Plein air at LIAFA

I've begun taking classes at a local Art Academy, The Long Island Academy of Fine Art.

www.liafa.com

It's keeping me very busy, and I haven't had time to post what I've been doing. Tuesday is "plein air". We paint at Indian Island, a local campground/beach area. Above is a WIP, with the set-up. We block in the basic values, then begin putting in color. I've begun adding sky color to this. I'll post the completed painting soon.

St John Morning 2

Well, I tried this one again. It's on Art Spectrum, which I found out doesn't seem to grip the soft Senneliers as well. That was frustrating! So, I ended up using harder sticks over soft, which is supposed to be a no no. I tried to show some of the rooftops from the photo and a little backlight from the sunrise.
I'm trying to restrain myself from blending.

A little tweak

I notice that this really lost some of it's depth in posting, also probably a camera problem. The actual painting has much more contrast in value. I played around with a digital fix to get the contrast to show truer;

St John mornings

This is a quick sketch that I did today. It's 9 X 12, on Canson paper. I ordered this medium that I had never heard of, until recently. It's from Russia and it's called Yarka Sauce (pronounced "saw-oose"), and I wanted to try it out. It's sort of a pastel, but you can blend it with water and brush it on, or use it as a pastel(which is what I did). Well, I started with the sauce, but switched to soft pastels.
We spent our vacation in the US Virgin Islands last March, on St John. It was wonderful and it all seems like a dream to me now. This was the view from our terrace early every morning before the sun got strong enough to burn off the dramatic clouds. My camera is acting up and the painting is not so blurry in real life.
I'm reserving judgement on "the sauce"!

Some of my older work

These are some of my older paintings. I was quite into watercolors for a while, then shifted to acrylics, before I settled into my addiction to pastels. There isn't much to post, I have a bad habit of giving things away before I've taken a good photo of them.


This is a pastel of Dam Pond, Orient, NY. It's a very popular site for photographers and artists alike. However, this is a view not often presented. The most familiar site of Dam Pond is from the Main Rd, of a little boat that is always there. This view is from the back side of the pond, from the Long Island Sound side. the reference photo was from my husband's friend, Mark Long.

DAM POND

This is one of my first pastels. It's a night scene of the Orient Point Lighthouse (affectionately known in these parts as "The Coffee Pot"). The bright spot in the middle, although it looks as if it could be the moon, is actually the flash, unfortunately.

COFFEE POT

A favorite place for my husband and me is Islamorada, in the Florida Keys. This is Tarpon Cottage, a friend's place that we often stay in. My one and only acrylic that I was happy with!

TARPON COTTAGE

My other favorite place on earth! Montauk. This is the Montauk Point Lighthouse, reference photo taken from the south side. It's watercolor, monochromatic, all "indigo"

MONTAUK BLUES

Another very early watercolor. Reference photo was taken on my back deck, after a heavy rain. I really wanted to do raindrops!

MORNING GLORY

Grady

This is an older work, completed over a year ago. Grady belongs to my son and his girlfriend. She was diagnosed with canine lymphoma last year and given 4-6 weeks to live, had she not had treatment. She completed 16 weeks of chemo shortly before Christmas and is now in remission and doing well. Yay!

My first post!

My first pastel portrait.


AMY