Channeling Monet's Water Lilies

Claude Monet- I'm pretty sure everyone learned about him in sixth grade art class, but in case you didn't- here's what I'm talking about.

-Tom

This week I'm posting images from our late August 2011 trip to Little Pond, Maine.

Interpretation of Montana

I've been painting whenever I get a free moment. That isn't often. Usually, its while Megan and I are watching American Idol-it is pretty much the only TV show that we watch regularly, with the exception of reruns of Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe, which has to be THE funniest show on T.V.

I've put a time limit on these little studies that I've been working on. At the end of the T.V. show, I'm done. That's it...put the brush down, clean up and go to bed.

The inspiration for this piece was a photograph sent to me by my friend Bryan from Montana.

How'd I do? I've been reading "A Painter's Guide to Color" by Steven Quiller and that has been very helpful- especially where it comes to mixing colors and how to create paintings where everything isn't just all bright colors. So far, it has been rewarding to read his book.

Any comments or suggestions about books techniques, etc. would be greatly appreciated.

Tom

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Little Pond Watercolor

Thanks to Chris, aka the Chicago Nature Lady, I have recently started painting again. I broke out my Winsor and Newton Cotman six tube watercolor set and came up with this impression of a sunset in Munroe Falls, Ohio And a long time ago, before Megan and I were married, I painted this winter scene of Little Pond.

And here is my latest watercolor, based on a photo I took this past August in Maine while visiting her parents at Little Pond.



I really don't know what I'm doing when I start these things. I'm learning about watercolor as I go along! I'm pretty happy with this picture, but I think the colors are a bit exaggerated. Perhaps that is my artistic freedom that I have implemented. Biologically, I think the painting is fairly accurate. The blended blue and greens in the foreground give the impression of the bullhead lily, water lily, and water shield that rim the pond. The sunlight is reflected in an open water area, as do the dark reflections of the pines. I'm open for critique here. What do you think of this painting? How can I get improve my work?

Tom

Munroe Falls Sunset Watercolor

Munroe Falls Sunset, originally uploaded by Tom Arbour.

Thanks to Chris, the Chicago Nature Lady, for inspiring me to paint a little bit. She often displays her artwork on her blog. This painting was inspired by a photo that I took over Christmas vacation while Megan and I were visiting my parents. It was fun and relaxing to paint with watercolors again.

Tom

Alum Creek State Park Beach

This afternoon, Megan and I went to Alum Creek State Park Beach. It turned out to be an interesting experience. Megan noted how many different languages she was hearing, I noted the muddy water and plethora of personal watercraft, and we were both a bit bewildered by all the emergency vehicles around, not to mention the several times lifeguards went into the water screaming. Anyways, this was quite strange, and through it all, I managed do do a little drawing of our "reservoir-side" (opposed to lakeside) view.

Art and Turtles in Downtown Columbus

I wore my turtle t-shirt to our trip to the Columbus Arts festival today, but I sure didn't think I would see any live reptiles! Megan and I traveled down to the arts festival this morning. We looked around a bit, saw some art, including several turtle themed pieces of jewlery, etc. and then decided we would head home. I wanted to walk down to the river, pictured below, to get a few shots of the Columbus skyline. Sure enough, as I glanced over the concrete side rail into the river, I spotted a giant cottonwood log. It had came to rest upon the retaining wall, and on it was basking a huge female map turle! Very cool.....as we kept looking, we saw no less than four other turtles on the log. Male map turtles are pint sized compared to the egg laying females. We saw at least one mature male, and some even smaller immature guys or gals. These little turtles have brighter coloration on there heads-in the photos look for the yellow lines. Finally, the ubiquitous Canda Geese arrived on the seen, lured by food tossed over the rail by art fair goers. The geese didn't bother the turtles. They sat basking right on the way through. The female turtle was truly huge. I would say it was pushing 16 inches, and the head alone had to be three inches wide! It was great to see map turtles in this segment of the Scioto. Yes, it isn't what a natural river should look like-at all (it is dammed and really is more like a lake than anything else), but seeing map turtles, a riverine species, brightened the place up just a bit for me. So, if you do go to the arts festival, look for the turtles on the cottonwood log along the riverside sidewalk at the north end of bicentennial park!

Tom