Friday, June 16, 2017

AUSTRALIA, PART 1

 


A trip to Melbourne, Australia was to be my first - although for M, it was her 3rd visit! Staying for awhile in the city, we decided the best way to see what Southern Australia had to offer was to take a few different day tours.  One of them went to Phillip Island - home of the famous racing circuit and of course the Penguins! The drive out there was quite long but took us through some amazing countryside. On the island, one really got a feel for how exposed this part of the coast actually is - we had some rain squalls but also some sunshine - wind was very strong from the West.





I did the small 5" x 7" oil study (top) shortly after visiting as our time there was limited so no possibility of setting up for any plein air painting. I had to make do with small sketches done in my sketchbook. Still the experience was amazing with huge waves, sea spray, gulls, shearwaters and further offshore, albatrosses. Unfortunately those were too far away for identification but a welcome sight non-the-less.





A stop at the koala reserve turned up a few different individuals (mostly asleep) but we did find an active adult feeding low down in a tree that I managed some excellent reference photos of. Birds were quite good with a selection of parrots and other more common species seen.




Viewing the penguins was scheduled for the evening so we settled in at a viewing site and waited patiently until they came ashore. I could see a raft or two of them just offshore through my binoculars but it was almost dark when they first arrived. We were watching the shoreline and when a wave receded on the beach, suddenly a small group of them were standing there! In ones and twos they waddled ashore right past us but we weren't allowed to take any photos so any future paintings of them will have to rely on my sketches and drawings. So all in all, a wonderful start to our visit down under.

Thursday, June 8, 2017

WATERCOLOR EXHIBITION



A new exhibition of my work is happening now at McBride Gallery, 215 Main Street, Annapolis, Maryland, USA. I am one of a few other artists showing watercolors and the exhibition runs from June 1st to July 16th, 2017




I do hope that anyone in the area will come along to the gallery and see the exhibition as I have some of my best work hanging there.




I have tried to select a wide cross- section of paintings - from still life to figurative to landscape.





The landscapes come from as far away as Hong Kong, Australia and California. I also have some work completed on the East Coast of the USA.





I have been mostly working in oil these days but was glad to have to opportunity to finish off a few watercolors for this exhibition. I do have more planned but have to finish my current project first - paintings from Iceland!







Watercolors shown above:
In the Adirondacks, 17.5" x 16.5"
Fallen Pomegranate, 15" x 22"
Asian Pear, 7" x 11"
The 12 Apostles, 7" x 11"
Along the Shore, 5.5" x 7"
Lisa, 10" x 13.5".