The Trials of Painting Outdoors
Leave behind the comfort of your home art space—whether kitchen table, corner desk, or complete studio— and you’ll soon find an immediacy and sense of discovery that come from working directly from nature. Granted, you’ll be trading comfortable seating, fixed light, and a full suite of art supplies for less certain conditions. But you’ll be able to observe details, see colors, and experience your subjects firsthand in ways that will make your artwork more vibrant and alive. At least, that’s the ideal. This week, however, painting outdoors brought significant trials: bright sun… Read More
Wishful Thinking, March
I could have titled this post: Ready for Color, or Envious of Those Experiencing the Desert Wildflower Bloom, or simply Tired of Brown. Rather than painting what’s outside this week, I decided to create my own poppy field. This piece is bigger and bolder than I typically paint. I’m still not sure what I think of it, but it has been nice to experiment with some brighter colors and assuage my wishful thinking. Tips and Techniques– I created this piece using negative painting techniques, starting with a wet-in-wet wash of QoR Nickel… Read More
The world along the roadside
Were it not for relentless deer flies and record-breaking heat, it might not have taken me four days to complete this page. But it is hard to sketch on the roadside under such circumstances, no matter how determined, and so, one flower at a time, the page grew. Still, sometimes it’s good not to rush a painting. It lets things evolve; insights emerge. What started as a simple painting of flowers grew into a recognition of how much of the world is at our very doorstep. I am reminded of one of… Read More
High Chroma
I am frequently a painter of subtlety: of small things that might be overlooked, of browns and blues and layers of green. Not today. Drawn in by the vivid, bold color of these poppies at the Berkshire Botanical Garden, I pulled out a whole new palette from a set of six high chroma colors from QoR to paint them. I have never used any of these colors before and it felt a little like driving a car for the first time– a little nerve wracking and reckless, but also liberating and fun…. Read More
Among Dogwoods
Standing among sunlit dogwood blossoms is a treat: white petals bright against a backdrop of dappled greens, blue sky, and bird song. The moment would be perfect but for the gnats that bite the back of my neck while sketching. They force me to draw fast and loose and then retreat to the house. Still, when I look at this painting months or years from now, it will not be the insects I remember, but the long-awaited spring day and the blank sheet of paper bright with promise. Among Dogwoods, 5×7″, watercolor… Read More
Lilacs
Isn’t it nice to think that Don Wentworth’s poem may be true? Today, just letting it be the wildflower picks you Have a great weekend.
Paint Box Colors
Ranunculus blooms in a riot of paint box reds and pinks. Brightening the countertop, they are perfect for April, when the Northeast is slowly greening, but I am impatient for more. Tips and Techniques: Here’s a look at my basic kit: 2 Micron archival pens, black, 02 and 005 3 Escota Versatil travel watercolor brushes, sizes 2, 6, 12 2 Staedtler Mars Lumograph pencils, F and 2B pencil sharpener Watercolors (Winsor Newton and Daniel Smith) in an altered Schmincke tin: cobalt blue, phthalo blue, ultramarine blue, indanthrone blue, phthalo green*, sap green,… Read More
Astonished
It was like a crime scene: the beauty lay on the floor, mangled and broken; a mess of soil and tangle of roots lay about her. Alas, it was the amaryllis’s own radiance that did her in. Her blossoms grown so heavy atop the three-foot stalk that she tumbled off the table to the floor just two days after opening. Stricken in her prime— and while having her portrait painted!— I salvaged what I could, dissected one flower for study, and finished these pages. I have spent the last month astonished by… Read More
Almost June
Spring has gotten away from me! I’ve missed painting apple blossoms, lilacs, dogwoods, bluebells, daffodils, violets, tulips…the list goes on and on. So today, I’m happy for quince.
Jean Mackay
The Nature Explorer’s Sketchbook
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Drawn In 