Sketchbook
I’ve done a great deal of traveling over the years through America, Canada,
the British Isles, France, Germany, the Bahamas, the Virgin Islands, Costa Rica, and parts of South America.
I use my sketchbooks both to record my trips and to exercise my painting skills. I get some concentrated time to complete a real painting on the spot, but oftentimes there are only 30 seconds to 3 minutes to capture the essence of a scene. Then, back in my hotel room, based on my visual and sense memories (never with photographs), I get to bring the paintings to life. In essence, I combine the speed of a gesture drawing with the depth of a finished painting.
By continually forcing myself to rapidly record the essence of a scene plein air and then complete it later from sense memory, I daily hone my skills as a visionary plein air artist. In effect, I force myself to reduce the essence of the live reality into a handful of in situ strokes and then subsequently bring those strokes to life by infusing them with my visual interpretation of the sounds, feelings, smells, and even tastes that permeated that fleeting moment in time.
I have literally hundreds of these small paintings. I have often been asked to take the books apart and frame the paintings for a show. That won’t happen. They represent a living diary of the places my husband and I travel to and the things we experience together. They are very personal. I am willing to share them -- but not part with them.
I have, however, put up a handful of them in this gallery for two reasons.
- I really enjoy them and am happy to share them you.
- They are indeed the practice drills I use to hone my skills. They represent visionary plein air painting in its most raw and elemental form.
I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
|
Click picture for close up view
|
|
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
