Can there be such a thing as too much beauty? I find myself overwhelmed by the scenic landscape here on the coast Maine. I can’t seem to get my fill of it. I’ve been doing a lot of staring, agog, and whenever I remember that I have a camera, I get lost shooting too many pictures.
The weather is beginning to warm now that the spring equinox has passed, and I am anticipating painting plein air. But I think I will need to detach from the beauty in order to sketch or paint it. You’d think I could just paint from my gazillions of photos, but my art spirit seems to need the memories and impressions one gains only through the experience of painting on site.
So what have I been doing to fill up the long winter, you may ask. I’ve been going to scenic locations to hike or to shoot photos two or three times a week, making sketches of rocky formations, painting practice-studies from photos, and doing color and value exercises, and I am working my way through Scott Christensen’s online “Adventure of Painting” course. Plus I attend weekly 3-hour figure drawing sessions at the local art center. I was invited to speak about figure drawing there at the monthly salon meeting a couple of weeks ago. I showed examples and talked about how it helps me with putting figures in my paintings, especially when I am commissioned to paint live at events like weddings.
The art center is exhibiting members’ work at the library in Southwest Harbor now, a show titled “Spring, Sprang, Sprung”. I offered a few of my florals in celebration of Spring, and a new one I call “Facing the Sun”.
Here is a quick slideshow of 17 of my scenic photos from this past winter in Maine. Enjoy!
