Opal Dawn
Oil on canvas, 20x60
I am more tired than I should be, I think, and then I start to look at what I've been doing this summer, and it does make sense, my exhaustion. The show in Montauk pretty much finished me off. It was an OK show, and I met some lovely people, but it was a slow show in terms of sales, and the driving and heat and ferrying just wore me out.
So I am taking it easy, and am probably going to back out of the show this weekend in Pittsburgh. I think that's OK. It means losing my booth fee, but I have commissions to paint and an exciting new series of paintings to start, and I think it's the right thing to do.
Of course, I've changed my mind a dozen times so far, and could again.
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MANY OF YOU have told me that you really like watching paintings develop, so I shot a series of photos of "Opal Dawn."
I was painting from a photo that a friend sent me, and I started by gessoing a 20x60 canvas black, and putting in the horizon line.
My original idea was to leave the tree line and its reflection unpainted - just black - but the painting got messy enough that I had to paint those trees in.
I did make one major change after this last photo, and that was to paint the water with a vertical stroke. Here, in this photo, I've painted the water with an angled stroke. But it's best when the body of the water is vertical, and the ripples cross those vertical strokes.
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Dog of the Day
It's little Zoe, crashing out in her little bed. Zoe is... well, we don't know how old she is. She is blind, and smart and very tough. In fact, I think she's the top dog in the house, though Peter disagrees. It was always interesting to watch the two blind dogs, Sam and Zoe, make their way through life. You could move a piece of furniture and Zoe would have the new placement memorized in an instant. Dear old Sam would run into it over and over and over. And over.
Thank you all for your notes and condolences about Sam. Your kind thoughts truly help.
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