Don and Judy's tulip tree

Was feeling a bit under the weather today, but still wanted get my daily painting in. Luckily my neighbor has a beautiful tulip tree growing outside my studio window. So here it is in late afternoon sun.

Closer to Home

We have these really nice Dipladenias growing up the side of our fence. They were illuminated in the morning sun, so I thought they might make a nice subject. Pink is a really hard color to get right!! So after about 40 minutes of work, I let the piece dry and brought it inside to adjust the pinks.........now thery're better. Nothing spectacular, but this is kind of a cheerful piece.

Arrrrrrrrgggh!

I like to paint. Its more fun when things go smoothly, but struggling with problems are a part of the process. Then there are paintings like this one. You set up and wait for the light..........when it finally happens you start. And your color mixes are off, and the light is changing too rapidly, and you all of a sudden you start painting each rock, instead of a coast line, and your paint is drying before you can get it off your pallette. ARRRRRRRGH!!! I have this vision of picking up my french easel and throwing over the cliff into the ocean. Phew.. You have to know when to say when, and I finally did here, and packed up and went home. Lumps of coal like this one make you appreciate the diamonds even more. On we go. :)

How Dry I am

Took my paints down the hill to our community beach today, looking for something interesting to paint. It was about 3:30pm, and as usual, the sun is hiding behind the volcanic vog and overcast, and nothing really is catching my eye. Way down the coast is an old volcanic cinder cone with a lone tree perched on it. The atmosphere is so dense that it reads very soft and greyed down. I like that tree, so why not? My paints are drying really fast, so I am doing a bit of scrubbing, but its giving me a nice softness and color variation. Here is the results. This may not be classic Hawaii, but it is spot on "Big Island" Hawaii.

Look what I found

Here on the Big Island, a lot of our sunsets are obscured by clouds and volcanic emmissions called "vog". Every once in a while the winds will blow off the haze and we get a nice sunset. Just when I was ready to give up on it....pow.....there it was! This is a little slice of ocean view painted from my backyard. Next time I go chasing a sunset, I think I'll add some Cad red light to my pallette.

Going Bananas

I always look at my banana trees and think they would make a great subject, but I am always intimidated by the amount of leaves. So this month I am trying to choose a subject each day that will push me out of my comfort zone and force me to try to tackle things I would normally avoid. So here they are! I started out trying to paint each leave, but luckily I came to my senses about half way through, and just painted the lights, darks and mid-tones where I saw them, and the look of leaves happened. I like this looser look too.

Life is a Beach

Another day at the beach. I was attracted to the spikey palm tree to the left when I decided to paint this scene, and the clouds in the sky, so I grabbed an 11"x14" panel and started. Some of this painting I enjoy...some parts I don't. I don't care for the "lead in". Its too far to the right where you enter the painting at the beach. I like the sand "path" through the painting back into the brush, and the big sky, but the colors are a bit drab overall in this piece. I'll chalk this one up to the learning curve, and its on we go!