A couple of my paintings from last semester.....I love teaching painting!

It was a fun semester of working with the painters! I did this study as a demo and between office hours.

My friend Dale brought me this little dead bird...perfect for a couple of demos!

Onward Ho!

Watermelon break!  Windzy loves watermelon.

getting there....detail

One of the cool aspects of this painting is that when viewed inside with window light...as the light changes on the painting it looks like it changes within the painting!

More to do but I am getting there!

Continuing!

As I painted I realized what I was in for...60x40" of amazing detail...and shifting light.

Many days I went running up and down with this big painting...but Pat helped me out a lot too!

Pats legs charging up the hill!

Wool blanket from my friend!

It got quite chilly and I wore my wool scarf...a humming bird very persistently "attacked" me! Exciting but a bit scary....tenacious little guy. Also I thought how my clothes matched the landscape palette on this particular chilly day!

I realized I looked a bit like the "wood gatherer" from Le Pages painting...!

Slogging on !  

Mocassin flower

You can see the flower just off the right top edge of my panel.

Earlier this summer I had the pleasure of painting this Mocassin flower.  It inspired my larger painting.

It's a big one!

Starting a large ground landscape...my point of view shifts as I sit and stand.  

I am noticing the season, along with the light, changing before my eyes.  One of the ferns began to yellow as a sat and painted.   This kind of painting blows my mind...I get so cranked up but have to sit and slowly get to know each part as it relates to the whole.   I am noticing things like the structural pattern of how the pine needles fall and cluster on the grassy hill!  

I want the scale to be life size at the bottom ...I chose this site in part because two rare moccasin flowers are growing here along with white birch and white pine...thinking a bit about LePage's Wood Gatherer...the view up the hill and a bit about Shishkin....but mostly I am just trying to get my head around what I am seeing and how to see the whole thing and all the remarkable parts! I hope I can do it!  I will keep you posted.

Cool Plants!

 Windzy is a great companion!  I am trying to decide if I want to go after a bigger ground painting or if sitting on a low stump for the next week or more is a bit crazy...not to mention...all that astounding detail and changing light.  I am really interested in capturing the qualities of each plant as they relate to the community around them.... hmmm a few more days on the stump to finish this one!

Portrait study

I had a wonderful experience painting at the Grand Central Atelier!

Here is one of several portraits. 

After this I just put in some of the final details.

Maybe I will post the final painting and some of the others soon.