Another view from my studio window

Watercolor

I've not painted for some time, but finally did this 18x24 watercolor taken from a newspaper photo.  The picture showed two hikers climbing along the edge of a precipitous rocky incline covered with exposed tree roots.  I exaggerated the roots and minimized the hikers almost to the point of abstraction.  I'm very pleased with this.

Pyrography

I've been experimenting with woodburning for awhile and feel I am really getting the hang of it now.  These are the latest two .  I don't know how well respected pyrography is in the art world, but I guess I really don't care.

Pastel Rejuvenated

I painted this scene as a watercolor many years ago and it was kind of a dud.  I kept it anyway, most likely thinking I would use the other side of the paper.  Yesterday I saw it crumpled in a corner and decided to put pastel on it.  Of course the whole thing is different, but who is to know?  The house was torn down, as well as the dead trees.  I was free to invent the landscape...I did what I do best with pastel....fields and rocks.  I also cut the thing down to about a third its size.  Originally I was so impressed by the size of the dead trees that they took up more than half the painting.  This time composition overwhelmed that desire.  I like the resulting work.

Pyrography

Talking with my old friend Elizabeth inspired me to use wildlife as subject matter.  Since paper is hard to come by I decided to return to my pyrography.  After exploring the medium on the internet, I felt inspired to really work hard to improve my work.  I am very happy with these two.  I have learned that the quality of the wood makes a very big difference and plan to buy some birch plywood from the art supply catalog.  I'm not sure how this medium is thought of in the art world, but certainly that makes little difference to me.  Since I like to draw, this is a good medium for me.  There are many examples of beautiful work on the computer.

Version 2

I couldn't stop working on the pastel, and now I'm happy with it.  I tlooks like Michelle.

Pastel

I got out my pastels this morning.......I had the urge to draw.  This is a portrait of my cousin, Michelle (with her violin in case you can't tell what that is).  I think it is a fine portrait of someone, perhaps a combination of Michelle and me.  We do have half our genes in common.  I must have unknowingly seen those St. Germain genes elbowing out the Nosco genes.  I'll try again with paint.  It is much more forgiving and I can work until it's right.

Here's boB

This is one of the shelter horses, boB.  I can't keep from laughing at his name, designed by the shelter manager to hide his whereabouts by writing it backwards.  I painted it to sell at the 4th of July benefit yard sale and left it at the shelter yesterday when no one was there.  I hope somebody found it.

Three Watercolors

I've posted these paintings on my other blog, but I want to put them here, too.  I'm hoping to get a good representation of my work in one place.  These three are scenes here in Eastport.  The top is the back of my house as seen from Diana's deck.  The middle is Wilson St., where I lived in the first house on the left for a couple of years.  The bottom is looking down a dead end street near Wilson St. where I used to walk the dogs.  I've painted it looking in the other direction, too.  I will try to find it.  One thing about selling so few paintings is that I have a huge collection of my own work. It seems almost ridiculous to hoard all that stuff. But I feel better about it knowing that my beloved teacher Betty Lou Schlemm has amassed somewhere around 500 paintings which she is exhibiting in Rockport (Massachusetts) right now.  The proceeds from the show will benefit the local animal shelter and a cancer treatment facility where she has done several free demonstrations.  Mine will not have such a noble end.

A Little watercolor

Yesterday I went to Diana's to paint with a group of friends I haven't seen for along time.  Some of them used to be my students.  For years I came to Eastport as a teacher.  We would all stay at Diana's for a week, going out to paint every day.  I would chose a sight and do a demonstration there.  The the students would find a spot nearby to do their own painting.  I went from person to person, offering pointers and advice......or probably more to the point, demands.  I was a hands on teacher, not adverse to grabbing the brush out of their fingers and painting on their work myself.  It was all good-natured and fun, though.  We all had a wonderful time.  Now these students are painters in their own right, most of them more successful than I.  They live in Bangor, so I don't see them much, and I really enjoy them when they are here.

In any case, we all became friends and I enjoyed painting yesterday.  I worked on another wood piece for awhile, and then painted this little watercolor from a photo I like.  Obviously it was a quick sketch, sort of, but I actually like it as a finished painting.

Outdoor Painting

It's been a very long time since I painted outside.  My equipment is in sad shape and my sketchbox easel barely hangs together..with the help of bungee cords.  I enjoyed sitting on the road across town, looking at this arrangement of buildings and greenery.  This is a watercolor 10x14. 

Not exactly a painting............

This is a new attempt at pyrography.  I've tried it before with what I thought were good results, but this is a lot better.  I once painted this image when I was in school...a response to the assignment "Put yourself in a famous painting."  It was fun to place myself in this Caravaggio painting, holding the horse.  I titled it "I Witness the Conversion of St. Anthony(I think) and Caravaggio Captures the Moment."  What fun I had in that class.  It was an advanced figure drawing course with my wonderful teacher Mike Lewis.  It's actually a pastel drawing and not a painting.  I still have it.  I never had any trouble thinking of subject matter then, responding to the confines of an assignment.  Without that stimulus, I can't come up with much.

Something New

Will it last?  I don't know. I had the idea of separating the painting posts on my first blog, Dogs, Chickens, and Me, from my many comments on what I experience as a maker of so-called art.  I'm not sure there is a way of distinguishing one from the other, but I plan to try.  For this first post I will download my very latest work...a miniature about 3x5.  I've been experimenting with this way of working, inspired my my old friend Janet who is now an internationally known artist.  This is partly to give me something new to try and partly due to the fact that I can't afford the materials to do big paintings anymore.  Also I have shoulder problems that I won't go into which prevent me from lifting my arms high enough to use an easel.  Age is catching up with me.

So here is my little painting, the fifth or sixth miniature I have done....the first one that shows much promise.  Later I plan to post pictures of the paintings I have done over the years..maybe starting with the oldest (also the best).  There is a definite decline in my expertise, but I can't blame age for that.  I will talk more about that, I'm sure.