"Fall Hydrangeas"
11" x 14"
Watercolor
11" x 14"
Watercolor
"Fall Bouquet"by Joan Kendall
Watercolor
Mentally crop the dark stripe on the left and straighten the top image. Make the background white on the lower image. I am working with limited function on a netbook while traveling.
Gage, current family owner of "the barn" had kindly consented to our renting the cottage in Rockport, MA. We arrived to find lovely bouquets of fall blooming Hydrangeas placed about the cottage on both floors. Gage is a landscape architect. Our second night saw wild rainstorms that lingered in the morning and left us with a damp, overcast day, so we lit a fire and hunkered down for some indoor painting. The blue/green/purple flowers in an old metal pitcher made for a serene still life in the glow of a wall lamp. I invented the wall hanging to complete the design, and it is straight in the painting.
My artist friend, Joan, from Connecticut started as a watercolorist and we met on a workshop in Maine about 8 years ago. Shortly after, she turned to oil painting and does some really lovely work. The two mediums make it a challenge for us to find a formal workshop to attend together, so we often just get together and paint. In addition to a travel palette and gear, I brought along my tiny Koi pan paint set with brush pen that holds water in the handle. Joan did the second small painting of another small bouquet, which she left as a thank you for the cottage owner. She loved the brush pen and was pleased with her results. Because oils are more difficult to haul around for plein air, she took the tiny Koi set when we walked to the rocky point high above the harbor to paint. That's when Joan surprised me with her watercolor of me capturing the harbor on paper, shown in an earlier post. Joan's oil painting experience has made her a less timid watercolorist. She plans to buy a Koi set, too, for those travel moments best served by the medium.
Later after Joan left for the cottage and I continued to paint, a tourist asked permission to take my photo (I thanked him for his politeness and told him he could) -- the artist captured by other artists.
4 comments:
I will return to this post after, but I see the hydrangeas, and I posted one on my blog a few days ago, they are most difficult to paint, and I found that loose and lots of water and just suggestions of blossoms was what worked for me... I'll be BaaaaaacK !
I like the back-lighting on your hydrangea painting. Makes it very interesting! You were very gracious to the man who asked to take your picture. I once witnessed a rude artist chew-out a man who wanted to take her picture while she was working. It was disappointing and alarming to me because I wouldn't want people to think that all artists are that way. However, you're such a lovely person that you, along, could make up for all the rude ones!
Hi Mary, Fun composition. I just noticed the lamp shade is nearly the same shape as the flower container, only upside down. Nice repetition. And, I like the similarity of the background spirals to the shapes of the hydrangeas. Lovely color transitions. It's fun to see your friend's painting too! What a wonderful trip you're having!
Friends, flying home from Burlington, VT today and will write more when I have a decent keyboard.
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