Whales

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It’s funny that location seems to inspire my subject matter. When I am at the beach I seem to lean to the sea creatures. Whales are so wonderful, they have great shapes, great color, great everything.

My recent visit to the Portland Museum of Art has also inspired the whale paintings. Currently they are showing Of Whales in Paint: Rockwell Kent’s Moby-Dick inspired works–and it is well worth a visit.

Both of these pieces were a lot of fun to work on. The Sperm Whale in acrylic (which is always a struggle for me) is 16″ x 10″ on canvas. I used a toothbrush for a lot of this painting to achieve the effects and that worked well for creating marks with unexpected results! And, the Humpback whale done in the Procreate app, which is beyond fun.

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Lots of joy with these pieces for me.

Enjoying Mixed Materials

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In some ways I feel like I need to settle down and choose a singular medium. This must come from some rigid thought process held over from college. I don’t know. I am having a lot of fun mixing up materials. However, even when mixing things up, I should probably have some discipline!

I am starting to realize that it is okay to just keep “practicing” and let the mind flow along with the creations. Maybe I need to stop thinking I need to get to something more serious.

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Four More Days!

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I can’t believe that #inktober2016 is almost over. While I haven’t been able to keep up everyday, I have done pretty well. This year has been fun to use the actual prompts…makes me think about drawing something I wouldn’t normally do.

Still loving the puffy fish on the iPad pro with the Apple Pencil. A lot fun and great way to learn the features of the Procreate app.

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Ink Experiments

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It’s always fun to try something new. Gauche resist with ink. I am not sure where I read about this technique, but it looked like a good way to get some unexpected results. Clearly, the results are unexpected. I think I will try a few of these for awhile…every piece of paper seems to react differently. The great thing is I can use these for #inktober2016!

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Flamingo on 5″ x 5″ canvas…totally did not work out as planned.

Bat on watercolor paper 4″ x 6″…totally did not work out as planned!

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Tiny Art Fundraiser

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While traveling I have strayed a few days from #inktober. In Frisco, NC the Indian Town Gallery is doing little fundraiser where they ask folks to donate a piece of art on a 5″ x 5″ canvas…they are then sold for $20 each. The gallery provides the canvas which is very nice! I participated in this last year and it was a lot of fun, this year I have done 5 of them! I got just a little carried away! But it was a lot of fun.

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I tried to use ink in all but one of them, so they kind of qualify for #inktober2o16

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I did two Mermaid variations. I think I like using the pencil (below)

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And, one with just all acrylic paint.

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Inktober Continues

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Surprisingly I have kept up pretty well with #inktober2016. I have only missed a couple of days. Yesterday was my wedding anniversary, so I gave myself a break! Not all days have been good days, but the challenge has motivated me to get something drawn in my book pretty much everyday!

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I am trying to follow the daily prompts this year, but on occasion if I can’t do that I still work on a sketch in ink. I am really enjoying my Dad’s drawings, he is being a real sport and I love to see him participate! I look forward to his drawings everyday.

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Fishing

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I have been trying to finish this one up for a couple of weeks. Fish drawings for my husband! I was doing a lot of birds and he said, how about some fish! So, this is for my husband John.

Our plow guy takes out our house marker (or mailbox if up) every year. Another one bit the dust this past winter. Here is our new sign, found wood on the beach, painted in acrylic–atlantic salmon seemed a good choice for a coastal Maine house. We’ll see how long it lasts!

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Still working on my faces. Work in progress today–taking more time than I normally do.

Gifts

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Working on a little birthday gift for my husband’s aunt. She is turning 80 in May. Hard to think about what kind of subject matter would be best…settled on Lily of the Valley as this is the official flower of May. Difficult little buggers to get right! Fun to work on though.

Also messing around with oil bar paint on found beach wood. Thinking of moving on to shells, or back to the birds. Vacation week is coming to a close.

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Bird Week

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Somehow I got focused on the water birds this week. Feels like the right subject matter while at the beach. Someone pointed out to me that I keep cutting the poor birds beaks off! It happens a lot! For the next one I will try to keep the beak within the frame. I am really enjoying the paint transfer technique with the oil paint…and I have discovered how to make this work on canvas as well. The line is more difficult to control on the canvas, but still offers up a quality that I appreciate.

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Dreaming of the beach

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Taking a break for packing up my art supplies and I must be dreaming of my vacation coming up in the #outerbanks of NC. I took the resource photo for this painting soooo many years ago…I have been looking at it for a long time. Going through my supplies I found this blue paper and the old photo, and well, there you have it. I like the way the casein worked against the blue color of the paper, a little dry brush technique in areas created a nice effect. I will try some more of these. I think that the background needs more consideration, but a fun experiment (and break from packing!)

Looking forward to several days in a row of painting and drawing at the beach.