Lake George Watercolor

This is Sept 3rd's painting. The subject is Lake George (in Northern Indiana) at dusk. My grandma has had a cottage there since before I was born. I learned to swim there and spent countless summer days in the water with my siblings and cousins. It is THE best place I've ever been in my life -my favorite place.

8.5"x5.5" (outside paper edge) watercolor, colored pencil and ink on cold press watercolor paper

purchase here for $25

Grand Canyon Watercolor No. 4

This is the piece I completed on Sept 2nd. Had some trouble with it. Spanked it with some ink and colored pencil which made it behave but also made it more of a drawing than a painting. Oh well.

8.5"x5.5" (outside edge) watercolor, colored pencil and ink on cold press watercolor paper

purchase here for $25

Beach Watercolor

I forget what the name of this beach was. But it was up near Malibu, small and not busy. Painting numero uno for the month of September complete!

8.5"x5.5" (outside edge) watercolor, colored pencil and ink on cold press watercolor paper

purchase here for $25

Josh and I made plans to go to San Diego for Labor Day weekend. Neither of us have been so it should be a grand time -and will hopefully result in a few cool daily paintings. Does anyone else have exciting Labor Day plans?

A Painting/Day in September

There is a huge group of artists that blog online daily paintings. Until now I have lacked the time or energy to commit to this kind of goal but I have always wanted to try it. SO, this is me committing to completing a painting/day in the month of September. Let's see how it goes!

In order to keep inspired, I've been reading my good 'ol blog roll and some books on master painters. Here are a few images from the blogroll that I have set aside as extra interesting-

 by William Wray

(Love the simplicity, the color pallet and the otherwise ignored setting.)

by Randall David Tipton

(This artist has taken his landscapes to an unexpected place- really shows a personal interpretation.)

by Don Gray

(This piece just reminds me of so many places in the rural Midwest where I grew up. The humble but tidy building is touching.)

by Kim Cadmus

(Urban landscape taken to the next level -graphic yet still grungy. Love it.)

Plein Air Painting Here I Come

Yesterday I went with Lisa Goldfarb to try some plein air painting. Neither of us have done much in this vein so Lisa suggested a safe place to try would be Paint Lab in Santa Monica. Basically, you pay $20 and they provide brushes, easel, paints and space (you purchase your painting surface separately). It is nice not to have to lug supplies around -esp. if just diving into this sort of thing, however the space itself is not very inspiring. Next time I will load up my own supplies and try a more scenic vista. Will need to get a fold-up/travel easel.

10"x10" on 1.5" depth canvas

purchase here for $100

Grand Canyon Acrylic 3

...And here's another grand canyon acrylic. You can find its small watercolor version in this earlier post. I'm really working towards not being too literal in my interpretation when using photo reference. Makes me feel a bit like a baby crawling about but I know it's good.

16"x20" acrylic on 1.5" depth stretched canvas

purchase here for $400

Grand Canyon Acrylic 1 & 2

16"x20" acrylic on 1.5"depth stretched canvas

purchase here for $400 

16"x20" acrylic on 1.5"depth stretched canvas

purchase here for $400  

Here is what they look like next to each other. 

Convo me on Etsy to purchase both for $600.