Key West Light

Well, here's one more painting for my lighthouse series, as well as my Florida series. I saw this lighthouse in Key West back in May, when Key West was the first stop of the cruise I was on. I loved my day in Key West, and also enjoyed finding a new lighthouse to photograph and later to paint. As in my painting of the Portland Head Light I used no white pastel at all in painting a totally white lighthouse. :-)

This was done on my usual 9 x 12 Art Spectrum.

Victoria-by-theSea lighthouse

Well here I am back to lighthouses and Atlantic Canada again. This light is in the Prince Edward Island town of Victoria-by-the-Sea. It's a charming little town on the shores of the Northumberland Strait. I enjoy the shops there, and just strolling the streets with their charming homes. It's well worth a visit if you get to PEI. This was done on my usual 9x12 Art Spectrum paper. Various pastels.

The Sentinel

This is one more for my lighthouse series! This is the Portland Head Light in Cape Elizabeth, Maine. The original tower at Portland Head was first lit on January 10, 1791. It's now set in a beautiful 90-acre park along the Maine coast. My dog Bran and I visited the park on my way home from Canada last week and I took a bunch of photos of the light.

Unfortunately my version of the light seems to have come out a bit shorter and sqatter than the actual light, LOL, but I'm still pretty happy with how the painting turned out anyway, as a painting.

It's on my usual 9x12 Art Spectrum. One interesting fact. Portland Head Light is entirely white, yet no white whatsoever was used in the creation of this painting. :-)

Cape Tormentine Light

I only got a few paintings done while up in Canada, and of those I don't think all are fit for public viewing, LOL. But this is one I was pretty happy with. I've been on sort of a lighthouse kick, and you can read about some of my other efforts in this regard starting here.

So this is one I did of the light at Cape Tormentine, which is where the old ferries to Prince Edward Island used to leave from, before the completion of the Confederation Bridge at Cape Jourimain. This is my typical 9x12 on Art Spectrum paper with a variety of pastels.

Fort Monckton Light

I guess you could call this part of my lighthouse series, but it can also be part of my Canadian series. This is from a reference photo I took up near our family summer home in Port Elgin, New Brunswick. It is part of the Fort Gaspareaux National Historic Site and is a small little park overlooking Baie Verte, which is a small arm of the Northumberland Strait.

The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge

My subject line is the title of a children's book written in 1942 about the Jeffrey's Hook Light, a small red lighthouse at the foot of the massive George Washington Bridge.

Although I've lived in New Jersey most of my life I never even knew about this little lighthouse until five years ago, when I happened to go with my sister and brother-in-law and their kids to the park that runs along the Palisades near the bridge. There I saw the Little Red Lighthouse for the first time, and thought both how cute and incongruous it looked.

Then, when I was trying to think of another lighthouse to paint for my series that will be in the art show next month, I thought of it. My time is short. I had no time to go down to the Jersey shore and capture photos of Twin Lights, or Barnegat Light, or any other NJ shore lighthouses, but I figured I had time to drive up to the bridge and get a photo of the little light to use as a painting reference.

So that's what I did yesterday morning before the Pastel Society of New Jersey's spring meeting. I drove north along the river, following the road that takes you underneath the GW Bridge, and stopped at a couple spots along the way to take photos of the lighthouse. I finally chose one for a reference, and painted this morning while I was on call for an upgrade at work.

That's it. I now have five lighthouse paintings that can go in the show - but I have more lighthouses I want to paint now that I've gotten the lighthouse bug. :-)

Sandy Hook Light

I had fun doing the Hog Island Light last week, even if from a distance. And I have always been fascinated by lighthouses. Two weeks ago I was down at New Jersey's Sandy Hook, and took several photos of the lighthouse there. Since I had lighthouses on my mind I decided I wanted to use one of them as a reference also.

Lighthouses are pretty popular, and maybe I can do a lighthouse series. Actually I realize I've already done a few counting the small Hog Island Light from last week. I've also done Maine's West Quoddy Head Light, and the light at Cape Jourimain, New Brunswick. That's four already - I've already almost got a series going here. I wish I had another lighthouse I could do. I'll have to look through my old photos. I may have one somewhere of the light at NC's Cape Lookout, or I could always go down to the Jersey shore to get some reference photos of "Old Barney" or Barnegat Light.

My Hog Island Light painting is the post immediate prior to this one of course. To see my other lighthouse paintings please go here and here.

Hog Island Light

This is another painting from my March trip to the Bahamas. I guess I managed to get enough paintable subjects to be able to call it a "series" now, LOL. This is the lighthouse on Paradise Island at the entrance to Nassau harbor. Paradise Island used to be known as Hog Island, but I guess it acquired a new and more appealing name when big tourist resorts were built on the island. :-)

You can read about the lighthouse here. It says there about it: "This is the oldest and best known lighthouse in the Bahamas and the oldest surviving lighthouse in the West Indies." and also: "Good view from cruise ships entering the harbor." This is true too, as my first view of the light was from the cruise ship. In fact I have another photo of it that I took from the ship which I may also try to turn into a painting.

Cape Jourimain

Well, it looks like it's back to Atlantic Canada again for me! This is just a "quickie" done in class last night from a photo of mine. Cape Jourimain is in New Brunswick, Canada, just at the approach to the bridge to Prince Edward Island. It's a nature sanctuary and a major birding hotspot, and also boasts a restaurant that serves wonderful food - mostly all locally produced and organic, and supports its entire visitor's center with "green" technologies. 

The lighthouse there is no longer operational, and in past years ospreys have nested atop it. I have seen at least a couple of my "life birds" at Cape Jourimain.

I finished my onion painting quickly last night. Christina was doing some demos after that, but I have taken her classes before and seen the same demos, so I took advantage of the last 50-60 minutes I had available to work on a quick additional picture, which is this one here - also a 9x12 on Art Spectrum Colourfix.

Quoddy Light

Here I am in North Carolina for Thanksgiving. It would be great to try some plein air painting here, but I'm staying with my dad, and just no time in the day to spare. But if I wake up early I can paint for an hour in my bedroom. So I brought some photos with me and am working on the idea of trying to use less than ideal photos to create my art. This is not *quite* part of my Canadian maritime series, being in Maine, but very close to the Canadian border. This is from a photo I took years ago when I took my son to see Quoddy Light, the easternmost point in the US.

The day was foggy and overcast, with a very flat light, and no shadows - so my photo is flat and faded too, so it left me free to try to imagine how it would have looked on a bright and sunny day. 

Barnegat Light

Well might as well post my other picture from my workshop today. For the last third of our workshop today Christina did a demo with a watercolor underpainting. She did it on a support she called "pastel canvas". Funny, pastel canvas is something I've never heard of before. But she had a book for us to look at called "Best of Pastels 2", with some gorgeous works in it, and at least 2 of them said they were done on pastel canvas.

Hmmm. anyway .... so she then gave us each a small piece to try, so we could do our own watercolor underpainting, and then pastel on top. Mine is from a photo of NJ's Barnegat Light. I've never done a watercolor underpainting before, and the canvas support was quite rough and did not take blending or layering very well, so it was interesting to work with. It did take *some* layers - but I could not achieve the smoothness I like, which I get with Canson. Though as I added more layers it got a bit better. I'm not sure this would be a support of choice though - but good to try new things, and the watercolor underpainting was rather fun.

This is also only about 6x9 inches, far smaller than my comfort zone. Christina also pointed out to me that I apparently was going for the 'leaning tower of Pisa" effect. I didn't even see it until she pointed it out! I did my best to correct it, but there was not much that could be done with this support - so mostly I just had to accept it and move on. But this was a fun experiment