Foggy Boat House

My friend, Larry, sent me a picture of a boat house and it was entirely monochromatic. What fascinated me were the lost edges and greys that are so common in the early morning harbors. I wondered what would happen it I put just dropped the smallest amount of color into it, so I painted a similar scene with some spots of color. I was careful not to make the color too bold. I like the result. I have painted many marine scenes with boat houses and will try this approach on my next one.

Water View of Amalfi

Took a long break in October but did a lot of painting.  This is the last of my watercolor paintings from my time in Italy this summer.  We took a water taxi from Amalfi to our hotel.  The view from the water is very different than from the road.  I did this painting on Arches 140 lb paper that is glued to board.  No wrinkling and painting on paper is soooo much better than fabric or clayboard.  I am interested to see how it holds up.

San Francisco Bay

Here is a switch from my Italian travels.  This landscape is seen while in bed, looking over my toes at San Francisco Bay.  It is a one point perspective so that the closer objects are seen from above and the distant ones tend to be more righted.  Kind of fun to paint this and it was a very quick painting, since I left the water in the Bay unpainted.

If a Tree Falls...

In painting this I am reminded of that philosophical argument: "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?". This is a study of textures with the rough outside of a fallen tree trunk and coarse cypress growth contrasted with the pillow-soft sails of the distant boats. There is no one around.
It's been a wonderful week of painting with the warm weather. I have lots of sketches to develop but while the weather is perfect, I will be painting on location.