Marblehead, Ohio~~Lakeside

Lake Erie Through the Trees

Oil on Panel  2010

6 x 8

This is the view I painted last Sunday morning at the Marblehead Peninsula during the Ohio Plein Air Society Paintout.  As mentioned in the last post, it took me a while to get in my groove, and I'm not sure if I ever really did.  I loosened up by the time I got to this painting, (after a good night's sleep which helped the head cold turn the corner), but not to where I wanted to be. 

Oh well.  C'est la vie. 

It was still beneficial practice learning to paint the colors of Lake Erie and so great to be with other painters.

HW Farber asked me what cornhole is in reference to the last post.  Ahhh. Cornhole.  How to explain it.  For those of you who don't know what it is and those of you who do and would like some mild enternainment courtesy of my brother then you might like to visit here. 

I'm not entirely sure where the game started, maybe southern Ohio.  Very popular on college campuses, tailgating parties and parties in general.  It is lots of fun, even the atheletically challenged (me) can play.  It's just tossing a bean bag at a board with a hole in it. 1 point if the bag lands on the board, 3 for getting it in the hole.  Play usually goes to 21.

Enjoy the video!

From Here to There (sketch to painting)

This summer I spent a few days with my sisters at the beach in Vermilion, Ohio on the shores of western Lake Erie.  I sketched a bit one afternoon, loving the variety of blues in the water.

For the last two weeks while "trying" to paint a commission piece--which isn't going so well--I started and finished the painting above.  I usually work on a couple of pieces at the same time, if a painting is too wet, I'll move to another.  It also keeps my energy for the paintings fresh.  This time I think I was using other paintings to avoid the commission, but also in hopes that I could take my enjoyment from the other works and infuse it into the commission.  So far its not working. ugh.  Fortunately there isn't a huge rush on the commission and I plan to get to it when I figure out what is blocking my creativity. (maybe I'll post a pic of what's happening so far)

So about the sketch and painting pictured here. In the painting I ended up turning Lake Erie into a landscape. Initially I had painted water, but I came back to the canvas a day or so after the water was in and it kindof morphed into landscape--which I know so much better than water--simply because I don't see the Lake on a daily basis, whereas I do study my little corner of the world everyday.
I painted a few pieces this summer which have a similar composition to the painting above.  I'm toying with the idea of painting a Horizon Line series.  I love the meshing of color, verging on abstraction; still landscape.

Silhouette and Shadow Play

sister
Two days spent on the shores of Lake Erie
Evening in Vermilion

and

Birdwatching Galore (naturally!!)