Archive for

April, 2010

...

April 30, 2010 6:57 am

Wave Watching Again

no comments
by Jenny Armitage    in landscapes,postcard,seascapes,sold,watercolors

Making Waves (watercolor 5 x 7) SOLD

On our last trip to Newport, my husband and I found a tiny little state park, not even big enough for a highway sign from 101 let alone our road atlas.  It is a wave watchers paradise.  Wet fireworks.   We spent a happy hour there with out noticing either the time or how damp we were getting.  This little part of the rocky headland didn’t produce such spectacular spray, but we were fascinated by the whirl pools the breakers kept forming against the rocks.

I began by masking the whites.  Then I painted in the rocks in burnt sienna, phthalo blue, cobalt blue and a little raw sienna.  The water is phthalo blue, burnt sienna, and raw sienna.

SociBook del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Yahoo Buzz StumbleUpon
tags: , ,
No comment?
April 29, 2010 9:53 pm

OSU Moms Weekend

no comments
by Jenny Armitage    in Floral,for sale,postcard,shows,still lifes,watercolors

Mothers' Day Daffodils (watercolor 5 x 7) $25.00

[This painting is currently on display at Art in the Valley, Corvallis, Oregon.]

I’ve spent my gallery shifts this month making postcard sized paintings for the OSU Mom’s Day Weekend Craft Fair.  It’s a fun fair to do.  Where else do you get to see a crowd of college boys with their moms?

As part of the Mom’s weekend celebration I’ll be at the gallery demonstrating  polymer clay cane-making on Friday from 1:00 to 2:30 at Art in the Valley, 209 2nd Street, downtown Corvallis.  The craft fair will be on campus in the Memorial Union Quad.   The fair runs from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Saturday.

Three Tulips (watercolor 5 x 7) $25.00


 


SociBook del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Yahoo Buzz StumbleUpon
tags: , , , , , , , ,
No comment?
April 25, 2010 8:58 am

Silver Stream

no comments
by Jenny Armitage    in landscapes,postcard,seascapes,sold,watercolors

Sliver Stream (watercolor 5 x7) SOLD

Like yesterday’s paintings, I did this little watercolor at the gallery last Wednesday.  Postcard sized paintings work really well for gallery shifts.  Space at the gallery for painting is limited and I want to be able to drop whatever I am doing to greet and talk to patrons.  At this scale there’s hardly ever a bad moment to stop painting.

These little paintings make good sketches for working out larger work too. It’s so much easier to experiment with composition when the paper I’m risking is only 5 x 7.

The subject is Agate Beach in Newport at sunset.  If the stream has a name, I don’t know it.  And it wouldn’t surprise me to discover it seasonal runoff.  It’s course over the sand varies every time I visit.  But it’s always wide and shallow.  This Spring the it’s mouth was over fifty feet wide and perhaps two or  three inches deep.  I liked the silver reflections in the late evening and early mornings.

The palette is burnt sienna, new gamgee (yellow), quinacridone deep red rose, cobalt blue and phthalo blue.  I painted the sunset colors in tandem working first in the sky and then in the reflections and back again to the sky as I added new colors.  I began with the yellows, then worked along through the oranges, reds, and purples.  The purple is phthalo blue and quinacridone.

SociBook del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Yahoo Buzz StumbleUpon
tags: , , , , , ,
No comment?
April 24, 2010 5:00 pm

Breakers Up Close

no comments
by Jenny Armitage    in Uncategorized

Beach Breakers I (watercolor 5 x 7) $25.00

One of the things I particularly enjoyed about the beach at Brookings is just how big and how close the waves break on the beach.  I’m used to looking for larger waves three or even six or seven waves out from the beach.  At Brookings the leading wave appears to be the largest crest.

Wave watching is always a very direct immediate feeling.   At Brooks that feeling is multiplied many times by the size of the leading waves.

I tried to catch the feeling of immediacy in photos, but I don’t think I managed it.  Here are my first little attempts at catching it in paint.  In both paintings I used my daughters as scale.  Beach Breakers I is my eldest and Beach Breakers II is my youngest.

I use the same technique for both paintings begining with mask and painting sand and water before removing the mask to paint the white water and figures.  For Beach Breakers One I used my usual beach palette: burnt sienna, raw sienna, cobalt blue and  phthalo blue.  For Beach Breakers II I added quinacridone red red rose for the figure.

Tomorrow I may try the waves in pastel.

Beach Breakers II (watercolor 5 x 7) $25.00

These paintings are currently for sale on-line at my Etsy shop.

SociBook del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Yahoo Buzz StumbleUpon
No comment?
April 19, 2010 7:11 am

The View From House Rock

no comments
by Jenny Armitage    in landscapes,postcard,seascapes,sold,watercolors

The View From House Rock (watercolor 5 x 7) SOLD

This is the view looking west from House Rock just north of Brookings, Oregon.

I’m not sure why House Rock is named House Rock.  When we were on it we weren’t sure if we were supposed to be on it or looking for it.  A little google search made it clear we were on it, but no information about the name.  I have my guesses though.  The hill was surprisingly flat on top and hiking down below it I discovered wild onion, wild iris, wild rose, and strawberries.  Only the iris were in bloom.  Many years of  hiking around ghost towns have taught me which domestic plants go native when the settlers leave.  Onions, rhubarb, strawberries and roses were common survivors in Colorado and they appear to be survivors here too. I think there was once a house on house rock, not that the rock is shaped like a house.

The palette is burnt sienna, raw sienna, cobalt blue, and phthalo blue.

SociBook del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Yahoo Buzz StumbleUpon
tags: , , ,
No comment?
April 18, 2010 7:58 am

Beach Walk

no comments
by Jenny Armitage    in animals,figures,postcard,seascapes,sold,watercolors
Walking Her Dog on the Beach

Beach Walk (watercolor 5 x 7) SOLD

This another painting of the beach at Brookings.

I just had to do one of the dogs.  Dogs and beaches  go together.  So much to see.  So much to smell.  So many, many other dogs.

This older dog wasn’t tugging too hard, but he was strongly encouraging his person to walk faster.  I want to see.  I want to run.  I want to go.  I want to do.

I used my typical beach palette: burnt sienna, raw sienna, phthalo blue, cobalt blue.  I masked the waves before painting to preserve the whites.  Painted last Wednesday at Art in the Valley, Corvallas, Oregon.

SociBook del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Yahoo Buzz StumbleUpon
tags: , , , ,
No comment?
April 17, 2010 6:54 am

Beach Birdie

no comments
by Jenny Armitage    in figures,postcard,seascapes,sold,watercolors

Beach Birdie (watercolor 5 x 7) SOLD

We call my youngest daughter “Bird” and “Birdie” and even “Birdles” because she looked a little like a bird when she was a baby.  It’s been a long time since I thought she looked much like a bird.   But crouching down on the shoreline, she made me think of long leggity shore birds.

The palette is simple, cobalt blue, phtalo blue, qinacridone deep red rose, and burnt sienna. I used liquid mask extensively to make preserve the white paper.

See more little girl paintings at Fine Art America: girl paintings.

SociBook del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Yahoo Buzz StumbleUpon
tags: , , , ,
No comment?
April 16, 2010 8:58 am

Sunset at Brookings

no comments
by Jenny Armitage    in figures,for sale,postcard,seascapes,watercolors

Sunset at Brookings I (watercolor 5 x 7) $25.00

Last weekend I was in Brookings, Oregon for the Watercolor Society of Oregon’s Spring convention.   We visit the coast often, but we rarely get so farther south than Florance.   Brookings is on the California boarder and getting there from Salem efficiently requires dipping into northern California, hardly a hardship as the redwoods are on the boarder too.

The southern coast is a different. Brookings is a rocky rather than a sandy beach.  The land drops off rapidly into the ocean there.  The result is that the waves do not feel like them are above you as they do in Lincoln City, but they break larger closer in.  I haven’t figured out how to paint the immediacy of Brookings breakers, but I’ll get it.

In the meantime, here are three  postcard sized Brookings sunsets.  I did the first on location and the other two at the gallery yesterday.

Sunset at Brookings II (watercolor 5 x 7) $25.00

The people in the third one are my husband and youngest daughter.  It was one of the few times anyone stood still on the beach that evening.  Stephen and the girls were much too busy skipping stones to stand still.

Sunset at Brookings III (watercolor 5 x 7) $25.00

These paintings are currently for sale on-line at my Etsy shop.

SociBook del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Yahoo Buzz StumbleUpon
tags: , ,
No comment?
April 3, 2010 9:11 pm

Two Postcard Paintings For the Show at Art in the Valley

2 comments
by Jenny Armitage    in Floral,postcard,shows,still lifes,watercolors

Little Green Mister (5 x 7 watercolor)

Here are the last  two watercolors for my one woman mini-show at Art in the Valley, Corvallis Oregon.   Both are much smaller versions of recent paintings.  Both paintings were painted at Art in the Valley in late March.

I hang the show this Monday.  It will hang until Tuesday, May 4th.  During the show, I will be painting in the gallery on Wednesday April 14th, Wednesday, April 21, and Wednesday, April 28th.

Single Lily (5 x 7 watercolor) SOLD

SociBook del.icio.us Digg Facebook Google Yahoo Buzz StumbleUpon
tags: , , , , ,
2 comments!