June Fog

oil on linen 8" x 16"

I have not posted since I left for Japan, and on my return, have been reveling in my photos and doing smaller studies.
Next year at the Providence Art Club I have a shared show, and have thought that I would use material from the trip for the show. Some of these studies have been exciting to me. But I am not sure what the best thing to do with them in the blog. So now I am looking at other blogs to see how they handle upcoming shows. Certainly I don't want to dispel any anticipation by publishing images prematurely. At the same time I have little enough painting time that it is a little hard to do both. Maybe, by writing, I will find a way out.
At any rate, all the fog has made me look more closely (there has been little else besides fog and rain) at the light and effects it creates. This is from a misty day at the beach, watching the white edge of surf, and the far rocks barely visible. I also liked the bright reflection of the sky in the wet sand at the edge of the waves.

11x14 Oil on linen panel

A winter beach and cliff walk at Beavertail Light, on the southern end of Jamestown, RI. The pattern of dark and light as the waves moved towards shore and the green/ orange range of colors caught me eye. Snow in the shadows reminds me that it is still winter. This was a studio painting. I tried to go out yesterday to paint, and it looks like spring, but is still cold enough to soak into my bones. Soon....

Progress of a painting

This was painted on Wednesday morning at my painting class from a photo I took at Beavertail Park in Jamestown on October 20th. We all painted and then the teacher had us comment on our own paintings. That was an interesting twist! I had to leave early so that I did not hear all of the critiques, but the ones I heard were pretty negative and process oriented. When it came to be my turn, in my head I tried to buck the trend, and had a difficult time. Overall, I was pretty pleased with the sense of light.

9" x 12" oil on panel

Tony did suggest that I look again at the light in the upper left corner, and I noticed that I wanted the light rocks to darken slightly as they moved back in space. Sometimes I will take a picture and try those kinds of things roughly to see what effect it might have. The manipulated photo below is the end result of some exploration tonight. After this, I will try making the changes that I did like in paint.

9" x 12" oil on panel, after Photoshop

Over time, I have gotten a little better about seeing what changes a painting might need. It used to take me months. One thing that I love during class is putting the paintings together at the end. I always see new things and a better overall idea of the painting when I look at it objectively (in a group, 12 feet away). It never fails.