Painting on vacation....

As you may deduce from my attire, the weather on Grand Cayman was sunny and WINDY!  But the view was spectacular!  [no snow!]

is like being a child in a candy shop in your dreams.  Everything tastes good.  No one is there to stop or influence your choices.  All colors look appealing.  Everywhere you turn, something beautiful or unusual is tempting.  Time stands still.  I am painting out of time, beyond time.

Writing is a recursive activity.  Thank, write, read over what you've written, think, make changes, write more, reread, think, make more changes.  Writing is an on-going revising process.

Painting is recursive in a similar manner, but with less stop and go.  The thinking process goes on simultaneously with the painting process.  Each color chosen, the placement of each stroke of the brush involves continuous decision-making, evaluating, assessment, adjustment.  However, painting in watercolors allows for much less revision than painting in oils or pastels.

"Carribean Morning," 9 x 12, unfinished watercolor by Joan Cole, copyright 2011

I have not painted with watercolors for at least a year.  It is so different from oils or pastels.   It is working from light to dark, which means knowing before I start where I want my lightest lights or whitest whites left.  So, the tops of clouds and crests of waves must stay untouched until I've worked my painting around them.

"Carribean Afternoon," 9 x 12, unfinished watercolor by Joan Cole, copyright 2011

That is the opposite thought process required for painting in oils and pastels.  There, I can start with midtones and build up and down in value.  Or, I can begin with my darks and work up.

How I long for my oils to push around like vanilla butter frosting to shape the waves I'm watching roll in and crest and break.  The colors are so spectacular, and I am so rusty with watercolor.  It's a delicious challenge.

(Note:  This post was written a week ago when we were vacationing on Grand Cayman Island in the Carribean.  I spent the week painting in watercolors, writing, and relaxing.  We'll have to wait to see what I do with the paintings I created.  As you can tell, I don't consider them finished yet.)

My Finished (?) Still Life

Still Life with Fruit, pastel, 9 x 12" by Joan Cole 2011

          Well, I think I've finished the pastel I began in Claudia Post's class on Tuesday at Maple & Main Gallery in Chester, Connecticut.  I will be eager to hear at next Tuesday's class the critique of my fellow artists and Claudia herself.  I lost track of time Thursday evening as I was working to bring this piece from the way it looked in my previous post to what it is now.  It certainly was a much warmer activity than the outdoor paintings I had been working on last weekend.


          As I mentioned in an earlier blog, I had begun two plein air paintings of the same view of our lake and the surrounding snow-covered woodlands.  Unfortunately, the snow gradually began to melt from Monday until Friday.  Luckily for me, snow began falling yesterday afternoon, and now the lake and the ground are back to white.  So I'm hoping I'll be able to finish one or both of those oil paintings this weekend.  I've got my fingers crossed....  We'll have to wait and see.

Day 1--Pastel Class

Initial drawing

          This is the initial drawing that I laid in at my first pastel class yesterday at Maple & Main Gallery in Chester.  Master pastellist Claudia Post is an excellent teacher!  As I mentioned in a previous post, I have painted in pastels before.  At last, however, I'm learning the proper way to paint with them.  Yesterday, I learned to use NuPastels (a hard, pressed form of pastel) to lay in the drawing.  Unlike oil paints, which have the name of each color on the label of each tube, NuPastels have numbers pressed into the sticks, indicating each color.  I  began with a fairly light reddish brown like burnt sienna. Oh yes, I also learned how to sharpen NuPastels, so that I have a fine point with which to draw.  (A boring, but necessary, task!) 

          After getting a preliminary sketch down, I refined my drawing with a darker brown.  Then, I continued refining with the darkest green and darkest red.  After that, I began adding local color.  Today, I'm looking forward to seeing what difference moving to my softer Rembrandt pastels will make.  I am so excited!

          Stay tuned!

Happy New Year!

Well, Christmas is past and New Year 2011 is waiting in the wings.  Only four more days till we all get to begin anew.  My hope for myself in the year to come is for major growth in my skills--both artistically and technologically.


I got a head start on the latter in December, when I completed another Jan Blencowe course; this one was "Marketing for Artists."  She has shown me many areas in which I can grow my art business, not the least of which is being more active with blogging, Facebooking, and Tweeting.  Along these same lines, I'll be a returning member of Arianne Goodwin's Smartist Telesummit in January, so I will continue learning more about the marketing side of the art business.




This 9 x 12" pastel sketch is the view we had from our hotel porch in Port Clyde, Maine, in August of 2006.

 I'm very excited to be registered with Claudia Post at Maple & Main Gallery of Fine Art for a class in pastels, starting in January.  When I see the level of work that her present class of three young students is producing, I wonder if I can do half as well.  They are SO very talented.  Be that as it may, I know I will be pushed by Claudia to go beyond where I am in my painting, which is what I look forward to.


Cherry Tree, 9 x 12, pastel on black paper

I enjoyed painting our cherry tree in April of 2005.  This is the view we have from our side deck. 



Apple, pastel, 9 x 12"

 This is one of the few pastels that I have done using pastelboard.  I had fun learning to use it with Nancy Tracy, another of my colleagues at Maple & Main.  Working on the rough board felt more like painting than the two previous examples, which were on paper.

I KNOW that I will have better examples to show as I learn at last how to REALLY use pastels.  Claudia Post, you'll have your work cut out for you with me!

YOU ARE INVITED to the Opening of Maple & Main Gallery of Fine Art. . . .

. . . .next Friday, the 17th of September,  at 5:00 o'clock in Chester, Connecticut. 

In celebration of "Come Home To Chester" weekend, we will open our doors to the public for the first time!   More than thirty artists have gathered together to create both a showplace of their works as well as a studio in which to share their knowledge and expertise.

....It's only one week from today!  So, I hope you've put the date on your calendar. 

Come tour the new gallery, enjoy

the art, meet the artists, share some delectables, and visit the

                                                            studio and classroom space. 

                                                            Some of my latest work will be on

                                                            display.  See you then.

Please visit http://www.mapleandmaingallery.com/.