Alice in Wonderland in Central Park

Jesse organized another great sketch group in Central Park yesterday. This time we visited Alice in Wonderland right in the middle of a tea party with the Mad Hatter and Mr. Rabbit. You can see from this photo the challenges we faced. I almost couldn't see Alice for the kids climbing over her.

This turned out to be a rather loose pencil sketch. I'd love to go back when there's not so many kids around.

Celebrating the first day after the heat wave!

Yowza! This disgusting heat wave broke last night and I feel remarkably more human. It's amazing what dropping the high down about 30 degrees will do.

Very good timing too. Jesse Richards hosts the most fabulous sketching group in Manhattan - the Central Park Sketching Group. http://www.meetup.com/sketching/

Today he took us to the Bramble in Central Park. There were a little under 50 of us there. It was nice and shady with beautiful views of the lake and the New York City skyline. Everybody chose their favorite sketching spots. It was so good to get out again and sketch.

Here are some of mine.

All these are graphite pencil on 3"x5" white bond.

1. An overpass arch - it looked like an aqueduct. I like architecture. There's something about perspective and straight lines that draw me in.

2. The skyline of Central Park South (I think). This one was a bit tougher. I just noticed that this area has a large preponderance of eraser head buildings, especially in the South. It must be the 60s architecture.

3. Bethesda Fountain. I've done this one so many times but never the whole chaotic scene. I'm pretty pleased with the way it turned out.

Painting the New Jersey skyline

This week sadly is the last week in Joe Peller's plein aire class. Today we wound down to Christopher Street to the piers that jut out into the Hudson. It's a part of the great expanse known as Hudson River Park. One of the piers has been totally planted over and sports a soccer field complete with grass and two clumps of trees.

I don't know the clock tower that we saw in the distance but it made for an intriguing subject. In the morning, after sketching, I tried out my new palette of ultra. blue, quin. red, and trans. yellow. 

                 morning

In the afternoon, I tried the same scene in different lighting and substituted cad. red for the quin. red.

                afternoon

What a difference a few hours make. Tomorrow we'll be going to Battery Park with the Statue of Liberty views. 

The other Brooklyn Bridge

The 34th Street pier got a new makeover and they built a nice little riverside park next to it. It was high time I paid a visit. The little park is quite nice; benches are scattered about, shade trees and bushes were amply planted...and it has the most spectacular views of the river. It was quite fun seeing the ferries come in and go out. I saw one going to Martha's Vineyard.

Way south of the pier lay the Williamsburg Bridge. From a distance, the Williamsburg Bridge looks like its more famous sister, the Brooklyn Bridge. There are actually three bridges between Manhattan and Brooklyn: the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhattan Bridge, and this one - the Williamsburg Bridge. Of course by the time I was finished strolling and gawking about, I didn't have much time to paint so I did a quick color/compositional study in about 30 minutes..

Now I can't wait to go back and paint it in different lights when I have more time. Sunrise should be quite nice.

5x7" oils on canvas board

Some more architecture in Union Square Park

This morning, I wanted to capture the arches of the beautiful outhouses on the north side of the park. This small painting was a warmup to the previous one.

5x7 oil on canvas board

The outhouse at Union Square Park

Back in Joe Peller's outdoor painting class - this week in Union Square Park in New York City. It's got one of the most beautiful outhouses I've ever seen in a public park. Here's the balustrade with some trees that hide it from the street view. I particularly liked the deep brick tile roof peeking out the corner here.

5x7" oil on canvas board

A hidden gem near Madison Square Park

Belonging to the Central Park Sketching Group has given me exposure to small parks and hidden gems of Manhattan.

One of these is the New York Met Life building that I sketched this morning. I like drawing and painting architecture - the straight lines and regular design patterns can be a challenge though. 

Here is the sketch with a photo of the building. I don't know what size it is but it's small.

 

This week's painting in progress

I've lately been inspired by the great models posing in Joe Peller's evening painting class. The model this week has a Polynesian flair. She seems to enjoy posing for the class too. She's definitely getting into all the free wine available at our end of the year class parties. A happy model makes for a good painting, I always think.

Next month Joe will be holding an outdoor painting class in Central Park and I was lucky enough to get in! His classes are always crowded so this should be good.

I could kick myself though, I chose a 9x12 canvas and its way too small. I'm having to use Barbie brushes for the face. The face is about the size of my thumb. I'll have to buy Barbie brushes to finish it.

Eggs without a name

I haven't figured out the title for this one. I seem drawn to eggs. Like Deidre from Wetcanvas said, "Eggs are the perfect shape."

The folks in the Still Life forum at the Wetcanvas forum are a talented and helpful bunch of artists.

I'm drawn to juxtapositions of warm and cool. The cool blue background against the creamy beige of the egg makes for a little energy and excitement.

This is 5x7 oil on canvas board.

Grapes!

Been a long time away. Today I played around a bit and bought some grapes.

Hello from Sunny Italy

No, I'm not really in Italy but the painting today sure reminds me of Italy.

Looking around for inspiration, I turned to my vast array of photos. I think this photo came from the Marble House in Providence RI rather than Italy and I was there a few more years ago than I care to admit.

The Marble House is an Italian Renaissance Revival mansion built by one of the Vanderbilts so its no surprise that it reminds me of Italy.

I think I'm getting into a sort of routine with these paintings. First I mix up the colors - a couple of choices for the lights, midtones, and darks and then block them in with a brush. So no drawing ahead of time, even with the fine brush. Then I go back and add some color variations. This effort took about 40 minutes.

It was a fun exercise just to concentrate on color and I think I'm getting more confident with my brush strokes. I wanted to compare the colors on the dark inside columns with the brightness of the red floor. The colors are similar in color temperature but not quite.

I didn't get to put in the reflected light in the upper arches apses. But I wanted to keep it fresh a nod not overworked. I may revisit this subject again. Have to leave something for next time.

view to the sea from the portico at the Marble House in Providence

They say a bold failure is better than a timid semi-success.

I went at it again with eggs last night - or an egg and my bold blocking in the shapes rendered the poor egg rather football-like. I wanted to go decisive on the colors and not fiddle around with them too much. With that aspect of the painting, I am particularly pleased.

I'm now even more than ever seeing the advantage of quick paintings.

New painting class and the dentist

Ah, here's what the dentist and a new 2 day painting class have done to me. It's totally wiped me out so I haven't had anything to post here.

The class though is run by Joseph Peller, he's an amazing artist and teacher. Next week I'll take some pictures of my WIP and share with you all.

Here's today's modest effort to get me back on track. I will never be able to think of eggs without thinking of Gollum getting the eggs riddle and yelling out 'Eggsses!' Well these are eggsses.

A slight change up - Painting everyday rather than a painting a day

I've had to rethink this. I'm getting into the subtleties of color in still life and its an area I'm rather new to.

This painting is actually the third rendition of this teacup. The first one - a 25 minute exercise was too saturated. Yesterday I experimented mixing colors. I changed my paints around and abandoned temporarily the limited primary palette. Using a variety of Williamsburg paints in a variety of earth colors, I did a quick brush sketch of just the cup against a dark background.

Today I went for the full painting which took about 50 minutes. So far, I'm pleased with how things are going. I'm still keeping the spirit of the quick paintings - not sitting down more than 25 minutes at a time and not doing more than 2 sessions for each painting. This may mean some days I don't have a post-worthy painting but when I do get one, it makes it all worthwhile.

Another Cityscape

For today, I decided to do another version of yesterday's painting, this time with more color.

Cityscape

Today I decided to try some more muted tones and found this photo of a village scene in Austria.

Exploring the red spectrum

Well I think I'll have to re adjust my goal to paint 5 days out of 7 rather than all 7. Right now I'm still enjoying trying to capture the shadows and reflected light off of the many red objects I've found in my kitchen. Who knew I was such a 'red' person?

I'm also going to give myself an hour on these. For this last one, I wanted to correct the reflections after 30 minutes and ran out of time.

I think this whole process is a work in progress.

Coppers and reds

Yes, I missed a day. Yesterday was just impossible to get any painting done.

So today I made up for it with this study of a copper pot ready to cook an Italian meal. I actually broke my own rules and spent two hours on it. It was good to take my time mixing colors. Over time, I'm sure I'll do it faster but for now as long as I keep painting every day (or most every day), I'll be happy.

7"x10" oil on board - 2 hours

PS the photo looks a little fuzzy. I'll take another one while the sun is out tomorrow.

Tea Time

Was in the mood for a cup and thought it would be a fun subject. This is definitely getting me out of my comfort zone and into painting new things.

5"x7" oil on panel one hour

Another study of reflections

Some more kitchen utensils were calling to me to paint them. I wanted to include more cooling greens and greys to counterbalance the warm reds. All in all, a good, tough exercise.

25 minute study, Oil on 5"x7" panel

New Beginnings

Here starts my challenge of painting one painting each day. I will spend no more than 25 minutes on a painting and will post one each day to my blog. They will be small - 5x7.

What do i want to get out of it? They say there's nothing like doing something a lot to get better at it and I like to paint. I miss it. I get grumpy when I go without painting for too long.

Painting Nr. 1 is a study of reflections using some items I had around the house. I can tell my mixing bowl is going to figure prominently in future paintings. I just love the wonderful reflections it gives off.

My setup is a 5x7 pochade box from Guerilla Painter that I can sit on my living room table. Throwing out my TV gave me a wonderful spot to stage my still lifes - the TV stand - and with an adjustable reading light and two stand lamps, I am pleased so far with the lighting possibilities I can produce. I'm sure as time goes by, my setup and manner of working will evolve and I look forward to seeing how it will.