Saturday, December 13, 2014

The Beauty of this Place

The beauty of this place can be subtle one moment, and then completely bowl you over the next. It leaves an imprint on one's soul.
I am so fortunate and grateful to live here.

To get back into the flow of creating after the past few weeks of absence due to health issues, I am taking a Craftsy class by Edward Minoff. I have admired his work for a while now. The class is called "Oil Painting, Sand, Sea, and Sky."
The first assignment is to create a sketch with graphite and gouache. I have never used gouache before. I do like the effect so I was eager to give it a try.

Yesterday I went out and did this plein air sketch:

The gouache felt a bit clumsy. I can see that it will take a bit of practice. The weather is a bit too unstable to take my painting gear out at the moment so sketching is perfect. I can sketch in just about any weather short of the hurricane force winds and pounding rain. It is easier to use an umbrella when sketching than when painting.
I went out again today:

I love painting at the foot of Neahkahnie Mountain. Often there are cross-waves that crash into the oncoming waves which make for very interesting angles and effects. I am always trying to successfully capture those waves on canvas. I am getting better but haven't been truly satisfied yet.
I have been trying the papers I have on hand. The first sketch I used Fabriano Murano in Storm gray. The second one is Strathmore Toned Gray. I wasn't really happy with either of them. The Murano is too rough for my tastes and the Strathmore has flecks of other colors which I found distracting. I will have to do a bit of research.

As I was leaving the beach this afternoon I spotted an osprey on the beach. A few moments later, two resident bald eagles swooped in and chased off the osprey. The only camera I bring with me is on my phone so the picture isn't always the best. I will finish this post with a final picture:

-Renee

1 comment:

Cindie said...

Your sketches are wonderful.

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