Dolphin Cabina studio

This cabina at Tesoro Escondido in Bocas del Toro had a small table which was the right height to hold the clipboard w/canvas. An improvement over log-sitting. I think a dividend of painting while traveling is that you really burn in a memory of a place. At least I hope so. If not, I guess I'll just have to go back there.

Dolphin Cottage

Oil on Wallis Paper 6x9

I lost hold of my intention here. I meant to just do a thinned wash as an undercoat for pastel work upon my return to Vermont. Making choices and sticking with them all the way. Something else to work on.
Anyway I loved this location! This was the view from our cabina at Tesoro Escondido in Bocas del Toro. The waves were incredibly loud, a little disturbing in fact, but every day they lost a little height and frequency, to the surfer's chagrin.

Manzanillo, Costa Rica

Oil on Canvas 6X8 We were very lucky, as far as weather goes. It had rained for 2 weeks, ending the day we landed in San Jose. It took us two days to get here to Manzanillo. What beautiful beaches. The painting has a sand fly in the middle of a wave. They deserve their bad rep. Scroll down to see my beach studio. I spread a towel on a log and straddled it. When I felt the sun on my shoulder, it was time to pack up. But my left foot had already been lunch for the sand flies.

My tubing around the edges of the painting has a serious drawback. A frame won't quite cover it, so I had to go back in just now and paint the white spots (and while I was there I opened up some thalo blue). Back to the design board.

Art Material Solutions for Carry On Baggage

My parents passed two extremely wonderful traits on to me. "Make it work" and "Invent a solution". Sometimes I have more fun thinking about solutions than creating art. For example, when our small flight from Bocas was overweight I came up up with a whole protocol to prevent future overweight flights. Admittedly, no one wants to hear my brilliant ideas. But I have this blog, so if you've logged on, you are about to see my solution to "carry on traveling with art supplies." : )

After trying out the watercolor and pastel idea at home, and hearing that pastels don't like humidity, I scrapped those media.
I tried the acrylics again to see how I felt about them at this point. Scrapped that idea.
Couldn't take oils because of the medium and liquid restrictions. So I decided on my Holbein Duo Aqua oils and Winsor Newton Artisan w/m oils. To solve the drying time issue, I slit some plastic tubing and placed it on the edges of the 6X8 Raymar Art Panels. I was able to fit 6 of those into an old Omaha Steaks carton. I folded up one paper towel for each canvas and stashed those in between. I also included some sheets of Wallis Paper. My folding painting glasses fit in one corner and a kneaded eraser in the other. I did buy some short brushes for the occasion. I used a limited palette as paints had to fit into a quart size baggie along with sunscreen, shampoo, conditioner and body cream. I took white, black, raw umber, yellow light, deep yellow, scarlet, alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue, cerulean blue. Next time I would change that a little. I couldn't quite get the caribbean blue that I wanted. The best thing I found was the little Loew Cornell covered palette. My paints stayed wet for days and days. Of course, so did all my clothes and sneakers, so the climate helped in that regard. At the LoganTSA, they weren't sure about the paints at first, but the swab showed that they weren't explosive, and I was good to go. Tomorrow I'll start posting the results and photos of the little beach studio and the porch studio.

Thanks for stopping by.

traveling for art

I'm back in Vermont from our 3 weeks of travel. We began with a wonderful stint of taking care of our grandsons while their parents had a break. We love to make art together. I set up some clementines on the stainless steel range top but they preferred to find their own subjects. On the left is the seaglass collection above the kitchen sink. On the right a cantalope became a turtle. Magic marker on printer paper 8 1/2x11 : )

Rare sight

Oil on canvas 6x6 SOLD
I don't often see a hummingbird at rest, but I think the young ones tend to get tired. Maybe that's not true. Does anyone know? Anyway, I was happy to get this one sitting on the bamboo pole that later supported the sunflower. This is March. I live in VT. This is not en plein air. I took a photo. I'm still away for another week, but thank you to anyone leaving comments.

Lone Deer

Oil on canvas 6x8 SOLD
Another from imagination as I sit in the midst of winter. I could just look out the window, I guess, but I'm trying to loosen up the obsessiveness that accompanies my paintings from reality. This way has its pros and cons. As when I wonder what something would really look like if it existed.

My long lost twin?

Oil on canvas sheet 2 of 3
2005

I actually tried to post these last year but was completely frustrated by my inability to put up the whole triptych. These were inspired by the marshland on the northern coast of Massachusetts in combination with some freshwater marsh areas in Littleton, MA. They were done shortly after I made the switch from acrylic to water-mixable oils so I was getting to know a new medium.
The reason I'm posting them now is that I recently found Dick Rink, a Nederlander painter who might be my long lost twin. Look at his painting by clicking on his name. It was done halfway across the globe on February 15! I love looking at his painting and think it's a finer job than my effort, but for me it evokes the same feeling and makes me feel a connection to him. He saw what I saw, and wanted to capture it. Maybe this is as common as dirt, but it hadn't really happened to me before. Anyone else?

brief rest

This one is from a few weeks ago. I like drawing this model.

New Reason

For anyone who does not have a blog, I found a new reason to start one. It's my newest fun-thing-to-do. Right up there with horseback riding and kayaking, almost. It's that little gadget on the right called Feedjit. They are not even paying me to write this. When I check in, I look at the map and see that someone from Australia had a look. Or Spain. All over the globe. No idea why I get such a kick out of it. Been in the mountains too long??

Back to it

I'm having some posting issues, so I hope this goes up okay. From last week's drawing group.

Before and After the Fall

Pastel and watercolor on canvas 6x6
Okay. I'm putting away the pastels until after my trip to humidity. As my previous posts explain, I'm trying some media that I'm not that used to. I think a workshop may be in my future. This is from my memory of kayaking and the 4th effort on the poor little watercolor wash with which I started. Maybe not thinking is okay now and then. Just see where the painting goes. It is not available because two seconds after taking the photo the painting fell face down on an old dishtowel and smudged up a bit. Not a good medium for traveling, my husband remarked.

After the Fall Pastel and watercolor on canvas 6x6
Something to post whether or not I ought.

The Gift

Look closely. This is a box I made many years ago in art school. In it are pastels given to me by the aunt of my best friend at the time. They were the remainders of the aunt's sister's supply. I think I organized them once, but never got interested in using them. Dirty, dusty and missing many of the shades that one really needs. Not that I'm blaming my tools for the hilariously pitiful work that I've been doing for the past few days. In my younger days, I worked as a carpenter's helper and there were two sayings that Charles Parsons III used to repeat. "It's a poor craftsman who blames his tools." And "A craftsman is only as good as his tools." I've always thought the two were opposed, but now I think "Get properly outfitted and you may not need to blame the tools." What do you think?