Sequoia in Virginia?

Today was the last warm day for a while so I packed up and went back to the Botanical Gardens for another painting.  Yesterday I had come across a really beautiful tree with a red trunk that I thought was some type of cypress or cedar.  The tag beneath the tree identified it as a sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood.  And I thought they all were in California!  This one is a baby, probably about 70 to 80 years old and almost as tall as the largest trees in the immediate area.  The Botanical Gardens were built in the thirties as part of a pubic works project and the sequoia was probably introduced then.
This painting is painted on a 9x12 hardwood board.

Spatterdock

Today I went out to the botanical Gardens.  This time I found a nice park bench and decided to paint sitting for a change.  The plants breaking the surface are spatterdock.  The bench faced a nice view.  I tried out a new canvas pad that is primed with what appears to be clear gesso.  The cloth is unbleached and makes for a nice tone to paint on.  the pad is 11x14 and if mounted, will probably be 9x12.

This is my cart with all my stuff that I cart around while I scope out a good painting spot.  I really love this cart!

The Fork

Today it stopped raining enough for me to slip in a quick painting.  And, I found another water view.  It too is painted on a 11x14 sheet of canvas to be mounted to a size of 9x12.  It was very soggy there!  I think it is soggy everywhere!  We have the biggest mushrooms growing that I have ever seen!

Rain

Rain, rain go away,
come again another day.
Oil and water don't mix!

Normally I don't wish rain away, but we have had enough lately!  I want to go outside and paint!!  I have an umbrella for my painting but not for me.

Yesterday's painting

I set up in the backyard yesterday and painted this small painting of the trunk of a crepe myrtle.  It was painted on a 5x7 canvas panel.  I as trying to paint small with big brushes.  After I painted the shadows, the sun disappeared which made it difficult to finish.

Waterview again

Today I made it out to the Botanical Gardens intending to paint trees.  I found this beautiful view and couldn't resist!  It was quite an overcast day.  I tried out a new painting surface.  I bought a canvas pad, primed canvas in sheets, and taped one to a board.  I figured if I get a decent painting, I can glue it to a board.  Space saver!  The pad is 11x14, convertible to 9x12 when mounted.

Change

Today, I went back to the Botanical Gardens.  I found a nice spot in the picnic area with a view of the causeway along the lake.  The first picture is of my setup.  I use the cart to pull my easel and bag of stuff around while looking for a nice spot to paint.

I could see the beginnings of fall.  There was a yellow tint to some of the trees.  I'm sure going to miss summer.

I painted for about two hours.  The painting is 9x12 luann gessoed board.

Plein air - Waterfall

Yesterday I went to the Botanical Gardens to paint.  After wandering around with cart in tow, I found a small waterfall I decided to paint.  The pinestraw along the bank of the stream (not to mention the rest of the painting) was very frustrating and I still am not pleased with the result.  I spent three hours in the Gardens.  The painting is on a 9x12 stretched canvas.

Limited Palette

Since I started back painting, I have been collecting tubes of paint.  I have so many beautiful colors, but I would never use them all in one painting.  Each painting I do, I might vary the palette somewhat.  Since I have been packing up , going out, and painting plein air I have tried to limit my pallet to just a few colors.  But still I change the colors when I go out.  I decided this past weekend that I would pick a palette, explore it, and stick with it.  So, I spent Saturday picking the colors and doing color charts.  I should have done the color charts much sooner!  Oh I have done color charts before: greens and value scales, but I have not mixed each color that I will be using together.  (Not all at once, just one to one.)

The colors that I picked to use: cadmium lemon, cadmium yellow, naples yellow, alz. crimson, cad. red light, d. purple, pthalo blue, ultramarine blue, viridian, raw sienna, burnt umber, paynes gray and titanium white.  I wanted a warm and a cool variety of each primary color plus a few extra colors thrown in for their usefulness or just because I like them.  I may vary from this in the future but it is good to become familiar with the way the paints react with each other.  Especially when you are trying to beat the sunlight!

I mixed the lighter colors together but when I got to the darker colors, I would add white to the mix.  Some of the mixtures surprised me.  I never realized that mixing paynes gray with lemon would make such stunning greens. I should have though!   And naples yellow mixed with anything is beautiful!

We are supposed to have rain for the next few days so I guess my painting outside will have to wait a bit!

Knitting Mill Creek

Hurricane Irene came through last Saturday and I have been cleaning up from the storm.  I had said that I would post the other painting from last Thursday and here it is.  This painting was from a vantage point from the end of, I think, 47th Street in Norfolk.  The view is of a floating dock in Knitting Mill Creek.  Beyond, is the far bank of Colonial Place.  After painting in the morning, by the time I got to this location, I was feeling quite tired!  This painting was painted on a 9x12 stretched canvas and was painted in oils.

Mills Godwin Bridge

My quest for a painting buddy continues.  I have decided to join in some plein air events in a search for someone or a group to paint with.  The most logical one is "Out and About" Norfolk since I live here.  The problem it is a juried event.  And I really don't have too many paintings from which to choose since my first plein air painting was painted in the spring!  I have decided to submit Ocean View, 26th Street Bridge, and I needed another water structure painting which before today I didn't have.  Since we have a hurricane expected for Saturday, today (now, yesterday) was the best chance I had of coming up with another painting.  I got up this morning and, wouldn't you know it, the smoke was really bad.  I decided to head northwest until I could find a clear sky and look for a marine structure.  I ended up at TCC's old Portsmouth campus and found a view of the Mills Godwin bridge on Route 17.  I painted for about an hour and a half and brought the painting back to my studio and put some finishing touches on it.  Well, if I don't get into this event, there's always next year (and other events)!  This painting was painted in oils and is on a 9x12 stretched canvas.

After I painted this one I came back to Norfolk and painted another one.  I will post that one later.

26th Street Bridge

This morning the smoke from the Dismal Swamp fire must have been blowing some other way because I was able to go out and actually paint!  I went over to the Zoo's parking lot where there is a really nice view of the 26th Street bridge.  I got there about 7:30 and painted until 9:30.  It was a nice enjoyable morning.  I get quite frustrated while painting but it also is most relaxing and calming.  This painting is painted on a 9x12 stretched canvas.







Here I have added a photo of the scene I painted.  The painting kinda looks like the scene!

Water poppy with dragonfly

I discovered a water poppy bloom had opened this morning in the pond.  So I got my trusty french easel and paints out and painted it.  I used one of my new hardboard panels.  My husband had a large sheet of hardboard plywood left over from a furniture project.  I asked him if I could use the remainder for inexpensive plein air painting panels.  I don't want a repeat of the horse barn painting.  He cut about eight 9x12s, and two 12x16s.  I have gessoed most of them and I toned two of the panels with a coat of acrylic paint.  One was yellow ochre and one was yellow ochre with a touch of cad. red.  I used the toned 9x12 yellow ochre panel for this painting.  This is the first time I have used a toned surface.  There are no little white spots showing through!   I spent a little over an hour on this painting.  Dragonflies kept flying back and forth so I included one in the painting.  It was a nice day!  I cannot seem to get a decent photo of the painting though.  Maybe I need to take a photography class.

Merchant Mill Pond - Plein Air

This morning my daughter, her dog, and I went to Merchant Mill Pond in North Carolina.  What a pretty place!  Close to the Great Dismal Swamp, this place had a large pond with cypress trees, the trees with the large bases growing up from the pond.  I was concerned that the current fire in the Dismal Swamp might cause the Mill Pond area to be smoky but, thankfully, the smoke blew in a different direction.  I may go back to this site because after I painted the painting, we found a much nicer location to paint from.  It was a very nice day!  This painting is painted on a 9x12 stretched canvas.

Horse Barn

I journeyed to my daughter's house yesterday.  She lives forty miles away in the farmlands of Suffolk.  Across the road is a horse farm and the barn was visible from the shade of a tree in her front yard.  I painted while she read me stories!  What a juxtaposition!  On the way back home, a car stopped too quickly in front of me and the easel fell in the back and tore a hole in the canvas.  You can see the tear below the barn.  Ah, a reason plein air artists use wood or masonite panels!  The painting is painted in oils on a 9x12 stretched (and torn) canvas.

Bongos

This painting is taken from a photo I took of two bongos at the Virginia Zoo with their horns interlocked.  This painting was finished in June or July.  It is painted in oils on a 12x16 stretched canvas.  I didn't notice until too late that the horns are a little cropped and a glare on the bongo on the right in the photo.  Hum, unsteady hands!

Plein Air - Ocean View

This weekend I decided that I was going to start going out to paint somewhere besides my back yard!  I have been looking for someone to go out and paint with to no avail.  I would prefer  to go to remote spots but I am leery of strangers coming up behind me knocking me in the head!  This morning I decided to try the park close to my home but after scouting a few spots, I settled on this view of the Chesapeake Bay in Ocean View.  That is what used to be Harrison's fishing pier now, I guess, Boone's fishing pier, in the background.  (Actually it is now the Ocean View Fishing Pier.)  I spent about two hours painting.  The painting is on a 9x12 stretched canvas, painted in oils.

Plein Air Painting Workshop

Saturday, July 23, I took a painting workshop with Philip Koch, landscape artist and college instructor,  that was held at the Peninsula Fine Arts Center, Newport News, Virginia.  Philip was at the center for the opening of an exhibit of his paintings and held a painting workshop.  He had planned for us to paint outside in the morning and the afternoon but the weather was unbearably hot.  We decided to try and paint outside in the morning and paint inside in the studio in the afternoon, although one brave soul painted outside in the afternoon.  In the morning when we were outside painting, the temperature was in the upper 80s to the mid 90s and the humidity ran 60% up to 74% according to data recorded at the Newport News/ Williamsburg airport.  But I think while I was actively painting, I noticed the heat very little until the sweat ran down my face and broke my concentration!

The first painting was painted on the grounds of the Peninsula Fine Arts Center.  It shows a footbridge along what appeared to be a nature or jogging path.  The second painting was painted inside and is a different view of the same footbridge; building shrubs are framing the distant footbridge.  I believe that we painted about two and a half hours in the morning before we broke for lunch.  After lunch we joined Philip in the gallery and discussed his paintings.  What magnificent paintings!!  After the discussion we went off to paint our second painting.  After each painting, Philip provided a valuable critique that is sure to enhance my abilities.  I so enjoyed the day and didn't want it to end!  As you can tell, I did not finish either painting.

Plein Air - Garden

Here is a painting that I did today.  It was such a lovely day, I took the easel and paint outside.  This is in my backyard.  There are black-eyed-susans, lantana, phlox, and lotus leaves.  This is beside my pond and the gargoyle used to spit water but got tired and decided to spit the water out from other areas besides his mouth.  I enjoyed the day painting.  I did find out one thing: ants like oil paint and are particular to paynes gray.  I must have set the easel on an ant hill!  The painting was painted in oils on a 8x10 stretched canvas.

Waterlily -- Plein Air

I did this painting about a month ago.  I remember that it was quite hot that day and I got the beach umbrella out for relief.  The heat also affected the consistency of the paint making it more fluid.  (The heat also affected the artist!)  This is a small painting being only 7x5.  It is painted in oil on a linen coated gessoed board.