A quick sketch

I had a little less than an hour before leaving for breakfast from our condo here in Sedona this morning, so I did this quick one from our balcony. I think I got the darks a bit too dark. Hope to go to another location and set up for a little more time tomorrow.
Morning view, oil 6" x 8"

Practice

It's not nice enough for painting outside here yet, so for practice I pulled out some reference photos (from the thousands I've taken). And since I'm still missing being in Hawaii, I put on KPOA --live through the internet from Maui--and painted these.

The palms is kind of a combination of images. There was no distant island in the photos, but I thought the composition needed it. I'm learning to simplify palm fronds. It's always a temptation to over paint them. Palm study, oil, 19" x 6"

The surfer had just finished and was leaving the beach where we were boogie boarding on Oahu. Enough for today, oil, 8" x 6"

Next week: Sedona, Arizona.

Two more from Kauai

This taro fields painting was the last for my workshop. Friday morning started out with very iffy weather. First light revealed clouds and passing showers. Our group assembled on the West side of Hanalei at an open field with views of the mountains to the South. I wasn't very excited by the location, but after wondering around for a half hour while deciding if the weather would hold, we set-up. The sun came out and I found this spot to paint. After about an hour we had one more ten minute rain and the rest of the day was great. All the rain on this island makes for constant, picturesque waterfalls. This took about four hours. After three the worker showed up at just the right moment.















Taro fields and tea leaves, oil 16" x 10"

My last day on Kauai, I wanted to paint palm trees. I found this house with a view of Hanalei Bay and stood in the beach park to paint it. Hanalei Home, 12" x 9"