From a photo of a nearby creek in a local park. Not a great watercolor but perhaps a bit more solid than the ones I have done earlier this week. The fact is, once you don’t make painting a daily practice and let it slide by, you really need to get warmed up to do it yet again! I’ve been far too busy with other things, and it shows . . .
Rockport, Massachusetts, and Cape Ann, has been a destination for artists and tourists for many years, but it is also a place rich in history. Very picturesque, it is fun to comb through old and new photos to see what has changed – and in some places very little. This building – a fishing shack – is an iconic building which be seen in photos past and present. It sits on a rock jetty that has ladders running down its sides so boats can be accessed when the tide is in or out.
The drawing is not really well done here, but I worked my way through it despite my frustration. The left slanting roof is very different than the right side. The stony foundation upon which the shack sits, though, is actually as depicted – it slopes inward and so looks as if it bulges out at the water level. I expect this is the way it was constructed originally. I also had a problem with contrast – as always – and values. I think I will paint it again, this time gridding it out and doing a value study as the subject matter is really interesting to me.
I kinda like my seagulls!!
Fabriano 100% cotton 140# CP; 9×12.
I was playing around yesterday – rocks, water, reflections of rocks in water. Glazes and lines became trees on the rocks and then some. I was rather pleased with it since I wasn’t aiming for anything . . . .
It’s been raining buckets out here, and water is just sitting on top of the ground and slowly sinking in. We have a small lake in our back yard, and it weren’t for a pump, we would really be in trouble. California has seen record-breaking rain, rain, rain, snow, and more rain; now mudslides and other disasters are happening.
While this painting is not of my area – despite the palm tree – I thought it was representative of what we are seeing here. To the west of us is the Oxnard Plain, a major growing area in my county. It is very flat, and water run-off is diverted to culverts and ditches alongside the fields, but areas still stay soggy a bit.
I have also been really disgusted by my last few landscapes, so I decided to make myself do value studies prior to painting. When I do, results are always better, and I am happier. Below is the reference photo from Pixabay.
More gouache, which I really get a lot of satisfaction in using. Here in the west, there are dry bed creeks which fill with water when it rains, creating a potentially dangerous situation with flash floods and scary fast waters. This is a bit of a calmer situation, but with the monsoon season, the potential threat is there.
Gouache, 8×10.
Ink, Yarn & Beer 