Sussex County Art Society Virtual Show

 The SCAS had a virtual art show in June.  I spent much of the spring looking for vistas and images in the time of quarantine.  Here are some of them.  The first two are experiments following Lynn Ferris' use of repeated shapes.  I have three cows, three horses.

I also did some scenes around and vistas from my backyard. Two are late winter scenes and one is a image from last spring, "Gardner's rest."  How different the  seasons' colors are.!

Pine Shores workshop

 In March at the start of the pandemic when we weren't notified of the dangers, although many people were cancelling cruises and other vacation plans, we felt safe to attend a workshop at the shore.  The Pine Shores Art Assn offered a workshop with Mick McAndrews a local artist from nearby Pennsylvania.  He is an enthusiastic instructor and urged us all to work fast.

  The first of my works I liked better than the second.  It is a marsh scene from south Jersey, featuring egrets.  The colors provide a moody feel.

The second, done with a flat brush that I am not used to, but worth the learning experience, is of some roosters against a barn background.

Sussex County Doings

 Before Covid shut us down I was able to offer a free watercolor workshop during January on four Mondays at the Sussex County Art Society meeting  place in the Hampton Township Community Center.  We had at least eighteen people attend and it was a lot of fun.  My approach was to use watercolor paintings by various artists that each highlighted a different and particular technique and some elements of composition.  My first lesson was on a flat wash, noting that many artists work almost exclusively with flat surfaces.  I used a Jersey artist who worked in oils, Will Barnett, and used an old painting of mine that could be presented as a flat wash image.

The second lesson was a graded wash and I used a Jeanne Dobie Florida scene. This image is my rendering.  Learning from copying master painters!!.

We then moved on to more complex use of the flat wash, the blended and graded flat wash, mixing colors, here pink, orange and green in a Costal Village painting by Joyce Hicks, again my rendering as part of the demo.  

On the fourth, final and  most challenging day we attempted (I am tempted to say attacked, because the painting requires quick and forceful brushwork) some dry brush and wet in wet techniques.  We used the haunting image, "The Marsh Mill," by Edward Seago as our learning platform.  Again the image is my less haunting rendering from the class demo.

Lastly for this post I include a paint illustration for a fund raiser book for the Richard's building at the fair grounds, put out by Art in Sussex County.  Sue Struble assigned me to illustrate the rooster logo attending the demolition derby.  The book came out in late May with great illustrations by many Sussex County artists.

Winter Workshop

 Spending a few weeks during the winter in Florida allows me to take advantage of one of the many workshops offered during January, February and March.  In 2020 I took a workshop with Lynn Ferris in New Smyrna Beach at their wonderful arts center.  Lynn often emphasizes the repetition of shapes as can be seen in my coffee cups.

The second example is a young girl, rather grumpy, surrounded by balloon shapes.

But Lynn also had us experiment with bright colors as seen in this Florida beach house scene.