Summer's over and some sketchbook pages

Sorry folks for the dry spell.  Family events, the day job, painting, sketching...I have been trying to cram a lot in before the days got a lot shorter.  I finally finished a painting that I have been working on since June. As soon as I get some good photos, I will be posting those.  I've been trying to beef up my studio supplies to be ready for events such as Paint Annapolis, that I will be attending the end of this month as one of the juried artists.  Finally catching up on my reading, finished two great art books, Richard Schmid's "Alla Prima" and Bill Creevy's pastel book.

Since I've last posted....we've had an earthquake and a hurricane; the earthquake was just a shake, rattle and roll...minor in comparison to the two days of rain and high winds that we had to endure until Irene moved on, but we survived that with surprisingly minor damage.  Some folks around us weren't so lucky.

My Sketchbook Project sketchbook is almost full.....I posted some of those above.

This weekend's paintings....

Sunset on the Patchogue Bay

Southampton Boat house 

 These are the paintings I worked on this weekend.....it was a nice cool morning when I did the boat house and the sunrise....In order to do the little island in the bay, we had to purchase a permit to be able to park to paint!!!

A little island, Shinnecock Bay

Sunrise on Shinnecock Inlet

How sad things are today

Today I found out that the platform where I painted this little study is being dismantled because someone complained about it's existence without first getting all the facts.  This platform was a place of art, meditation and sharing the company of others, all the while enjoying nature.   It was a happy place, a place to enjoy the salt marsh and it's inhabitants.

I remember this day that I painted this very well.   This was a time when I was regaining my freedom and sense of self back from years of a bad and unhappy marriage.  I dedicate this painting to the memory of that platform, the joy, peace and contentment it gave it's builder, and all the friends and family that he shared it with.  

Recent Paintings

During my stay in Cape May, I completed quite a few paintings and I have just one sitting on the easel in my studio that needs some extra tweaking.

Here are two photos that were taken with my IPhone with the paintings on the easel as I was painting on location.  The studio photos are on my website along with the other paintings at

http://web.me.com/gnmelento/Site/Welcome.html

Enjoy!

Productive Summer

Well, so far, summer has been very productive for me.  Trying to get out as much as I can to paint which means not much time spent on the internet...

To the right is a sketch I did this evening down by our waterfront...this one was done in my Art House CoOp sketchbook....in the distance is Fire Island....

It was a very breezy evening....I have been spending so much time painting that I haven't opened my sketchbook in a while....

In a recent workshop I took, we were shown a scaled down version of a travel easel.  I have a 9 x 12 Judson's Guerrilla Box that I use to paint plein air, but I wanted to try a smaller, more portable set up.  I have  6x8 Thumbox that I was using as a portable watercolor set up but I always travel with a palette so I really don't need the box for watercolor, so I converted it to a portable pastel set up.  The little study below was done on a 5x7 Pastelbord.

Chloe's First Birthday

Chloe turned One today.  Our dog children are part of the family, not pets... so we had a little celebration with the dogs eating the cake.  Better for our waist lines...  :-)

I bought a doggie birthday cake with a carob frosting and a carrot cakey peanut buttery inside.  It looked like a big crumbly dog cookie.   I bought Chloe a special birthday hat.  The owner of Fetch, where I got the cake, gave Chloe some special dog cookies as a gift from her.  Chloe got a brand new collar and a stuffed horse for her birthday, which Mack promptly ran off with...

Chloe had a rough first year, with a scary stretch, but she is healthy now, happy and very, very loved.  She has a wonderful, sweet temperament.  You just want to hug her. And as far as the hat, she'll do anything for a treat, including wearing clothes and hats.

The party was cute, with Mack and Stella trying to hog up all the cake.  Stella cleaned up all the crumbs and we still have leftovers so that they can indulge during the week.  Mack's turn in December....

Last post of May....Blue ribbon winner

May ended with a bang, so to speak.  A pastel painting I entered in a local group show won first place in the pastel category.  I was thrilled.  I was also thrilled over the large turnout for the Reception for the Show...I am also the Publicity person for the group so it was great to see the fruits of my labors with such a large turnout.

This painting was one of the ones I did in Snow Hill during the Snow Hill paint out.  It was the first day I was out painting and we passed these bushes on the road...we drove down the road and I asked my husband to turn around so I could look at these one more time....sometimes your subject just screams to be painted.

Well May was a good, productive month.....looking forward to June.