of lime green and cut some rose hips from my garden to welcome in the new season. When I "googled" rose hips to check the spelling, I was surprised to find out that they are edible. In fact, rose hips, which are the seed pods of roses, make a delicious hot tea.  Hmmmm.

So Happy Together

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     This little bottle with its long elegant neck, only had room for two ...  but, oh, what a happy and beautiful couple they are! This piece was painted from life.

Bloom and Bud

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     Only a handful of these delicate blooms are left in my garden. There's a sense of urgency in my need to paint them.  I guess it's my way of preserving them. The bottle is a yard sale find. This piece was painted from life.

Peach Rose in Amber Bottle

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I am trying to remain conscious of values. I am using more paint. I am practicing self-restraint by putting down a stroke and trying to leaving it alone. I am also over the top in love with these delicate little roses  still blossoming in my garden.

Time in a Bottle

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I approached this still-life with three ideas in mind: ... draw with the paint ...  load the brush ...  put a stroke down and leave it alone! Keeping it simple proved very effective.

Peach Roses

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For years, I painted from photographs, primarily because the actual time I had to paint was scarce and intermittent. Yup, I was raising my family! But now, with an empty nest, I have stretches of uninterrupted time and so I've set a personal goal to paint from life - indoors and out. Here's a little still life I painted in the studio today.

Apple For Teacher

                                            
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So we are a few weeks into the new school year, and I figured right about now, some teacher, somewhere, needs an apple.... at least!

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Every time I walk through Sag Harbor, this colorful door catches my eye. The other morning, a bright orange bloom just added to the glory and stopped me dead in my tracks.

Warm Welcome

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I've decided to do a little series of paintings featuring the architectural gems in Sag Harbor. This house, which is a retail space now, sits up high on Main Street. When the sun is setting in summer, it lights up the entry way of this old beauty - making for a very warm welcome.

Big Blue Peak

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     Lately, I am trying to focus on values and shapes. This gem of a house in Sag Harbor lent itself beautifully to my efforts with its rectangles, triangles, deep darks, luminous middle values and bright highlights.  I'm quite happy with this one.

Big Cedar

                                                                                

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I am really trying to get comfortable painting out of doors. I've decided to set myself up for success by keeping it simple and starting in my own backyard. This beautiful cedar tree is my latest inspiration.

Valued Cedars

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I painted outside again today - and produced not just one, but two paintings. Hooray for me! The first was for this week's DPW challenge. I could use only 4 values of grey and had to see and think and paint in terms of shapes. I've posted that painting below. The exercise was extremely helpful because I can be so overwhelmed by all the color, and temperature and details of what I see when I paint out of doors. So now I have this great tool to help me simplify my plein aire experience. Painting the cedars in color was easier after the exercise.

Open Roses

            

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These roses were cut from my garden today. There is something lovely about late season blooms. They look like they had to struggle to appear. Even on their very first day, they are somehow weaker and more fragile than their early season predecessors who unfurled firmly and in full color confidence. These late bloomers fall open as if gasping, having made it just in time to see another day. They make me happy and sad. Happy because they assure me that a handful of warm sunny days lie ahead, and sad that it is only a handful.

Fair Weather Friends

                                                                                                      

  

I haven't posted on my blog in a few weeks because I decided to enjoy the final days of summer with my family. An uninvited guest, Hurricane Irene, left us without power for 5 days which prolonged my time away from the easel. In prepping for the storm, we, like many people in Sag Harbor, had to get our boat out of the water. I painted these little boats after Irene was gone and it was safe to go back in the water!