Garrett County Scenes

I am working on a series of small (8 x 10 matted and framed) paintings of Garrett County.     I have painted most of the scenes in the past but in different sizes, palatte, etc.  I am hoping to end up with 12-16 of these little guys.
So what is more "Garrett County " than the Casselman Bridge?

Art Time

It has been nice to be able to have art time.   There are times in the year that is  hard to cut out long periods of time to go to the studio and do art.   This time or year it is easier to get studio time.    I am still working on morning glories, which is a rather "tight" piece.    It is fun to put pigment into the water and let it happen.   Here is a recent piece.

New Barn

One day I was in the studio gazing about the chaos when I noticed an old watercolor sketch from a class I took from Fred Graff.   It is a monocromatic piece demonstrating light on buildings.   I sketched it on watercolor paper and used primary colors. 

Home Again

In the spirit of survival, Alan and I took our annual trip to a "beach".   We spent ten days on the islands of Turks and Caicos.  Each day began with the staking out of our place on the beach, followed by  playing in the water, reading stupid books (nothing meaningful), eating, visiting with friends and then eating(again).    It was a fabulous escape and now we are back to resume our lives.

Staking a claim on the beach

Morning Glories

I have been doing  watercolor sketches of morning glories.   I play around with design and color.   My plan had been  that the blossums would be blue but  when I did them in purple I changed my mind.    I think this is going to be a purple morning glory painting.    Kinda fun painting purple morning glories while the snow is coming down.  Maybe I should do a couple more sketches, changing the colors.    We'll see. . .  .

This one was still damp when I photographed it. .. .  you can see the wetness.

Preparation

When I am getting ready to paint a "new" subject,  part of the fun is the preparation.   I  go on line and look at photos of the subject.    If I have photos (which I usually do) I look at them and then I start to draw.
I make several drawings of the subject matter and do some watercolor sketches.  Eventually I put the drawing on the paper and get ready to paint.
Several years ago I did a painting of morning glories.    I like it so much it hangs in our house.   It is the only morning glory painting I have done.   Last week I had the sudden desire to paint a vertical (30x10) floral painting.   I did several of these a few years ago.   Four or five of the verical florals hang in Garrett Memorial hospital (2 of them on the 3rd floor across from the elevator.)  I am getting ready to paint a vertical painting of morning glories.    These are 2 of the sketches I have done in preparation.

Hopefully I will have a painting to put on the blog.

New Gallery Hanging

The Gallery Committee re hung the Gallery at the Garrett County Arts Council on Monday.   It is always a very intimitating process.   We walk into the Gallery to see all the walls empty and 50 + painting on the floor leaning against the walls.    I usually come in early and sort out the work according to medium and color.   The committee arrives and we start to hang.   An hour and a half later all the art work is up and it looks wonderful.   This time the "hangers" were Louise Lawrence, Debra McCombs and Madalyn Hoffeditz.   It most rewarding to work with these women.   This is the fun part of the Garrett County Arts Council for me.
These are the 2 pieces I put in the Gallery this time.

In Garrett County the robins return and then we have another snowfall.   The locals call it "the robin snow".

Last spring I watched the poor things scrape the earth to find food and couldn't resist doing a "Robin Snow" painting.

                                                  

Last winter I was in St Thomas, USVI doing a drawing of this scene when someone pointed out the house next to these had been owned by Pissaro.   I came home and did this collage calling it

 "Pissaro's Neighbors".