Studio Wall Installment III

Peaks no.11

Tue. September 25, 2007
5pm

Today i didnt have my car. it was HOT. i loaded my radio flyer with my; paint box, jar of white dutch paint, brand new small tubes of viridian and alizarin crimson, a yellow canvas, a light sweatshirt and leash for heta. We wheeled our way down the street (15 min walk) to a small spot i haven't yet checked out.
There are more people that access this spot as it is at the end of a more residential area of the island. Not an ideal work space, but me, the radio flyer and heta cant walk that far with wet paintings. Of course, the people that gathered had something to say but for the most part let me be. Heta found a few empty(ish) gross lobster shells and chomped on those. I searched for some shade to paint in and took an unusual amount of time deciding what and where to stand and paint.
Standing in the shade of a more cliff like part of the beach, I spoke with a man above my head, Scott. He was banging on what appeared to be a deck in the front of his cottage about 15-20 feet over me. He said he was trying to fix it and that there was no ground underneath it. He was worried about his two yellow labs falling through as his brother did 15 years ago. His brother knocked himself out with the beam that hit his head and the 15 foot fall to the beach undertoe. This wooden planked front yard was again rotting, and his entire house was about 5 feet from falling into the drink. hopefully, his brother wasn't visiting soon. I decided Scott's shady cliff was not where i wanted to stand as he would keep talking to me and his dogs as he continued to hammer away on his yard. I moved far away.
i continued changing locations on that small beach until the light changed just a bit to make some mountainous rocks look interesting. i again sat and quickly painted as the sun lowered and dramatically highlighted the shadows and incoming tide. adding the final touches and shadows i ran out of my alizarin. i had brought my new tubes down with me and searched where i had stashed them. they were no where to be found. i knew i had them with me when i first came down. then it dawned on me, i had left them at one of the inadequate locations i was originally going to start painting at. these original locations were on rocks closer to the water which were now submerged by the rising water levels. i waded into the shallow water hoping to spot my new lost tubes of green and red paint, to no avail. waves had washed them out and my indecisiveness an hour and a half ago left me shit out of luck. what is worse is i had no colors to mix a black with. that is why you see the muddy brown color on top replacing what should be much more dramatically dark shadows.

Studio Wall Installment II

Peaks no.10

Thur. September 20, 2007
1:30pm

Today is my birthday! It has turned out to be another gorgeous day at the end of September. i ran off to go paint this before cole and i had to to catch the 5pm ferry to portland for drinks with friends.
i took heta to the backside of the island with me, and sat to paint by lodging a bunch of big rocks around my easel as for the box not to slide away. I do not remember much about this session aside from the ocean and sky both being very pleasing blue colors. i wanted to include the sky for that reason but compositionally wanted to leave the horizon out to have the final piece be more about clusters and less about landscape and space. i compromised with the thin sliver at the top suggesting the other land masses vaguely in the distance.
upon returning home there was a mysterious package wrapped in brown paper and left on the steps leading into the house. Someone had glued little purple flowers (asters?) in a horizontal line across the front numbered 1 thru 6... and had written a lovely birthday note under the six flower lineup.

Peaks no.9

Wed. September, 19, 2007
2:30pm

I have been meaning to paint this segment of the island for a few weeks now. Cole and I have been admiring the shapes the water makes between the backround land masses, small peninsula and shore when the tide comes in. Another painting could be made to exaggerate those shapes, more so than this attempt.
The light was extremely bright on the water to the left. Im almost out of titanium white utrecht paint and have been using the end of a jar of dutch white paint i had for some larger paintings. its viscocity does not exact utrecht's and it was odd mixing and using straight out of the jar... i think the light on the water would have been more clearly "bright" if i was using my more familiar utrecht white. Until the end of this jar of dutch paint, so shall it be.