Cocktails on the beach

Earlier this summer I was walking along the beach looking for interesting things to photograph or draw and my eye was drawn to a shot of colour nestled in the grey stones.  A cocktail umbrella?  Perhaps the beach is going upscale from when I did my partying.  Back then it was beer and hotdogs.  Obviously these days its cocktails. 

It seems so incongruous in the setting and the colour popped against the stones, so I knew it was meant to be. The paper of the folded umbrella is delicate but intact and reminded me of the petals of poppies - that crushed silk look that they have.

This is a quick study for a main piece.  I was finishing up some oils on a palette before starting fresh and used paper for this.  A fairly sturdy canal paper by St. Armand that seems to hold up well to a variety of mediums.

Things that happen when you're tired

Someone had asked me the size of the coyote drawing and off the top of my head I can't remember, but here's a quick shot from my web camera that gives you an idea of its size.   The quality is terrible, but the principle solid.  I always hate these up close shots that fill a screen so you never get a look at a piece as it should be seen, which is not 3 inches away from it.

Its been a busy week with not a lot of time to paint besides a few sketches here and there.  I'm so tired, I long for sleep and that will come soon before I do something more drastic than the following since I got home.

1. Forget to change your sweater before painting and have indigo blue on cream cotton.  In oils of course.
2. Try to feed the cat bird seed instead of kibble.
3. Look everywhere for the ground coffee and find it.  In the hallway.  Where I was interrupted by a phone call.
4. Fall asleep and miss the best bits on Coronation Street, but wake up during the commercials.

More layers on the cliffs and more coyote tomorrow or at the weekend!

Weekday sketches

Life's too busy this week to let me get back at the Cliffs of Moher, but I always find time for some sketches as well as a little work on a gyotaku cod print that I'll show you another day.  I know I go on and on about it, but the ability to draw is vital to every artist.  And the time dedicated to sketching keeps that drawing ability honed.  Don't let anyone tell you that drawing is not important.  It is crucial to good art.

Tomorrow will be a complete washout for art as I will be working til 10pm or more.  But the weekend's on the horizon!

Symbolic colours

The other day I followed a link on Cath Sheard's blog to Mind Games.    The challenge on the blog was to come up with names for colours, then create the colours to match them.  Not names of objects that would have colours associated with them, but more abstract phrases that would make you think hard about what colour would represent it.

I've spent some time coming up with ideas and working on some colours around them.  The list seems to grow and I'm creating swatches of colour and seeing how they live up to their namesake.

Hot shower, disbelief, luscious, roadtrip, never ending, out of my depth, bbq on the beach, bleak house, 6 am......the list goes on as my my whirls around it.  Its a good exercise in colour mixing and a wonderful jumping off point for inspiration.  Why don't you give it a try and see what you come up with?

I used watercolour in this sample, but may switch to acrylics or oils for the next group.  The colours when scanned and tweaked still don't give perfect replicas of the hue and perhaps a photo may do better.  Next time.

Sunday catch up

 
Yes, I have a number of pieces at varying stages of completion in the studio and work on them as time and mood allows.  Some are more portable than others, like the coyote, who I took on a little road trip to the living room this afternoon to work on while I waited for bread to rise.

He's coming along and I'd like to have the piece finished this week if I can.  Meetings and work and other commitments may make that difficult, but you never know when I'll find time to add a bit more.

Meanwhile, today was the last day of the Recreational Food Fishery here and I went to the harbour in Flatrock to watch the boats and gulls.  Although the sun was warm, the fog lurked on the horizon and nudged the shoreline bringing a chill to the air but more cod for the freezer.   I took this little video with my cell phone to give a sense of the colour and sound of the ocean at my doorstep.  The quality is poor unfortunately and small, but you get a sense of what I was watching. This still photo gives a better view.

 

Untitled from Jeanette Jobson on Vimeo.