Two from the summer
Posted: December 27, 2016 Filed under: Uncategorized 10 CommentsIt’s studio clean up day for me, which always involves looking through piles of filled sketchbooks (it’s a form of procrastination, no doubt). It’s sort of a review of the year too, and also a way to find if there are any unused pages I can fill. Sometimes I also find sketches I haven’t scanned, like these two from Rockport, Mass. It’s funny, the things that come back to you when you look at the sketches. With these, it was the wind. I painted the first one (with all the boats) on the cold side of Tuna Wharf. It’s the side that faces the open water, just at the start of the channel where the fishing boats go out to sea. I seem to always choose the worst time to paint there, at the end of the day when the wind picks up. I can see from the shaky squiggles that I made on the page that I was really cold. My brush strokes are messy and not very precise.
The second sketch is done from the protected side of Tuna Wharf, sitting in the sun, at the end of the day. When I look at this one, I can feel reflected heat from the wall behind me, and the more confident lines in the sketch are revealing — this was certainly a more comfortable place to draw from.
Ok, back to the big clean up.
Shari, your art journey is always inspiring and I so appreciate your work! Happy New Year! Carolyn
Thanks so much for writing, which is also appreciated. Happy New Year to you too Carolyn.
Love seeing your sketches. Thanks for taking the time to share them and your experiences with us.
And thank you too Joan, for always sending me comments. I really appreciate it.
I love your messy and not very precise. It has a joy and vitality to it. Something I’m forever striving for.
Thanks Ros! Now you know that the trick to messy is to live in a colder place. When you are warm and comfortable the sketches are more precise because you take the time to draw. You need to move!
It continues to fascinate me how vivid sketch memories can be. Thanks for sharing yours. Lovely sketches.
Thanks Alison!
Hi Shari,
I really like both- there’s a nice looseness in squiggleys. What blues did you use for the water?
Bill
Hi Bill, Nice to hear from you. I don’t remember exactly what I used because I did these so long ago but I would guess there’s cerulean and ultramarine in the water mixes, and maybe a little Phthalo too.