Remembrance of Hurricane Sandy

The day after Sandy moved north from Jacksonville Beach this pastel was created.  There was no beach, the water was high, but the dunes were intact so the easel was precariously perched there.  The waves were huge and even the most daredevil of surfers weren't present.

After the Storm
Pastel  6" x 8"

I'll be traveling for the next two weeks with painting a possibility if the weather co-operates, in the northeast there are few indications of spring.  In the mountains of North Carolina the ice has melted, and the trees are sporting a red haze of buds.  I'll be sorry to leave my happy crocuses.

Another Time Remembered

A gorgeous fall day on the South Toe River.  The leaf colors glowing on the water surface and splashes of blue reflected from the sky, like being at the bottom of a bowl of color.

October Radiance
Oil Sketch  9" x 12"

Another Remembrance of Wonderful Weather

Up in the Blue Ridge there has been two nights of -4 degree frozeness.   Since some cheering up was needed, back again to the archive portfolio.

The dunes were painted at the Island of Palms, a beach sporting a huge dog walker crowd as the sun rises, and proximity to all that Charleston has to offer.

Time to Go

Pastel  6" x 8"

Looking Forward to Spring

There is ice on the Blue Ridge Mountains tonight.  Organizing the studio in the wake of the 30 in 30,  this pastel surfaced which reminded me that in a few months rather than wintry weather the Catawba rhododendrons will be blooming in the high mountains, definitely something to await with pleasure.

 Near the Appalachian Trail
Pastel 10" x 10"

Now for Something Entirely Different

Blog mavens have told me to stick to one media per blog, but this isn't going to happen today.   Once a year I go to the Penland School of Crafts in the Blue Ridge Mountains to make glass beads.  This takes place in the flameworking studio where rods of various colored glass are melted and manipulated.  

Later I'll work these into earrings and necklaces with sterling silver findings.

Sets of beads destined for jewelry

Laurel at her station

Day Thirty One - FINALE

Leslie of course has arranged for us to end with a flourish, the collages.

30 Paintings in 30 Days, 2015

This month has been an important experience,  I've come to realize how many things I must decline if I am to be in the studio.

Day Twenty Nine - Adieu to Appledom

This will be my last posting for January.  This is my second 30 in 30 event and as last year, a fabulously enriching experience.   Given my physical therapy schedule, I knew before I started that 30 paintings was far too much for me.  Nevertheless, this was a fantastic opportunity to return to the easel after five months of not painting and eight months of not using oils. The support of working with other virtual artists is absolutely enormous.

Since there was a brand new operating system on my computer and a new-to-me camera, for which  there was no time to read the manuals, I was forced to blunder through as best I could.  Time saving in any event.

This last painting was done mostly at my weekly painting workshop, pulling out the traveling oils after a long time.  The apple is a bit fussy, having difficulty understanding the light in a different studio.  The background, as in the other apples still needs something, but I don't know what it is, remnants of an old Bob Dylan song.  But there is an improvement in the plasticity of paint and volume of the apple from the first apple of the Year.

I've made new online friends whose work I plan to follow in this New Year.  Unending thanks to Leslie Saeta who makes this all possible, what a gift we all have in her.

This weekend I am off to the Penland School of Crafts to make glass beads at the flameworking studio for a week.  Although I know I should devote myself to only one endeavor,  I haven't been able to give up the glass, which is so seductive.

Apple Eight
Oil  on Gessoed Paper  6" x 6 "

Fond regards to all my painting pals, see you online soon.