Southwick Camel. Michele Clamp. Watercolor 13”x19”
Another from our trip to Southwick’s zoo. You can’t really go wrong with a camel as a subject. They have wonderfully shaped heads and bodies and a very characteristic posture. I’m leaving this for today as I’m not sure it’s finished but, apart from a few touches, I think I’m pretty happy with it.
(James says I should do more detail in the fur but I’m not convinced).
Shelburne from the flower bridge. Michele Clamp. Watercolor. 14”x11”
I’m getting behind with the blogs. There’s some stuff I need to put on that I’ve been procrastinating over but that can wait.
I painted this before. We’d visited Shelburne which is well worth a visit - especially for the flower bridge. This is a view from there which I’d always liked the composition of so why not give it another go?
As usual I’m in two minds about this. It was a bit of a struggle and I think the first version shown below was better. Darn.
Morgan Point Light. Michele Clamp. Watercolor. 11“X14”
Another go at this with a different composition and more muted colors.
Morgan Point Lighthouse, Noank, CT. Michele Clamp. Watercolor. 11”x14”
I can’t usually resist painting a lighthouse and this is from our recent trip to Mystic, CT with some friends. We tried to walk down to see the lighthouse but couldn’t quite get there so this is from a photo taken by the ever lovely Heather Longden from the water.
Lots to like here. Great sense of sun and light and some nice subtle shadows. There will probably be more to come in this vein.
This is the first chance I’ve had to paint something from our trip to Southwick’s Zoo. You see these wonderful macaws when entering the zoo. They are magnificent and posed obligingly for photos.
Figure Drawing at Post Road Art
Some good and bad this week. And, boy, does 3 hours of drawing take it out of you. As is common the later drawings were more successful and the final 30 minute one above actually has hands and feet that are recognisable. No real tricks here - just improvement based on practice and observation.
So let’s have a run through. First the quick 2 minute sketches.
It’s surprising how much you can get down in two minutes. A lot of these have the general pose captured which is good to see. However if it starts out wrong all is lost and two minutes is too short to recover.
Next the 5 minuters:
Apparently there was only one of these which may mean I misannotated the drawings but anyway - I had trouble from the outset here and didn’t manage to get much down. Never say I only show the good stuff.
Now the 10 and 15 minuters :
Not too bad. A little stilted and I’m struggling with proportions still but I’m fairly pleased.
And the final 30 minute one.
All in all a good night’s work and some time after for some wine.
Tulips. Watercolor. Michele Clamp. 14”x11”
Another go at the tulips. Greens are always tricky so I calmed them down quite a bit on this one.
Tulips. Michele Clamp. Watercolor. 14”x11”
Somehow this one got away from me. All went well until I tried to beef up the background to make the flowers pop and it lost something. Lots I like in here though - the lushness of the foliage and the delicate yellows of the flowers. And especially that wonderful blue on the vase.
This was intended for a show and I think I’ll have to give it another shot. Many thanks to Elizabeth Leake for her kind permission to use her photo.
Some intermediates :
Robin. Michele Clamp. Watercolor 14”x11”
After the stress of completing and submitting a show piece with only hours to go I relaxed with a robin. Actually it was quite stressful. Birds like robins with oval bodies and stumpy beaks can be tricky to paint with character. Half way through it was almost a bust but managed to salvage something in the end.
Cambridge in Fall. Michele Clamp. Watercolor 19”x14”
This year is the year of entering into shows. I’ve got 3 submissions in already and one has already been accepted. The deadline for the New England Watercolor Society was today and I’ve been procrastinating. Part of the reason is that this is one of the more prestigious shows and I’ve been in two minds about submitting anything. I’ve also been undecided as to what kind of picture to submit. Having visited some shows over the past 6 months the pieces that get accepted have a certain ‘showiness’ to them. This isn’t something that comes easy to me as I either prefer the quiet subtle scenes or the very loose moment in time scenes. But in the end I plumped for this scene of Mt Auburn St in Cambridge. I’ve had a few goes at this before with varying results but have never quite nailed it.
This one is almost there and I bit the bullet and submitted. We will see how it does.
