CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

WHITE PINE MEMORIES, STUDY

This painting brought many memories flooding back.  As I have said before, I love trees, especially white pines.  They have the softest, longest needles of all the pines, and I love the smell of them.  I also love hearing the wind blow through them.

As a little girl, I recall playing in the stand of white pines that my father planted on a hillside to help with erosion control. It felt like my special place and I wonder after all these years if they are still standing. The inspiration for this painting is from a photo I took while hiking at High Banks metro park.  I had to kind of bushwhack to get close to these trees, but it was worth it.   I got this photo in the late afternoon while the sun was low and the highlights on the trees were so interesting I had to do this study.  I think it will be the start of a larger work.

ENJOY!!

UNEXPECTED BEAUTY

SPRING STREAM

I walk my dog Logan everyday, rain or shine.  He has come to expect it and after 13 years, I am not about to change his routine.  We both need it and it tends to clear my head and get me much needed fresh air and exercise.   One of our favorite parks has a stream that meanders through it and much of the summer it is so overgrown that you would barely know it is there.  But on this particular spring day,  it was beautiful and I snapped a photo of it thinking it might become a painting.

This painting was done on Arches oil paper and I must say that i am beginning to like it after much experimentation.  The first layer of paint literally soaks into the paper, so adding another layer on top can be done without too much waiting time.  I like the softness achieved by the paper and think that I will be doing more paintings on this surface.

ENJOY!!

WHITE HOUSE?

Amish Bakery Study

I have been studying with a great instructor who is helping me to loosen up my painting style and also paint quicker.  The last few classes I have taken have been difficult, trying to get something down on my canvas in the allotted class time and having it look like a finished piece. Alla Prima (Italian), or the first attempt, is what we have been striving for in these classes.

Here is my attempt (Alla Prima) at an Amish Bakery.  I took this photo reference a couple of years ago when painting at this spot with the plein air group I belong to. It was a white house with a bakery built on to the front.  While doing this study, I realized that the house, though seemingly white in the photo, was really not at all white, but bluish lavender.  The only spots of white were those where the sun just highlighted a few areas. The best memory I have of this spot is visiting the bakery just before we left and getting a sweet treat for the drive back home.

ENJOY!!