It's Almost Christmas Day

Wishing you a Very Merry and Blessed Christmas!

Tidepool Reflections

If you have ever visited Pemaquid Lighthouse in southern Maine, you may have noticed the tidepools that form between those famous striped granite rocks. And you would have seen people searching for reflections of the lighthouse in those tidepools. I have always wanted to paint one of those tidepool reflections. This painting is 5x7 and was done for my SWAP partner who lives in Australia. I like the way this came out so much that I'm thinking of doing a larger one.

Sketchcrawl October 16, 2010

Saturday was the latest Worldwide Sketchcrawl (www.sketchcrawl.com), and after some discussion about where to crawl, my sister Joan and I decided on a couple of Paterson, NJ landmarks. The first one was Lambert Castle, which sits on the top of a hill overlooking the city of Paterson. After painting the castle, I did a very quick pencil lay-in sketch of the fountain that was behind us. No time to refine it, as we were on our way to the Great Falls of Paterson a short distance away. This beautiful waterfall is right in the middle of the city. On our way home we stopped at a local farm stand to sketch some of their produce. It was chilly and windy, but a good sketchcrawl.

A Field Trip With Crayons

I haven't posted here for a while, since I've taken a slight detour from watercolor to play around with sketchbooking, which led to the WetCanvas Weekend Drawing Event. I'm working my way through Suzette Morrow's "Make Sketchbook a Habit" and today is Day 12 - "be a kid again". I decided to combine both events, doing my WDE sketch in good old Crayolas.

"Sheep in Field" 7 x 7 approx., Crayona Crayons

Photo by Yorky, provided by WDE host Signchick

Tulip Magnolia

My next door neighbor has this beautiful tulip magnolia tree that sits right at the property line, so to many people it looks like it belongs to me. I take advantage of it's closeness to photograph it and to paint it every spring. This year the blossoms were more prolific than usual. "Tulip Magnolia" is 11x15

Lavender's Blue

I found these Clematis hiding among many much larger plants at the NJ Botanical Gardens at Skylands. The sun was peeking through the shade at just the right angle to light up these blue/purple beauties.

15x11

Miniature Orchid Sketch

I bought this miniature orchid at the flower show. A leap of faith for me, as I somehow manage to kill live flowers/plants almost immediately. I did the sketch from life, as opposed to working from a photo like I usually do. It was nice being able to see how everything worked, and to turn the plant if I needed to see better. And so far I've kept it alive for two weeks. LOL

Small Orchid Painting for SWAP

This is a small 5 x 7 that I did for our SWAP group. It went to Brenda in Texas. I did it from a photo I took at the Phila. Flower Show recently. I have lots of good reference photos from this show, so it should keep me busy for a while.

Monochromatic Snow Scene

I painted this snow scene with just Paynes gray for a project on one of my watercolor forums. It's from a photo I took a week and a half ago when we had almost 2 feet of snow.

Snow Scenes From a Solo Sketchcrawl

Yesterday was the 26th "Worldwide Sketchcrawl" . I usually do the sketchcrawls with my sister Joan, but yesterday I did a solo crawl from the warmth and comfort of my home. I only managed two sketches, one from my front window looking at the house across the street, and one from my back window looking at my backyard and some of the houses behind me. I did these as I would have on location, with my Cotman kit and a waterbrush.