I've Moved My Blog

Hey All -

I've moved my blog to my FASO Blog site. It gives me less grief and much better connections with other wonderful artist people.

So sorry for the inconvenience here - should be an easy switch over though with the attached links. Please come see us / join us on FASO. Fine Art Studios Online - it's a really wonderful, professional, easy to use web site service for artists. Can't say enough good things about them -

Thanks so much -
Joanne : 0 )

Unfinished...

This plein air sketch was painted from Juniper Island in Lake George, NY looking up at a portion of Roger's Rock. It's unfinished.... I got about an hour into it and was invaded by a family of kayakers! Now - usually people are super polite and I have just wonderful experiences chatting etc..., but they didn't address me at all and the children were going to knock right into my easel..... very weird. So for the sake of my easel's safety I packed it in - I was pretty disappointed - but oh well - that's the way it goes sometimes.

I did take a photo and may try to finish from that but then it won't be plein air any more and I pretty much detest working from pics..... Will see..... It was such a great spot too - the waves were washing over my feet as I was painting : 0 )

Thoughts and Sketches

I've been spending a great deal of time lately writing - doing what we artists are supposed to do, create an "artist's statement". Phew.... man.... torture, but definitely a productive exercise. I've written pages to eek out a couple of paragraphs and am going to post stuff that just won't fit in my statement here on my blog because I do think I figured out some interesting stuff.

The above sketch was done plein air on what we call Ant Island on Stewart's Pond, NY. I did start a painting, but the ants were chewing on my feet so badly that I had to give it up. Very disappointing - live and learn ......

FAA Tony Merit Award...

A true testament to the marketing guru that I'm Not!!! I was awarded this little gem over a month ago and it didn't occur to me to post it until today.... ugh.... Anyway - the incredibly talented Tate Hamilton passed it to me and I've passed it on to Ken Powers - also amazingly talented - who has made terrific strides in his watercolors over the last six months or so....

Thank you Tate and congratulations Ken!!!

Gage Hill Farm

This little oil is 6.5 x 8 inches. I painted it one steamy evening last week. I worked for two hours and it literally felt like about 15 minutes. Home sweet home! The window next to the trunk of the maple on the ground floor is my studio window... : 0 )

Edit: I scanned this painting once it was dry and was able to get much more accurate color and values - seen above. It's funny - depending on the image, sometimes my camera sees the color much more accurately and sometimes my scanner does - occasionally both bomb out, but happily that's not too often.

Juniper in Sun, Roger's Rock, New York

This 4 x 6 oil on linen was painted on Juniper Island in front of Roger's Rock on Lake George, New York. I'm kind of fond of it - somewhat abstract - it is more about the experience of being there for me, in the sun in the evening, than a description of a tree. A step forward for me in plein air painting I think - albeit a small one -

New Blog Discovery

No pic today - I have quite a few new paintings and plein air sketches to post but have been too busy to photograph them - crazy.........

But did want to take a minute to mention Stapleton Kearn's blog - it's just wonderful... I'm really enjoying going back and reading everything from the beginning in 2007. They're terrifically well written, sooooo funny in places, informative etc.... He brings real "quality in art" into this dumbed down, anything-goes, cheap-thrills, instant-gratification era that we're slogging through -

More Plein Air

I painted this a couple of weekends ago but have been too busy with the scenic stuff to post it. It's oil on linen on panel, 8 x 10 inches. It was brutally hot - again - can see why people get those enormous umbrellas!!! And - again - the upside was jumping in the water to cool off.

I'm feeling better in general about painting in plein air - there are things that I like about this and things that I don't - it's too busy I think, but I'm getting better at seeing patterns and sorting out the value shapes I think - from life. Will keep at it of course - hopefully will be able to get out again this weekend - two days off - yeehaa.....

Schroon Lake Haze

Been doing a Ton of scenic work lately so I haven't been in my studio much. I found time last weekend to do this little plein air oil, 6 x 8, up in Schroon Lake, NY. Insanely- I was painting in the full sun with a heat index of over 100 degrees. The total upside was jumping in the water every 15 minutes to cool off. Even with the water relief, I painted very quickly!

A Saratoga Spring

There was a "paint out" in Saratoga Springs last weekend. I found out about it a day too late to officially sign up, but went and met up with a good painter friend and had a great day anyway...
It was pouring rain most of the day, so I set up under one of the portico roofs over a sulpher spring in Congress Park to paint - it was a little chilly, but sooooo incredibly peaceful painting to the sound of the rain...
Then in out of the rain for a Fantastic dinner in the Parting Glass...!

Austin's Pick

It's been rainy and cold this past week and the scenic scene has been really busy, so I've been back in my studio working on still life paintings, color studies etc. My son Austin has been wanting to try yellow peppers for some time. Not a problem, they're wonderful veggies, but Mommy had to paint it first : 0 )

Sweltering & Hazy

I did this little oil plein air sketch last week with a palette knife. The landscape is a view from our front yard. It was, as the title suggests, incredibly hot and humid and there was a lot of smoke in the air too from a fire in Canada - so between the three, heat, humidity, and smoke, it was amazingly hazy. I Love the heat - thought it was just beautiful! Certainly could have lived without the smoke though.

I was standing in the sun - less buggy that way and had my "sun visor" on my Bitterroot easel - so very useful. Different painting on the easel than the one above, but you get the idea -

Boy - this is a bit of a pain in the patootie to get things to publish in the order I want them in the post - oh well....

"Old Dogs"

Oil plein air sketch of a couple of our old outboard motors - Johnson, 25 horse in the foreground.

Windy Day

After a really frustrating day with the wind and accidentally dumping my brush cleaning fluid - orange oil - into my paint bag - the whole container full - I made this little oil sketch. I did it with a palette knife - as I had no brush cleaner left - 3.5 x 5 inches.

Buck Mountain, Lake George, NY

I painted this little 8 x 10 inch oil yesterday from one of the islands in Lake George. The mountain to the right is Buck Mountain which I've climbed with my family many times. I only had little more than half an hour before I lost the light, so it was pretty quick, but I still like it.

I did this in my studio last week during a very windy stormy dark day - such a contrast to all this bright cheeriness! The red of the mug leans to the blue and the red of the tomato leans to the orange - this did not reproduce - they look so similar here. I've ordered some larger panels - I soooooo need to paint bigger!!! This was fun, but I felt quite claustrophobic doing it so small -

Fourteenth "Cup 'O' Jo" : 0 )

My fourteenth cup here - though it's actually been more than that, not all are fit for public consumption.... Lesson learned here - at least one of them - don't set your coffee cup on your palette unless you're finished with the painting you're working on - I was stuck till I finished my coffee cup painting - though it didin't take too long.

Thirty Minute Pose

I had a half hour left after I finished the reclining pose from my last post and didn't want to waste the time, so I did this little 6 x 6 inch sketch -

Sketch and a Night in Boston -

I was called suddenly away to see LA GRANDE-DUCHESSE DE GÉROLSTEIN in Boston at the Cutler Majestic Theater, Emerson College. I painted part of the set for the production and it was such a thrill to be able to see it in person. It was absolutely fantastic! The music, orchestra, voices - all superb - and so incredibly funny!!! A great night out!

I had breakfast in Quincy market the next morning - gorgeous day! A bit of sight seeing and then back to Home-Sweet-Home!

The sketch above is from last Mon night. I used the ground that I'd wiped twice a few Wednesdays before. I put some English red down and a few other colors and then - really it seems to me that I'm carving/drawing. Pushing, pulling, looking for darks, lights, edges and where edges disappear. I carve a lot before beginning to apply flesh tones - fun and good practice!

Baby Bellas

I've been very inspired by some of the super nutritious foods we've been eating lately -

Thirteenth Cup 'O' Jo

I'm trying a new template and a new order of adding things to eliminate the blue text and lines - so far so good.....

This is cup 13 - obviously - - - My coffee cup was snuggling up to my Boston pencil sharpener. I've been drinking more herbal tea lately too - Love Lemon Zinger, so I'll be painting cups 'o' tea too ; 0 )

Cup 12 Makes a Dozen

Man - this is really frustrating me! If anyone knows how to change this Please! let me know... I've been surfing around here clicking away, trying to get this underlining off... Ugh...

Anyway - my little red cup finally makes its debut - I made the mistake of using a red that I didn't care for - a small tube of geranium lake that I thought I'd put to some use and use up - I didn't like it for a reason! Live and learn - again....

Sometimes I have a yen to drink my coffee black with just some stevia in it -

Cup 11 and Ruminations

Firstly - I apologize for the underlining if you're seeing it on your monitor - it wants to type the whole thing as a link - probably because I put the link in the post first - the text was blue too, but I was able to fix that. Will do things in a different order next time -

Cup Number 11 - one of my more favorite ones...

Was doing some thinking again last night and a bit of writing which I'll convey:

In painting, what am I passionate about?? - Light, the color - simultaneously as they can only be seen - thirdly the objects themselves. The objects are only supports - chairs to drape the light, color, drawing and design on....

How do I paint color?

The exception - PEOPLE - every face different, perfect, beautiful beyond words.....

Skin Tones

I've been working from the model a lot recently. We have a couple of great places to go near here - great professional models, wonderful spaces to work and other terrific artists to be inspired by.

I'm pretty rusty here and was very unhappy with my skin tone palette, so I did a bit of R&D for myself and some of my results are above.

I'm not going to write a great deal here - please contact me for questions or discussions - I welcome it! However, I'll say that the Old Holland Cadmium reds were hands down the most satisfactory for me in color and paint handling. The Winsor & Newton Cadmium Red was muddy by comparison - and I can always mix mud.... The Winosr & Newton Burnt Sienna and Tera Rosa were fantastic though. Winsor Red wasn't too bad, but I still much prefer the Old Holland Cadmiums - Red Lt, and Scarlet! The worst was Holbein's Tera Rosa - muddy and bluish.

Cup 'O' Jo number 10

Last night's open model drawing session was just abysmal. It was a wipe - Twice! That's fine though - I prefer to think that no experience is wasted.

So - here's coffee number 10. I decided it might be more interesting to see where my cups live, their surroundings - so there'll be more of where I am in future Cups 'O' Jo.... This particular one is currently on display and for sale at Art on the Avenue, Macon, Georgia!

Monday Night's Sketch

This is my sketch from Monday night, Saratoga Sketch Club...

Teal Still Life

I finished this painting this morning. The picture of it is a bit contrasty - will try to scan it and see if that comes out better, once it's dry -

Open Model Sketch

Wednesday night's model in the Troy Shirt Factory Bldg here in Glens Falls. A great, bright space, terrific model - really wonderful, met some other great artists and reacquainted myself with a few. I'm really enjoying using this extra time off to further my people painting skills. Back to my easel and still life here ---

Number 9 Cup 'O' Coffee

Cup No. 9 Ladies and Gents.... After one busy day of scenic work yesterday, I'm back in my studio - Yes! - Sanctuary - for more of what I love best.

Complimentary Snack

The orange was absolutely delicious!!! If you were ever put on the spot to come up with something that rhymes with orange - here you go.... "Four engineers in orange braziers" Not original, but as close as I've heard anything... : 0 )

The color in the orange is off - it's too dark and too orange - in the painting it's yellow-er.