Wave Sketching

Wave sketching, water soluble graphite on paper

Can I blame it on the sun? The beauty of the Pacific Northwest is stunning and I don't wish to live any where else but, well, it rains here a lot and the temperatures are usually on the cool side. I love the wild weather and I really don't like being hot but when the sun comes out for two solid months and it is warm, well, all of us who live here year round get a trifle distracted. I know, I know, I am really just fronting an excuse for my summer of meager posts but I promise, I will be making it up to everyone! 

So a quick post on a few of the art related things I have been doing and a few exciting changes in the near future. 

First, I am being drawn more and more to painting the sea. That isn't really surprising given that I live about a 5 minute walk from the beach and the sound and smell of the ocean surrounds us. I have lived on the west coast of the U.S. all of my life and have almost always been within a short driving distance from the ocean. It is also in the blood as my family have been mariners (the sea-faring kind, not the baseball kind) for several generations.

 Alas, drawing and painting the sea feels a bit like trying to draw and paint the wind! I am finding it even harder than drawing and painting the human figure. At least one can bribe/pay a human to sit relatively still! Fortunately, I have found good mentors and instructors and am working away at building those skills. One of my favorite things to do when I need a break and the lovely weather calls me out is to grab my sketchbook and go wave sketching. Above is a picture of one of my sessions. Doesn't look like much I know. I am working on getting the technical structure and tone down. While I was sketching this session, a couple of crows paid me a visit so I working on getting them too. I am using a Lyra aquarelle graphite pencil and a Niji water brush on watercolor paper and enjoying it very much.

Found a temporary sketching hut! It washed away in the high tides last month.

I had a workshop this summer on portrait painting. The short story on the workshop is that I have decided not to do any more workshops for quite a while. I guess I got thoroughly spoiled going to school and I have yet to find the same satisfaction in a workshop. 

I have been studying on my own and have devised a painting and study schedule. I didn't get painting instruction in school (my school moved after my first year which focused on drawing) so I have been learning on my own. I hit a pretty good wall of frustration this summer with a few of the technical aspects of painting but am finally finding good online sources to learn from. I will post more about those sources soon as I want to try them a bit longer before recommending them. 

I decided as part of my studies to spend part of the day doing a daily painting or two and the other part working on the larger works I have in progress and studying. I also have to figure out some good foul-weather gear that will allow me to go plein air painting year round. The summer is nice, particularly this summer, but the waves aren't as exciting and the skies aren't quite as dramatic as they are in the stormier seasons. 

I am still working on my earlier goals and continue to go to the local life-drawing session. I figure that building these additional skills will only help me achieve my earlier goals that much more.

Finally, the biggest step for me, is that I have joined Daily Paintworks. I will be selling as many of the small paintings I will be making as possible and Daily Paintworks is a great site to sell them on. I will be posting a widget and link to my online gallery soon. I also need to completely re-do my website. Well, one step at a time.

That is about it for now. My posts will change a bit when I post one of the daily paintings for sale. It will be formatted to work with the Daily Paintworks site but I will still be writing about living and painting here on the Oregon coast. 

Now, I must go batten down the hatches for our first fall storm. Stay warm and dry everyone! 

-Renee