Fall

Pumpkin coffee, bright leaves, cool weather-- all dreams in Texas. So here is my tribute to autumn further north. 

When I fact, this is what's happening in my neighborhood:

New projects

Several of my friends have birthdays, so I am cranking up the paint projects. 

Still obsessed with old doors, i'm learning about shadows and rocks and when to quit. 

I got a new paint table. It's actually a drafting table from World Market. 

It's supposed to be used tilted, but I use it more often as shown above. 

It's a handsome piece of woodwork. So naturally, I've covered it with a cheap plastic tablecloth so as not to get it all nasty with acrylics. 

This is an unusually large picture of blackberries. No one likes it but me. I adore it. Maybe it reminds me of blackberry pie? Yes, Mom's blackberry pie.  We used to go in the woods with our boots on and longsleeved shirts, buckets belted around our waists.  You could pick buckets and buckets of berries at the right time of year. 

This is a painting of an old grist mill. It reminds me of the ruins of an old powder mill that used to be behind our house in New Florence, Pennsylvania. 

Our house was up Furnace Lane road, several miles out of town.  We had 50 acres in the middle of State Gamelands.  If you hiked to our upper field, then took off through the woods, you'd come to huge rocks, a briskly flowing stream that was almost a little river, and the ruins of an old powder mill. Some old-timer told us when we moved there in 1972 that it had been a place where gunpowder was manufactured during the Civil or Revolutionary War. There were big rocks that formed a sheltered area, which, it was rumored, had been inhabited by Indians years and years ago.  

Any way, this mill reminds me of that area.  A little nostalgia with fall colors. 

Reworking the Sky

I want to capture the sky.  The blues and grays of an impending storm, the perfect indigo of a still autumn day, the azure of a tropical paradise. Skies are variable and tricky. 

My earlier paintings suffered from my lack of knowledge of the behavior of paint on canvas.

Here, I have a nice sketch of a lighthouse. I used my small brushes almost dry, more like a pencil sketch than a painting.  This summer,  I've been working on architectural details, and making some progress.  However, I've also learned a great deal about skies.  For a clean, believable sky, you need water and globs of white paint with a few shades of blue. Most importantly, you need a smooth, wide brush. 

Take those globs of paint and the brush and freely stroke and blend.  Fear not. Jennifer says that the top corner should be a deeper blue to lend credibility, while the ocean horizon is almost always lighter and more grayish than the foreground or the high background. 

I've made some bursts of paint where the waves are crashing against the lighthouse. 

And there is my new backdrop for the lighthouse in the storm.  It's no big deal to redo the lighthouse.  This time, I'll have a better sense of proportion and perspective.  This is a battered, bumpy canvas, one I've chosen as a learning canvas.

Just like one must kiss several toads to find a prince, I apparently have to mess up a lot of canvas to learn the sky.  The whole process makes me philosphical. 

Jennifer says

Jennifer noticed that I was painting two and sometimes three canvases at once. 

"Why are you doing that? Are you trying not to wast paint? 

That was truly part of it.  When I worked on several paintings at a time and I had gotten just the perfect shade of sky blue, or if I found a new way to accomplish shading, I transferred my new skill to the second landscape.  

"Another way you can save paint is to use a palette with a lid," she said. She explained how she took a tupperware or lidded container, put a sponge in it, and kept acrylic paints wet for days at a time. 

She's right!  I had a pie plate with a plastic lid. I put acrylics in it, went away for 9 days.  When I returned, the paint was still liquid!  This will save me so very much paint. 

Like toothpaste, once acrylics are squeezed from the tube, there is no putting it back. 

Tropical inspiration

Plein aire painting is new to Valarene and me, but not to Jennifer.  There is something magical about painting from a 3-D view right in front of you, not a flat painting.  "Don't worry so much about making straight lines.  Crooked lines drawn free-form are so much more interesting," she advised.  

Overlooking the sea, light, shadow, sparkle on water invite one to capture on canvas. 

If only we could incorporate the bird calls and wave splashes! 

Summer Doors

I'm reworking some old paintings and trying others with architectural details.

Here's a close-up of the grillwork on the door. 

I added in the light gray tree branches.  Hmmm, I think the flowers need to pop more.  It's funny how photographing a work shows all the little issues more clearly. 

I 

I can see that this door is a little crooked. I'm pleased with the the bicycle and the overall feel. The play of light on brick turned out well. Shadows baffle me sometimes!  

This one was really easy and fun as the perspective is straight-on. 

A Teacher in Summer

We've been out of school for a week, and I'm just now finding my balance. It might surprise people to know how long it takes. It's like recovery after a long illness.  I begin remembering who I am when I am not immersed in students, grades, state testing, and mountains of paperwork.  Even in summer, I am hard put not to think of every experience, "My students would love to see this!" I am remembering that I am a wife, mother, grandma; a painter, a cook, a (pretend) lady of leisure.  I don't have to rise at dawn's early light (but I do.)  I don't have to set the coffeepot and lay out clothing in order to dress in the dark and leave the house by 6 AM--but I still maintain all except leaving the house.  

I believe that if we all take time to breathe, to talk, think, relate, and yes, to paint, we will go back to work as more decent human beings.  And those frantic prayers on the way down the freeway?  Especially the ones for safety and well-being of my students?  Let's deepen and expand those prayers.  Let's take time to listen to God's answer.