More August paintings

On Saturday, August 20, Brenda Hughes and I went to the intersection of Dickinson and Greenville Blvd and painted the old church/antique store site, which has fallen into great disrepair, and even been condemned.  The set of buildings has intrigued me for several years, but on this day, with rain threatening, and no other painters having expressed interest, it seemed like a good time to paint.  We got a late start and finished early due to raindrops. 

At the url below (please copy and paste into your browser), you will find my plein air painting of the Dickinson church, as well as a plein air painting of a heat-hazy day on the Pamlico, and an in-studio painting of The Old State House in Boston.

When you arrive at the url destination, be sure to select "Slideshow" option -- it's more fun!

https://picasaweb.google.com/109557727230088604362/20110822?authkey=Gv1sRgCJObkbbAqKrXFA#

Incidentally, the last post included a Country Matter painting of some slaughtered chickens in a farmhouse outbuilding window.  The image may strike folks as raw, but it is simply country.  Some wife cared enough about the pot of flowers to place it on the window sill to catch the sun.  That seems to me to be emblematic of the human condition, where bright shafts of color lighten the grim necessities of life.

If you lose, don't lose the lesson

So, a funny thing happened on my way to my blog: My email was hacked.  The hacker told many of the people on my contact list that I was in Spain and needed money.  He then destroyed my contact list.

Nice guy.  I won't bore you with the details of the hours and days and weeks spent re-establishing contacts (actually, three weeks out and I'm still working on it).  Let me just say that Yahoo was totally unresponsive and even counter-productive in my efforts to right my digital ship.  My new email address therefore is: peterh43038@suddenlink.net.

And the lesson?  The lesson if you lose?  Never place trust in anyone or anything named YAHOO!

The summer heat, I don't have to tell anyone, has made plein air painting difficult and sparse.  However, painting has happened.  So for now, please follow this url, and see the August paintings:

https://picasaweb.google.com/109557727230088604362/August2011Paintings?authkey=Gv1sRgCN38ubL9kK2y6QE#slideshow/5642724120207145714

Will be back soon with more lessons, and more paintings, and more news of Painting Purple (and other colors).

Nostalgia

I can't predict when these things will happen, but every so often I get a recollection and a yearning for Mt. Desert Island and Acadia National Park--not of course as they are today, but as they were sixty years ago.  So this happened to me this week, the day after our mid-summer 'critique' at Painting Purple & Other Colors in the Food Lion/Sheetz shopping center, corner of Portertown Rd and Route 33.

The 'critique' began almost promptly at 7:00 with about 20 people present, mostly Brushstrokes people, but we were delighted to see Bob Carr and his wife (and the next day, Art Tyndall and his wife dropped in to see the studio/gallery and to chat for awhile).  It was good to see all the old friends, and we plan to hold another session in Mid-August.  For any of this blog's readers who missed the first session, please try to make the next one.  We'll send out the date via this blog and via Louise Sharpless' Brushstroke newsletter.

It was especially nice to see what folks had been painting this summer.  As always we were delighted to see the places that Louise had visited in her artistic journey as expressed in her "peaceable kingdom" painting.

Although the participants were primarily Brushstrokes members, the 'critique session' is open to all artists, and we encourage all to attend.

After all that, I became hungry for Maine.  Hence picture one, a painting of Ocean Drive on Mt. Desert Island, from a reference photo taken a decade ago on a trip back to Maine:

The second was painted the next day, largely while with our Wednesday night group, and results from a video on the LL Bean site in appreciation of the Maine Coast Islands Trails Guide.

Hope you enjoyed this trip into the past as much as I did!!

The weekend activity

On Friday, Art Tyndall wisely elected to paint in the shade and led us to Washington Park, where there was not only shade but a lovely breeze off the water.  John Groesser, Bob Carr, Art and I were the fearless foursome who painted.  When I arrived at 9:30, Art was pretty well along with his first (of two) oil paintings, depicting a view of the riverside road, looking back toward Washington.  Before long, John appeared, and he and I painted a pickup that was catching the morning sun:

Bob Carr  arrived late and left early, having some tenant problems to deal with, but he did share the previous week's finished, careful rendition of some industrial buildings near the river.  A very detailed painting which had required a lot of patience and drawing skill. 

On Saturday, Donna Davis and I painted at the Farmers' Market on County Home Road, a nice outing that finished around noon when our watercolors were rained on!  Into every life . . .

The resulting picture is titled "Wild Caught Shrimp"

Wild Caught Shrimp

As you can see, we were intrigued by the clouds, which were perfectly alluring for Miss Donna, the "cloud lady."

Estuarium Ducks II

Painted in studio, July 4, 2012

July 2, 2011

On Friday, July 1, 2011, I painted with Bob Carr and Art Tyndall near the Pamlico in Washington.  It was hot, but there was a breeze off the water.  Bob looked in one direction, and I looked in the other, and we had a good time.  The painting took about 2 hours.  I call it (what else?) "Edward Jones"!

June 25, 2011

So on Saturday, June 25, I rode to Beaufort with Susan (Simply Susan) Jones to Beaufort to participate in the Brushstrokes plein air portion of the Old Homes & Garden Tour.  It was hot, but on Moore St in Beaufort, we found a lovely shaded spot to paint.  Jerri Sutton -- a gracious hostess if ever there was one-- had everything planned, including a terrific lunch, which Susan and I ate on the porch of the Out-building at 108 Moore St.  We arrived at about 10:30 and painted until about 3:30, and got back to Greenville at about 5:30.  Dodi Groesser (whom you will see in the photos included with this post) sold a couple of paintings.  Brenda Hughes also painted, but she was at the Fish House, some mile or so distant.

Here is the link to photos taken during the Tour, which seemed to be very well attended. When you arrive at the Web Site, be sure to select SLIDESHOW, so you'll get full screen images.

https://picasaweb.google.com/109557727230088604362/BeaufortNCOldHomesGardensTour?authkey=Gv1sRgCLCvtOS5_-eP5AE#