Sunday, March 31, 2019

Lichen on Torfey Iceland Study 1

Lichen on Torfey
in Breiðafjörður, Iceland Study 1
during my five weeks solo Island stay
on June 26, 2005, painted March 30, 2019
20" x 14" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam,
and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness
and permanence, wax resist, masking fluid, and #3 graphite on
140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100%
cotton extra white watercolor paper
framed, including sales tax + shipping $385.00

Note: To see the location of this and what it was like during my 2005 five weeks solo stay
on the Bjarneyjar archipelago in Iceland click HERE


Saturday, March 30, 2019

Spruce Shadows on Snow

Spruce Shadows on Snow
on fresh snow by my home
on March 23, 2019, painted March 30, 2019
7" x 5" (w x h), Payne's Gray Winsor & Newton
watercolor, selected for light fastness
and permanence on 140 lb. Fabriano
Artistico cold press fine grain 100%
cotton extra white watercolor paper
framed, including sales tax + shipping, $115

Friday, March 29, 2019

Minneola Conversation 1

Minneola Conversation 1
The first study of two of Minneola Tangelos
on a bank of new snow by my home
on March 23, 2019, painted March 25, 2019
20" x 14" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam,
and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness
and permanence, #3 graphite, and wax resist on 140 lb.
Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100%
cotton extra white watercolor paper
framed, including sales tax + shipping, $350

Thursday, March 28, 2019

Minneola Tangelos by Others

The Art of Minneola Tangelos
in oil and acrylic by various artists

 
1
Three Tangelos
Anthony Enyedy, American, California
Oil on canvas, 40" x 30" (w x h), Sold
Artist's web site HERE
 
2
Two Tangelos
JoAnn McNeely, American, Illinois
Oil on panel, 2011
Artist's web site HERE
 
3
Still life with Minneola
Jos van Riswick, Dutch
Oil on panel, 8" x 5" (w x h), Sold
Artist's web site HERE
 
4
Tangelo on Blue
Bobbi Heath, American, New England
Oil over acrylic, 4" x 4" (w x h), 2016
Artist's web site HERE
About this demo HERE
 
5
Green Shadow
Sarah Sedwick (1979- ), American, Oregon
Oil on canvas, 8" x 10" (w x h)
Artist's web site HERE
Artist's blog HERE
See the stages of this painting HERE
 
6
Minneola Tangelo
Jana Bouc, American, San Francisco Bay Area
Oil on panel, 6" x 6" (w x h), 2009
Artist's web site HERE
 
7
Tangelo and Slice
Jason Walcott, American, California
Oil on linen panel, 5" x 7" (w x h), 2016
June 2016 Monthly Giveaway
Artist's web site HERE
 
8
Tangelo Tangelo Tangelo
Pamela Hunt Lee, American
Acrylic on canvas, 7" x 5", $100, Sold
Artist's web site HERE
 

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Minneola Conversation 2

Minneola Conversation 2
Minneola Tangelos on a bank of new snow by my home
on March 23, 2019, painted March 27, 2019
20" x 14" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam,
and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness
and permanence, and Prismacolor archival quality acid free
waterproof fade proof ink, and wax resist on 140 lb.
Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100%
cotton extra white watercolor paper
$550 USD framed including tax and shipping

Sunday, March 24, 2019

Model Nodine Study 1

Model Nodine Study 1
at our Kennebunkport Art Group
painted March 22, 2019
5" x 7" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam,
and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light
fastness and permanence, and #3 graphite on 140 lb.
Fabriano Artistico cold press fine grain 100%
cotton extra white watercolor paper
framed, including sales tax + shipping $115.00

Saturday, March 23, 2019

Model Nodine Study 2

Model Nodine Study 2
at our Kennebunkport Art Group painted March 22, 2019
5" x 7" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam,
and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness
and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on
140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100%
cotton extra white watercolor paper
framed, including sales tax + shipping $115.00

Friday, March 22, 2019

Boating into Sun

Boating into Sun
at Cape Porpoise Harbor, Kennebunkport, Maine
on February 22, 2019, painted March 20, 2019
7" x 5" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam,
and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness
and permanence, wax resist and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink
on 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100%
cotton extra white watercolor paper
framed, including sales tax + shipping $115.00 SOLD

Thursday, March 21, 2019

Susan Abbott Painting Provence

The Art of Susan Abbott is in a new digital book

In 2015 I studied watercolor with Susan Abbott in both the Bahamas and Vermont. She became a mentor and friend. Two of her oils and two of her watercolors hang in my home. She's an accomplished painter in watercolor and oil. This, below, is one of her recent paintings spotted online that I see as spectacular. It works on so many levels exhibiting her fabulous technique.


1
Landscape Painters
Susan Abbott
This watercolor can be seen in Susan's essay,
Job Description, on her web site HERE
Susan's just published a digital book.

Painting Provence
by Susan Abbott
183 pages
Kindle Edition / Apple iTunes Edition

Susan Abbott's visual tour through the vineyards, markets, villages, and lavender fields of Southern France, painted plein air in the Luberon Mountain region near Gordes and Roussillon. With 140 oil and watercolor paintings, as well as her insightful essays about this unique place, she takes you to her vision of the Provence she's traveled to for the past twenty years.
Ten chapters encapsulate her vision of Southern France: On the Table, Market Day, In the Village, Lavender, Stones and Walls, Trees and Quarries, Fields and Farms, Skies, Vineyards and Orchards, and Vistas. Each chapter opens with a brief informative essay by her.


3
Looking Through
to Mountain Views

Watercolor, 11" x 16" (w x h)

4
Fields Near Gordes
Watercolor, 20" x 14" (w x h)

5
Woman in the Apt Market
Watercolor, 12" x 16" (w x h)

6
Market Stall, Provence
Watercolor, 12" x 9" (w x h)

7
French Color
Oil

8
Rows of Lavender,
Twilight, Provence

Watercolor 16" x 10" (w x h)

Available at:
amazon (Kindle) HERE (with a preview)
Apple (iTunes) HERE
You can see paintings from this book for sale HERE.
20% of the painting sales are donated to the Vermont Land Trust.
Susan's web site HERE

Out Fishing

Out Fishing
a dinghy moored in Cape Porpoise
Harbor in Kennebunkport, Maine
on March 1, 2019, painted March 20, 2019
7" x 5" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam,
and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness
and permanence, wax resist and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink
on 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100%
cotton extra white watercolor paper
framed, including sales tax + shipping $115.00

Tuesday, March 19, 2019

Buoys from the Sea

Buoys from the Sea
at the Cape Porpoise Pier
in Kennebunkport, Maine on
March 1, 2019, painted March 18, 2019
12" x 9" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam,
and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness
and permanence, wax resist, and Uniball waterproof fade
proof ink on 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold press
rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper
framed, $650

Buoys from the Sea has been selected to be in the University of Maine's 2024 Maine Agricultural Calendar for the month of August.

In July-August, 2023 Buoys from the Sea has been in the Maine Gallery, Wiscasset Show Working Maine, having been judged into that exhibition.

Sunday, March 17, 2019

Unloading Lobster Traps

Unloading Lobster Traps
at the Cape Porpoise Pier
in Kennebunkport, Maine on
March 1, 2019, painted March 15, 2019
12" x 9" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam,
and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness
and permanence, wax resist, and Uniball waterproof fade
proof ink on 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold press
rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper
framed, including sales tax + shipping $195.00

 
Technique - About that Texture
 
You only see the texture in certain areas, not the sky, not the lobsterman, etc. The rough paper helped make it possible using the high bumps of the paper and wax. I rubbed a clear wax paraffin crayon over the lobster trap area before painting the colors. The wax covers the high points of the paper. It resists water, hence watercolor, producing the textured highlights.

I picked this technique up when looking closely at a John Singer Sargent painting at his major MFA show in Boston. He used rough paper a lot. You can use any clear paraffin. Sargent probably used a clear wax candle. He used wax resist a lot, quite a lot, reflections, highlights.

I've also used it to make a rope line in water. Just the wax line makes the rope. And I've used it when painting oranges, the rough peel's highlights. Also, you can layer the wax with layers of watercolor colors, alternating the wax and watercolor to resist only that color thus not layering and creating another color leaving the bumps with the color already present.

Wax resist is different from dragging your semi-dry brush lightly over rough paper. When you drag a semi-dry bush over rough paper the whites are the valleys of the paper, watercolor hitting the high points of the paper. But with wax resist the textured whites are the tops of the paper's bumps.

Paraffin wax crayons are available at Dick Blick. They say Susan Scheewe Wax Resist Sticks but then ship Grumbacher Resist Sticks, same thing, $4.49 for four wax stick crayons. But any clear wax will do.


Friday, March 15, 2019

Low Tide Done

Low Tide Done

a lobsterboat, 32 Below, Monkey Town, departing the
Cape Porpoise Pier in Kennebunkport, Maine
on March 1, 2019, painted March 14, 2019
12" x 9" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam,
and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness
and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on
140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough 100%
cotton extra white watercolor paper
framed, including sales tax + shipping $425

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Winter Still Scene

Winter Still Scene
in Shapleigh, Maine on Feb 14, 2019, painted March 13, 2019
12" x 9" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam,
and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness
and permanence, wax resist and Uniball waterproof fade proof
ink on 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold press rough
100% cotton extra white watercolor paper
framed, including sales tax + shipping $195.00

Tuesday, March 12, 2019

Friday Model Study 3


Friday Model Study 3
at our art group in Kennebunkport, Maine
on March 8, 2019
9" x 12" (w x h), using Naples Yellow,
Pyrrol Orange (both Daniel Smith), and
French Ultramarine (Winsor & Newton) for
the flesh, and Burnt Sienna and French Ultramarine
(both Winsor & Newton) for the hair, selected for light
fastness and permanence, sketched with Uniball waterproof
fade proof ink on 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold press
rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper

Sunday, March 10, 2019

Friday Model Study 4


Friday Model Study 4
at our art group in Kennebunkport, Maine
on March 8, 2019
9" x 12" (w x h), using Naples Yellow,
Pyrrol Orange (both Daniel Smith), and
French Ultramarine (Winsor & Newton) for
the flesh, and Burnt Sienna and French Ultramarine
(both Winsor & Newton) for the hair, selected for light
fastness and permanence, sketched with Uniball waterproof
fade proof ink on 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold press
rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper

Friday Model Study 2


Friday Model Study 2
at our art group in Kennebunkport, Maine
on March 8, 2019
9" x 12" (w x h), using Naples Yellow,
Pyrrol Orange (both Daniel Smith), and
French Ultramarine (Winsor & Newton) for
the flesh, and Burnt Sienna and French Ultramarine
(both Winsor & Newton) for the hair, selected for light
fastness and permanence, sketched with Uniball waterproof
fade proof ink on 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold press
rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper
framed, including sales tax + shipping $185.00


Fine Art Group
I'm always honored to be among the fine artists
in our weekly art group in Kennebunkport, Maine,
so many accomplished styles as seen
in last Friday's session.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Saturday, March 9, 2019

Friday Model Study 1

Friday Model Study 1
at our art group in Kennebunkport, Maine
on March 1, 2019
5" x 7" (w x h), using Naples Yellow,
Pyrrol Orange (both Daniel Smith), and
French Ultramarine (Winsor & Newton) for
the flesh, and Burnt Sienna and French Ultramarine
(both Winsor & Newton) for the hair, selected for light
fastness and permanence, sketched with Uniball waterproof
fade proof ink on 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold press
rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor paper
framed, including sales tax + shipping $115.00

Thursday, March 7, 2019

Olympic Gold in 5th End Final


Olympic Gold in 5th End Final
A commission, painted one last time
after I realized that, after focusing on the form
I'd created of John Schuster, who'd been blocked
by the TV cameraman, I forgot to keep his pants
gray and had painted them black, the color of the
Swedish team, sheesh. Thanks John for noticing
before I'd shipped it to Jennifer, the buyer.
From a photos by Jennifer Stannard
at the Gangneung Curling Center in
Gangneung, South Korea, on Feb. 24, 2018,
sketched often at various times since
then, almost final painting on Feb 25-March 1, 2019;
final painting March 3-5, 2019, 14" x 11" (w x h),
Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam, and
Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness
and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on
140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold press fine grain 100%
cotton extra white watercolor paper
$230 SOLD


Photo taken at the Olympics in Korea by Jennifer Stannard

A Satisfied Recipient
It arrived! Late day today but the box was on my doorstep glowing at me in the dark as I pulled in the driveway. I absolutely love it! Every bit! I am torn between hanging it in my home office or the living room, but tonight it will grace my bedroom so that I can see it last thing and first thing! I notice new things each time I look! Thank you so very much! -Jennifer

Monday, March 4, 2019

Nodine to the Right


Nodine to the Right
at our art group in
Kennebunkport, Maine on March 1, 2019
9" x 12" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam,
and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness
and permanence, Uniball waterproof fade proof ink, and
paraffin wax resist on 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold
press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor
paper, framed, including tax and shipping, $185

Nodine to the Left



Nodine to the Left
at our art group in Kennebunkport, Maine on March 1, 2019
5" x 7" (w x h), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam,
and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness
and permanence, Uniball waterproof fade proof ink, and
paraffin wax resist on 140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold
press rough 100% cotton extra white watercolor
paper, framed, including tax and shipping, $115

Sunday, March 3, 2019

Olympic Gold in 5th End

Olympic Gold in 5th End
The score on this end, known as a five-ender,
is so rare only once before had it occurred in the history
of the men's or women's Olympic Curling final.
It clinched the Gold Medal, final score 10-7.

A commission
of Tyler George's 2nd throw
in the winning Gold Medal Match with Sweden,
left to right, Niklas Edin, Sweden Skip, John
Schuster, USA,  John Shuster, USA Skip, John
Landsteiner, USA, Matt Hamilton, USA, on a
throw by Tyler George, USA (unseen);
from a photos by Jennifer Stannard
at the Gangneung Curling Center in
Gangneung, South Korea, on Feb. 24, 2018,
sketched often at various times since
then, final painting on Feb 25-March 1, 2019;
14" x 11" (w x h unframed), Daniel Smith, Schmincke Horadam,
and Winsor & Newton watercolors, selected for light fastness
and permanence, and Uniball waterproof fade proof ink on
140 lb. Fabriano Artistico cold press fine grain 100%
cotton extra white watercolor paper
$230 SOLD


This is the photo taken at the Olympics in Korea by Jennifer Stannard, who commissioned the painting.
 

Obviously, the NBC cameraman presented a problem. So, I researched the match, and found overhead camera shots which were helpful. I also found shots of the blocked person, USA Skip John Shuster, taken in different throws. From this collection I was able to draw John's form.
 

Jennifer Stannard is on the board of USA Curling. She writes on the USA Curling web site: "Curling has become a major aspect of my life - the sportsmanship and ability to engage body and mind while surrounded by supportive teammates, connections with people throughout the U.S. and across the world devoted to and intrigued with the sport. The 'soul' of curling resonates with so many themes in our culture - athleticism at all levels, sportsmanship (cheering for the underdog!), social connections, international competition, creativity (strategy AND bonspiels!) that to 'spread the word and spread the sport' seemed a natural. The USCA is all about that and I can bring the perspective of a curler that has participated in all club levels of the game - Love the sport, love the people, love the organization; I'm hooked!"


Photo of two Minneolas on fresh snow by my home
in Shapleigh, Maine on Feb 14, 2019
Dizzying

"These heights are dizzying."
"It's not so bad; keep climbing."
"Oh, yeh, it could be worse."
"Recall that curling team?"
"Sheesh, they thought we were stones."
"Sliding, spinning, on ice?"
"That was so dizzying."
"Yeh, this is way easy."

© 2019 Bruce McMillan