I want to share my painting experience of painting during my vacation in Maine! It was such a wonderful vacation.. I brought all my painting stuff and was determined to create!
Ok to start with, This literally was our view from our campsite.. Yup.. Narrows too campground water sites. No complaints from us! That litte bridge is how you get to Acadia National Park.. since it is considered an island of sorts.. This area is huge.. Cadillac Mountain is across the way and at night you see the cars coming down after they sat and watched the sunset.. We did it too! very pretty.. and plan to use some of those pictures for future paintings..
I find being outside painting a very interesting experience.. After you get over the fact that people may walk up to look at what you are doing.. and just pray that you are at a point in the painting that it looks half decent! lol.. Anyone who does watercolor knows.. sometimes it looks worse before it gets better.. Thats why I like to show my paintings in stages here.. to show the beginnings and the middle uglies.. and finally the beauty shows up...
So I attempted to include some of the shore line.. and you know there where alot more rocks than i'm showing here!
But this is where you use artist license, add here take away there.. and honestly I found after getting the basics in.. I started less copying and doing my own thing.. I have included a picture of the area...
My painting needs alot of work.. I think if I redo with looking at the picture I may do a better job.. in terms of making the rocks looking more like they are "sitting" in the water.. they kind of look like they are floating. This is what you do as an artist.. you need to step back and look, and see.. and make sure what you did is what was really there.. Learning to see...working on the "problems" and working through and succeeding in representing your subject matter..
This one was done as a quick close up of the bridge.. I was time constrained.. the sun was going down.. and it was getting very windy! yes we were expecting some severe weather that night... but as the sun goes down it falls below the cloud mass and some areas where actually sunny! But my paint palete was nearly ripped of the rock I was sitting on! paint brushes kept rolling off ... so it was a quick study.. not so much detail. But I think you can see the water was rough.. lapping in... I was happy to just get this much done!
My very first day hanging out along the rocky shore, this is a beautiful area! Its a roadway that hugs the shore, and you can pull over and lay out a blanket and just sit.. or in this case paint.. I found it hard getting going , so I just pulled out a post card size paper and painted... quickly...
I found out that day, I had way to much STUFF.. in my painting bag.. yes.. I've read from othe artist.. who have a list .. I like to have it all! But I must learn to be realistic.. Got back to the campground and started taking things out ... and repacked what I though would work ...
For me I found that, 2-3 brushes..., two small jars.. one for really dirty water.. and one for really clean water! Paper towels already ripped off the roll and folded for blotting paint.. Paper! I used the blocks of water color paper .. which depending on the size can be heavy (these are great because they are already stretched for you.....
so I found having heavier weighted papers that don't necessarly need to be stretched works well.. all ready cut to a manageable size.. a plastic palete that folds up, a pencil to draw your picture or guide lines... lets see? oh yes I brought a bottled water(refilled with tap water) to replace water as I paint..
These are honestly the only things I used... I still had loads of stuff that I should have just left out of the bag... I had a sketch pad, watercolor pencils... another palete, tape.. spray bottles.. with water in them.. and thats just from memory...I know there was alot more including a couple of watercolor books.. what was I thinking????
I will work on the bag contents.. so its not so heavy and i'm not spending half of my time digging around for my tools... and I don't break my back carrying it to my painting spot.. Happy painting.. I will be back very soon... no stopping me now! Diane
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