THE NUBBLE

Hello my friends,

During our recent year on the road living in our 31 foot RV full time, we returned to sections of Maine that we had lived in for quite a few years.  Namely York Beach Maine (Cape Neddick) and East Boothbay Maine.

When living in York Beach Maine I started painting and the first painting I ever sold was of Nubble Light.

This painting was done after doing a couple of "studies" so I could reacquaint my self with the various structures of THE NUBBLE"

First I start with a sketch on a piece of 16 x 20 heavy linen paper  - this is a more detailed sketch then I normally do as it has been many-many years since I painted this scene

Next I throw in the sky painting around the sketched structures - accuracy is not all that important as I will redefine the shapes of the structures as needed after putting in the sky.

You'll notice I put some of the sky color down onto the ground which will give some unity to the painting.

The roof on the light keepers house is a very distinctive RED  so I put that in next as well as the cast shadow from the roof overhang

I now put in the red roof of the porch and the connecting tower building.  The lower portion of the house is added and some cast shadows onto the connecting building

I throw in the indications of windows in the house as well as some reflected local color

I paint in the smaller auxiliary building which also has that distinctive RED roof

Time to start working on the light tower - from top to bottom

OK - time to start wrapping this up by throwing in some "ground clutter" - mostly done by a dry brush technique

BADDA BING

BADDA BOOM

WE'VE GOT A FINISHED PAINTING

Hope y'all enjoy this demo.  I had a blast getting reacquainted with "The Nubble"

Take care and I'll be back again about the same time next week with another demo or just some jibber-jabber or perhaps my views as to why senior citizens such as myself are upset with the course of actions that seem to be in motion by President  Obama.

Cheers my friends

JR     :>)

YET ANOTHER NUBBLE

Hello my blog buddies,

20+ years ago we lived in York Beach Maine - in the Cape Neddick area.
Nubble Light House is one of the most photographed lighthouses in the USA.  The Light house was visible from our house as well as a walk-able distance away.  We lived there for 13 years and needless to say Nubble became a favorite subject for me to paint.  As a matter of fact the first painting I ever sold was of Nubble Light.

It's been over 15+ years since I've painted The Nubble and recently I got a bug in me to do so.

I started out with a small quick sketch 6 x 12 just to get my brain in tune with and feel the presence of The Nubble.

Next I did a quick sketch on an 11 x 14 canvas panel - after sketching, I put in the sky with a 2 inch brush - first using titanium white followed by cobalt blue.  I wanted the sky to be light in color with indications of wispy clouds

Next I started with the red roofs which is certainly a trade mark of The Nubble

The next step was to start with some of the shadowing on the house - light coming from the right.  I also put in the indication of windows and the shadow shading on the building connecting the house and the light tower

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I now start to bring color to the light tower which a good portion of it is in shadow

More tweaking of the light tower

I add some grass and the beginnings of ground clutter

I add some dark ground clutter to the shadow side of the house 

  

Here a tweak - there a tweak everywhere a tweak-tweak

BADDA BING 

BADDA BOOM

WE HAVE A PAINTING

I hope you enjoyed this demo as I really enjoyed doing it and my becoming re-acquainted with 

THE NUBBLE 

ACADIA NP # II

Yo my friends,

This past summer while on our 1 year RV journey in which we lived full time in our 31' RV and traveled the USA and Canada, we went up to Bar Harbor Maine for a week and explored Acadia NP.  In this corner of the world the good Lord payed special attention to the creation of this most beautiful stretch of Maine coastline.

This is my interpretation of one of these beautiful scenes.  I  won't be showing as much detail of the development of this painting as the procedure is the same as in previous demos.

I will be using some small brushes for part of this painting, as well as my trusty palette knife and my 2 inch brush for the creation of the sky

I first develop the sky and cliffs with the indication of evergreen trees on the ridge.  This is a loose piece with a touch of semi abstract style to it.

The ocean of course is the Atlantic Ocean so there will be no Caribbean green in the painting!!

:>)

The ocean is put in with my palette knife using long strokes of several blues as well as white for blending the blues together as well as indication of waves.

The sand is put in with my 2" bush and reflection of "local color" is put into the sand

With the ocean this active - the "foam & froth" at the shore line needs to be both aggressive and have the sense of rolling and splashing onto the sand

Pretty COOL EH!!!!!

BEER CAN ISLAND

Hello my friends,

Well - since we stopped RV-ing full time the visits to my blog have gone from an average of 2,500 per month to an average of 1,300 - it would appear that there were more folks interested in the RV side of the blog then the painting side.

I'm cool with that - the RV side was a lot of fun and the reporting on our travels was lots of fun as was the travelling.  That has stopped and other things have and will take the place of RV-ing - however that said - and I just said it - I truly miss RV-ing and the enjoyment of seeing our country side.

Well there are lots of other fish to fry!!

I used a photo for this painting which I got permission to use from this fellow:

http://www.beachhunter.net/

I met him on Facebook and asked his permission to use his photo for a painting - this is always a good thing to do and I consider it mandatory - ask permission before hijacking another persons work.  This is not always done as I've found some of my paintings on web sites that clearly no one asked my permission - and on one Japanese web site - YES my friends a Japanese web site I found several of my paintings that had been hijacked - copied and were for sale!!!!!

OK - if  I've got my facts straight Beer Can Island is the "nickname" for this Island due to certain times of the year our youth go there and consume lots of beer - these are the folks who will in the future be running out country - if they don't drink themselves to death!!!  :>)  SCARY!!

The real name is Pine key Island and it is at the tip of Long Boat Key off the coast of Tampa.

OK - Let's get this done ------ WELLLLLL it is not really us as in LET'S (let us) it is me.  :>)

I like to remind folks that this is my style - my process and techniques - which is offered as a learning tool for folks to develop their own style - process and techniques.  I am mostly self taught and I like everyone else have studied the works of other artists and applied myself to develop this style.  To me, painting is all about COLOR and TEXTURE - these two facets to me make a painting SING and BREATH.  I may have mentioned before that at times I tend to digress - if I'm doing that too much, just raise your hand or cough or band the table top --- I'll get the message!!

To begin we once again do WHAT???   CORRECT - we throw in the sky!!!!  I see we have some repeat people in attendance :>)

Being new to Florida - I'm told that most of the time the sky is not a rich-rich-deep blue!  The reason I'm told is due to the high levels of humidity - I have no idea if this is true of mot but I'm going with it as certainly most of the time it is a muted blue and not the bright-deep-bold blue one will find in say - Sedona AZ.  Whoops someone just coughed and banged on the table top!!!  :>(

I use a big ( 2 inch ) brush for the sky - first applying a very quick and sparse application of white paint - followed by two colors of blue - darker at the top and lightening as it goes to the horizon line.

I now with palette knife start to throw in the ocean at the horizon line - this is where the painting starts to take shape in that the ocean is always darker at the horizon line and this begins the visual impression of distance on what we all know is a very flat surface with no dimension.

Our job as artists will be to make the eye of the viewer see DISTANCE

Next - with palette knife I start putting in the blues and greens found in the ocean here in southwest Florida - very Caribbean seas here.  I want to give the impression of the island surface being higher than the ocean - thereby creating a very fluid but an ocean with movement.

Ya GOTTA love the Caribbean green - this color gets me EXCITED!!!  

With palette knife I now add highlights to the ocean and I throw in the sandy beach portion, making sure to being down some blue from the sky and ocean - remember "local color" is very important.

Using the "dry brush" technique I slap in some distant ground clutter which breaks the horizon line  thereby giving the visual of MORE distance within the painting.  I also leave the vision the the ocean goes BEHIND the ground clutter - thereby pushing the ground clutter forward. 

With the movement of water having so much motion due to the beach being higher then the ocean, there needs to be some "foaming-frothing" surf left at the shore line as the ocean recedes.

Pretty COOL EH!!!!!

BAM-BAM-BAM

WE HAVE A FINISHED PAINTING!!!

Hope y'all enjoyed this demo - 

I'll be back about the same time a week from now and perhaps have another demo or maybe  

I'll just shoot the breeze for a while in a proliferation of happenings here - there - and everywhere -- Just kidding  :>)

Take life easy - smile at others and at yourself - A FACT:

It takes less facial muscles to smile then to frown!!!

Trust me that is truth and in doing so you can prevent a lot of WRINKLES!!!

JR   :>)