Glove and Sock Animal Week

Zoe, Pearl, Pinkey, Spot and Whiskers

I've been back from Maui for about two weeks now, and it's been a bit difficult to adjust, I have to admit. There's still six inches of snow in my yard! And it's still below freezing most mornings...What happened to spring?

Well, the first week back was a whirlwind of cleaning, unpacking, organizing, dusting...ewwww...two months of dust and cobwebs...and the second week has been one of adjustment. Adjusting to the MUCH slower pace of life here. Adjusting to the weather. Adjusting to my home. I feel a bit like I've been thrown  off of orbit. I felt like that when we arrived in Hawaii, too, but now it's the other way around. I felt intensely creative, but had no urge to pick up a paintbrush. So I sewed instead. Sewing is relaxing. It is quiet, methodical, and allows one to almost meditate. And at the end of a few hours, there is a sweet little creation, staring back. My kids love them! I'll be selling them in a new Etsy shop I've started, just for my other creative endeavours. 

I'm at Heartfelt Pals on Etsy...click here to see my shop, and check back often as I'll be adding new items all week.

Maori Dancer

Maori Dancer -- 14" x 18" oil on panel $750

Here's another dancer painting. He was enacting a Maori War dance. I loved the power of the pose and the dramatic light. It's another one in which the photo doesn't really do it justice. I'll try to get a better one soon.

Ray Robert's Workshop - Maui 2012

Ray's amazing 20 minute demo!

                                       

Ray and his wife, Peggi Kroll-Roberts

I was fortunate enough to participate in Ray Roberts plein aire workshop in Maui last week. What a blast! Not only was it great fun, it was a great learning experience, and Ray and his wife, Peggi, are wonderful, warm, people. A pleasure to have met.

I have only painted "en plein aire" a few times in my life, with no direction except what I had read. In fact, this is the first time I have taken a workshop from an established artist. I have taught them (how to paint animals in acrylic from photographs) but had never taken one.

Anyways...the object of his plein aire teaching is to use these small plein aire sketches as reference material to utilize in the creation of a more finished studio painting. He doesn't create them to sell.

Some of his most useful tips apply to all types of painting, not just plein aire and I found them incredibly useful. 

Some of them were:

• ALWAYS do a number of value studies, or Notans...either in just two values or three. Do a few different greyscale ones, and a few color ones, to feel out which one will make the best painting. It will be almost immediately evident. (I thought so anyways!)
• Translate a scene from your grayscale study to color. It helps immensely in reading the values.
• Avoid equal shapes, masses,  and divisions. It makes things boring and repetitive.
• Start with your darkest darks and lightest lights. Once they're established, it's much easier to find the middle values.
• Borrow from everything around you to make a great painting. You don't have to paint the exact scene. Remove elements, or add them, to make the best scene.
• Shadows in a landscape are cooler and lighter farther away from the source (under a tree) and warmer and darker towards the source, as they're reflecting light from the source. The farther shadow reflects light from the sky.

These are only a few of the great things I learned. Peggi has invented a few very useful plein aire tools that they sell on their website.

You can check out Ray and Peggi's beautiful work at www.krollroberts.com.

Tahitian Dancer

Tahitian Dancer -- 12 x 16 oil on canvas covered panel $600.00

I finally painted something in Maui that I'm happy with! Yay! I've been painting plenty, but nothing good enough to share until yesterday...I was going to show you an in progress progression, and managed to remember to photograph the first step, but I guess I got so excited about the painting going so well, that I forgot to take any more pictures!

Anyways, we saw a Hula show last week, where they do a lot of traditional Polynesian dances. I managed to take quite a few good shots for reference. This girl was dressed in a Tahitian costume, which was very unique. I loved how her dark hair contrasted with the light background, and the strong light on her face made for a dramatic portrait. I tried to work loose and keep it fresh...I'm pretty happy with it.

The photograph of the painting is a bit contrasty, but it's pretty faithful to the colors.

Thanks for stopping by!

Haiku View...Maui

Marissa's View 

Here's another Maui sketch...this time from Up-Country, in Haiku. Unfortunately the photo doesn't do the sketch justice. The left side is all washed out.I don't have a scanner here, so I have to try to photograph it...yuk! Anyways, it'll do.  

I love it so much up in Haiku. It's the country, what I'm used to. Away from the tourists and the crowds and the traffic. It's just so relaxing. We had a nice visit with our friend's Marisa and Chip yesterday and as we sat on the deck, Bill played guitar, and I chatted and sketched the view. I was taken by the atmospheric sense of distance, and that's what first inspired me to sketch this scene...the light is great up there! I loved the hill, and how the graceful tree shape echoed it...and I just love those crooked fenceposts. It was a bonus that as I was finishing up, some cows and a horse wandered through the scene!

Moleskine in Paradise, Part 1

Moley in Paradise

Here it is! Proof! That I've been doing something other than lying on the beach all day. I'm lying on the beach AND drawing.

There's also a painting in the works, but it's not quite ready to show to you yet.

My daughter and I found these very interesting pods about a week and a half ago. They're round, and split, with a spirally looking thing in the center and they smell delicious. They're brown and hard, and very intriguing. So ever since then, I've been trying to hunt down what they are, and yesterday, I figured it out!

I was having a lovely Thai Iced Coffee at my favorite Wailuku Coffee shop, on my odd day "sans ma famille", and a delicious fragrance was wafting through the shop. I noticed the flowers on the tables looked a lot like the ones that grew on the trees that dropped the pods, and discovered that they're called a "Tahitian Gardenia" or "Tiare Flower". I like the second name best, because it sounds kind of like my name:) So I proceeded to sketch the flower, and finish my moley spread. I think it would look better with color, but I don't have anything to color it with yet...

Sorry for the Long Absence

"Charlie" a commission for a great friend

8" x 10" oil on canvas panel

I know I haven't posted in awhile, and perhaps I should change the title, as has been suggested, but I do really hope to be back to "Almost Daily" soon.  Life has been busy...I've been creating...a lot! Just trying to find my direction, which has changed since I started this blog. So thanks for your patience!