Great Blue Heron, Painting #10

Great Blue Heron    8 x 8"    $125

Great Blue Herons are a big part of my environment for part of the year.  They feed in the Squamscott River at low tide and they hang out in various small ponds around Exeter.  My heart jumps with excitement when I spot the first one each spring.  I can't get tired of seeing them and I can't get tired of drawing or painting them.

In this particular painting I put a strong emphasis on letting colors bleed.  No drawing was done prior to the painting.  Just the brush, the water and the pigment.  I LOVE when I make this happen.  I wish to paint like this every time but I haven't mastered the technique yet.  Still, I believe the joy is in the journey and not always the end product.

Kirkwood Day    8 x 8"    $125.00

Painting #9 is done.  Thanks to my boss, Scott Broughton, who provided an outstanding photo, I had the pleasure of painting this image of a ski slope in Tahoe.  I don't know what the altitude of this mountain is but I got the feeling it was really big.  I loved the giant cloud on the other side of the main peak and the shape of the dark, distant peak fits well.  Dotting the landscape were beautiful trees.  In the photo the slopes were covered with lots ski trails.  In my sketchbook I included these but decided that they broke up the white spaces too much so I got rid of them.
The palette for this painting was mainly ultramarine blue either straight up or mixed with prussian blue, manganese blue or payne's gray.  A little bit of yellow ochre was used on the tree in the foreground.
Two more paintings tomorrow....

4 More Paintings

Chocorua Hiding    4.5 x 6"    $90

Across the Lake    4.5 x 6"    $90

Mountain Sunset    4.5 x 6"    $90

The Cove    4.5 x 5"    $90

I'm catching up!  Only one painting behind now.  These four paintings all began on a cloudy weekend in the Whites this past October, late in the month.  It was gray, off and on rain with peeks of sun, slightly chilly, especially at the higher elevations, even a few snowflakes were floating around.  No photo references were used here.  Each was started on site but finished in my studio using memory and a little imagination.  I'll have a couple more paintings from that weekend coming up, as I got out and painted in my journal at a variety of locations along the Kancamagus Highway, producing little watercolor studies.  You can see one of those studies on my website's homepage.   www.birchtreestudioart.com.  Check it out!

A couple of these works have pen & ink in them, another medium I like to use.  More work to come tomorrow.  Enjoy!

Painting 4

Winter Maples    8 x 8"    $125

Started this one last night and finished this evening.  It's from a photo I took at one of my favorite places, the Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary.  There's a lane of maple trees with a walking path and stonewall on one side and a field of grasses, wildflowers and bluebird houses on the other side.   It just might be my favorite spot on the sanctuary.

I've had this photo for some years now, always wanting to paint from it.  The day of the photo was a darker, more gray day but I wanted to show a more interesting sky.  For the sake of a clean composition I reduced the number of trees and details in the understory.  For colors I stuck to a mostly cool palette of Winsor Blue, Sepia, a cool red, and a warm yellow.  The scan isn't showing the color range on the  tree trunks.  This is one you have to see in person to really appreciate it.   I'll try to get a better scan in the coming days and repost.

Painting #3

Squamscott Marsh    8 x 8"    $125

This challenge really IS a challenge!  I'm painting every day, which is awesome, but not producing something "finished" every day, which can be frustrating.  For example, today's painting, Squamscott Marsh,  was done four times before I achieved something close to what I wanted.  We are all our worst critics, right?  When I'm feeling unsure about a painting I turn to my husband who has a keen and dependable eye for helping me.  He chose this version of the four.  There are a few elements in this image that are not easy to work with: water, reflections and trees.  I'm very pleased with the results.

The scene is one I pass every day as I drive to and from the office I work in.  It's where the boat ramp on route 108 in Stratham, NH is and I never get tired of passing through it.  The changes throughout the seasons are amazing.  Off to the left (not in this image) is an Osprey nest.  It's a gorgeous location.

Stay tuned, more to come later tonight!

Painting #2

I'm a few days behind on posting each painting but it's not for lack of painting, but for lack of good paintings.  This is a hard challenge!  But I'm not at all deterred.  Been working on painitngs all day today.  Got one good one so far.

This painting comes from a photo I took on one of our many family trips to Lake Umbagog way up north in NH.  It's one of our favorite places.  My husband named it Quiescent for the peaceful feeling it gives him.  Early morning fog adds to the calmness over the water, as does the loon family who was just floating along with the slow movement of the water.

30 paintings in 30 days!

Shamefully, it's been over a year since my last post.  Goodness, how time flies.  It's all good stuff, though!

Know what else is good?  I've committed to a challenge put forth by artist Leslie Saeta to do 30 paintings in 30 days!  Her blog is posted at right.  This is where all 250 participants will post their work each day.  It's quite an amazing collection of works created by artists from around the globe.  Please visit it and view the works.  You just might find something that moves you.

I'm very excited to be a part of the challenge.  It's just what I need to jump start me into painting on a regular basis.  As you know, life has a way of getting in the way.  Although I've been maintaining a regular schedule of teaching with full classes (some with wait lists!), the painting part has lagged over the last year.

Mockingbird     watercolor    8x8"    $125.00

Posted here is painting #1 called Mockingbird.  I love this little gem!  The inspiration for this image comes from an incredible photograph my father-in-law sent me last week.  The little bird has been visiting my in-law's yard recently and Tom, my father-in-law, couldn't resist the opportunity for a photo shoot.  I'm very glad for that.  I tried capturing the roundness of its puffed out body while standing so regally.  The colors used are Sepia and Cerulean....keepin' it simple!

All 30 paintings will be the same size of 8 x 8" and will be $125.00ea.   Look for a new image every day.  And feel free to leave a comment!  I'm always interested in what people think about my work.