Wednesday, January 22, 2020

January 21, 2020 - A New Year, Two Views

All images are photographed late in the evening for posting the same night we paint them.  We strive to reproduce the color of the paintings here as close to our originals as we can, but some variation is probable.  The paintings are labeled with our initials preceding the date label and title.  The date label is Month/Day/Order Painted. 

All of these paintings can be purchased on our website.  This link will take you to the page where they're posted... Salt Marsh Studios.


Dottie's Day

I felt like Winnie the Pooh yesterday... it was a very blustery day.  On a cold day with steady 20mph winds and even more energetic gusts, where you paint is determined by where you actually CAN paint without being blown over.  The beach... out.  The marsh... out. We headed out to Ft. Pulaski determined to find a place to set up.  The wind was out of the north so we found two small buildings, bathrooms,  on the property to set up behind to block some of the wind.  I guess you could call these the bathroom series...   Really high clouds blew in for the first paintings which took the little bit of warm sun we were counting on but other than cold fingers and noses it wasn't bad.  
It was such a lovely day of painting though.  I felt so much more in the swing of things and focused on only what was right in front of me.  Not the next painting or what I had to do later.  It is such a wonderful feeling to be in sync with what you are painting.  

DTL - 1/21/1 - The Marsh Beyond
We faced a line of trees, palms and undergrowth on the edge of the marsh.  There were beautiful palm trees all around us to paint but I liked this view of the marsh through all the trees.  It was like looking through nature's stained glass window at the bright marsh and river beyond.  I've always loved trying to paint chaos and this was definitely no exception.  So many limbs and branches and plants in mass confusion. Glorious fun! I tried to put the wind in the painting as well.  I hope you can feel it.  :)


 Marc & I set up painting behind the second bathroom of the day. ;) As you can see from the picture above,  I had the last two paintings set up on my easel at the same time.  One of the problems that I have run into in the last month, is my unease with small canvases.  I like to paint big, even outside.  I have found that I fight the surface with these smaller ones.  Waiting for some areas to tack up so I can paint over them drives me crazy.  I've used different mediums this month in an effort to make it easier and some days it seems to work but others, not so much.  So I thought yesterday, why not do two at a time and work back and forth between the two?  Give one some space, while working on the other.  It could be confusing but as long as you have a clear idea of what you are painting, it should work great.


DTL - 1/21/2 - The North Wind
This was the first painting of the double set up.  I loved the way the clouds were moving.  Big huge, vortex looking clouds being blown out to sea.  The landscape below is an area that flooded during a hurricane high tide years ago, which killed all of the trees from salt water.  It is starting to come back to life as palms and other undergrowth start to fill in.  There are some beautiful tree skeletons to paint but I was more interested in the bright sky above them.


DTL - 1/21/3 - Young and Old
I loved the contrast of the way this palm was blowing in the wind, full and healthy beside the remnants of  an old palm.  Its trunk still standing, with old, dried palm fronds blowing in the wind, made it look like it was flying a flag telling the world it still existed.  



Marc's Day

To say that I don't like wind, except when sailing or flying kites, would be as large an understatement as the spread of these salt marshes are along this coast!  I've done my time in the far north, worn weather tested gear skiing before weather tested gear was even available.  I started skiing when I was 10-1/2 yrs old in Norway, was a Boy Scout there with many winter overnight skiing expeditions under my belt, including a 5 day, 50 Miler Badge, something that Boy Scouts all try to achieve.  In Minnesota I hunted, fished and painted in all sorts of cold weather (down to -12ºF once) that freezes Everything in sight.  One of my favorite activities was to be out bow hunting in heavy snow in late December in winter camouflage, laying in the middle of a field on a deer trail underneath a brush pile covered in snow.  On those days in MN the temps were nearly always hovering around the teens or lower, and you did not move if you wanted to see anything walk past you.  I know what it's like to be cold.

So yesterday, and the last couple of days, we've painting in these relatively low temps, and extremely gusty winds.  I have to say that a coastal gusty day, with it's accompanying moisture, and temps in the  30s to low 40's, is one nasty day to be out in!!!  Plus, with a 'sandals and shorts' mindset, it's just unfair!  Dottie and I had to find a windbreak to even be able to keep easels upright yesterday.  We did, enjoyed the full day painting and are very happy not to be rushing to get all this done before we crash.  I hope you enjoy all of the work, we certainly did painting it.


MH - 1/21/1 - Edges
I called this one 'Edges' because it was the edge of hard soil before the marsh begins, where the growth that can live there is able to because it can withstand the brackish water, the higher salt content, than other more inland vegetation can.  We've been painting on several different surfaces, Centurion OPDlx (oil primed linen panel), which this one is painted on, Centurion Universal (acrylic) primed linen panels, acrylic primed hardboard, and some of the last of the Hobby Lobby acrylic primed linen boards we have.  Unfortunately, my favorite ones still are the Hobby Lobby linen panels, but they've been discontinued.  


MH - 1/21/2 & 3 - Pulaski Spread
I painted another diptych for my end of the day work. This is an area at the park that has been having drainage issues, so that the influx of salt water into the brackish marsh has over powered the ability  of many of the oaks and other hardwood trees to live.  It's a very interesting area to paint, however the gator population keeps us from getting into it to really explore.  Park doesn't want us out there.  We probably don't want to be out there either... Thanks for following and reading along with us.  We're off again for another painting day, an adventure that both Dottie and I are feeling sad about, understanding that this intense experience is coming to a close in 9 days.  Any complaining is only to relate the day to ya'll. We love doing this!!! :-)

1 comment:

René PleinAir said...

Not that much tima all the time to make a comment, but be asure I sure do watch you guys effort. Brave and bold work not all that easy to cope with the weather all the time but it does make you feel alive doesn't it?