Thursday, June 19, 2014

Painting at Bridge Gardens

Last Tuesday I painted at Bridge Gardens in Bridgehampton with the PALS group of plein air painters. The garden is about an hour's drive from here and the weather did not look good...but we went anyway. It was extremely humid and misting. When we arrived at the gardens which are part of the Nature Conservancy I decided I would sit in my beach chair to paint. That way I could attach my beach umbrella to the arm of the chair and be semi sheltered. It worked for the most part, but there wasn't anything that helped make the paper dry. LOL Luckily I worked on 5 x 7 paper so it wasn't too bad.


Next I went up the hill and sketched under the wisteria arbor next to the house. I was using my accordion sketchbook that I made (from Cathy Johnson's video) and that paper sopped up the moisture even more if that is possible. I was working in watercolors and ink but the paper ended up being too damp to use the pen until it dried completely. I did most of the watercolor work at the garden and when the paper finally dried (hours later) I went back in with the pen.



9 comments:

  1. Lovely! And very interesting to hear about your experiences with paper and humidity. It's almost never an issue here in my corner! I love the sense of depth you've captured in the lower painting.

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  2. That is a real tricky situation you describe, Joan,but you handled it like a pro. Beautiful paintings! I love the mix of greens with bright colors splashed in on the top painting. The bottom sketch describes a pretty garden scene. Love them both!

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  3. Both paintings are beautiful, but that last is just amazing. I'm trying to figure out the rectangle within the rectangle but whatever you were trying to accomplish, it worked in spades. That is one gorgeous spread!

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  4. Tina - Thanks. LOL It was like painting on a wet tissue.

    Celia - Thanks so much.

    Sherry - Thanks. You really can't see it well in the photo but the top of the page has the lattice of the portico with the wisteria leaves poking through it.

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  5. Tina - Thanks. LOL It was like painting on a wet tissue.

    Celia - Thanks so much.

    Sherry - Thanks. You really can't see it well in the photo but the top of the page has the lattice of the portico with the wisteria leaves poking through it.

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  6. Dear Joan - I am so glad you didn't let the weather keep you from painting. Such lovely foxglove and the wisteria arbor turned out so beautifully. Loved the rectangle affect... really shows off your lovely art. Have a beautiful week-end.

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  7. I really like both of these Joan, to the viewer it does not show of the trouble it took to do them under humid conditions, they have a lot of depth and colour and as ever I am in awe of what you achieve in the great outdoors

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  8. Wow! you did a lovely job here, especially in those conditions, foxgloves aren't easy at all but you've nailed them. Clouds over the bay is great too, lots of atmosphere! Sorry I've not visited much, I have tried but blogger is just not having it. I've had to go "round the houses" as they say, but I got here in the end!

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  9. Thanks so much Debbie!

    Lorraine, glad you like these. Thanks so much.

    Kevin, thanks so much for working to get here. Blogspot has been very slow recently.

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