Noticing #6

noticing:

• the way ferocious rain and fierce wind are having their way with Deer Isle

• the way Meadow Cove cottage hugs us with cozy protection 

• the way Stu Kestenbaum knocked our socks off reading his poetry at the Opera House last night

• the way I fought with myself as I painted today

• the way Peter Beerits engages with found materials to make sculpture and malarkey at Nervous Nellie's Jams and Jellies 

in progress

detail

Casual Elegant

On Monhegan, my dad and I made our own breakfasts, snacks, and lunches and ate them at our apartment at Tribler Cottage, but for dinner we walked the lane to the dining room at the Island Inn. In short order we learned how to snag the reservation that would give us the best chance at a window table overlooking the inn porch, the harbor, and Monhegan's little offshoot, Manana Island.

Dinner was an exquisite experience of 'casual elegant' each evening—with guests just a tiny bit dressed up, dark green bottles of artisan balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil perched on each table, an exhibit of Joan Harlow's oil paintings gracing the walls, windows open to the refreshment of sea breezes, and edible flowers bedecking each entrée.

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A few edible flowers jumped ship to one of my watercolors.

The Air Smelled of Honeysuckle and Hay
7x9"; watercolor, ink, and water-soluble crayon on canvas paper
abstract floral
2018

Like Skipping

Painting this piece gave me the same feeling as skipping did when I was a child—the joy of being in motion, light of heart, agile, and playful.

I put down watercolor. Let it dry. Scribbled with an acrylic paint pen. Let it dry. Scribbled with ink. Let it dry. Created light and shadow with Neocolor crayons. Added dots with my white paint marker. All with no more thought than skipping down a sidewalk on a summer morning.

Patchy with Grey-Green Lichen
4x5"; watercolor, paint pen, ink, and water-soluble crayon on canvas paper
abstract
2018

Watering and Currying

Slowed down to a four-beat walking gait and headed back to the stable for water and grooming.

Great ride.

The First Time This Happened, I Was Twenty-Eight Years Old
12x12"; acrylic, latex, India ink, and water-based and oil pastels on canvas
abstract
2018

Apps

I never know if or when an app will come into play with any given painting.

By app I mean application of something I practiced in a class lesson, or learned in a book, or noticed in someone else's art.

Today I 'downloaded' all sorts of 'apps' and pressed them into service:

• the contrast app
• the variety app
• the complementary colors app
• the transparency/opacity app
• the lines app
• the veiling app
• the neutrals app
• the negative space app, and
• the sunny, blue-skied, late summer day app.

Before, during, after:

from this 8x10" start,



to this 4x5" quadrant,



to this coverup,



to a completed painting.

Those Hours Spent in the Resplendent Light of the Outer Orchard
4x5"; acrylic, ink, pencil, and soluble pastels on paper,
mounted on manila stock
abstract
2017
sold

Small Wonders of the World

Such heart-lifting gifts in closing doors/painting negative space and opening windows/discovering surprises.

I am filled with the joy of the small wonders of the world that popped out of painting this piece.

The Fullness and Variety of All That Had Come Before
4x5"; acrylic, ink, pencil, and soluble pastels on paper,
mounted on manila stock
abstract
2017

Guess What!

I like to paint.

And so I do.

I started today's piece at home earlier this month, took it to camp and played with it there, finished it back at home today on this exquisite late summer afternoon.

A Drink of Water from a Clear Spring
4x5"; acrylic, ink, pencil, and soluble pastels on paper,
mounted on manila stock
abstract
2017
[gift]