A nice treat

My trip to the barrier beaches of Martha's Vineyard these past three weeks did not disappoint.
Once again I saw Black skimmers, piping plovers, willets, black-bellied plovers, ruddy turnstones, American oystercatchers, nesting black-backed gulls with fluffy babies, common terns, least terns, roseate terns, sanderlings, and osprey. Baby seals were also on the beach - so cute!

But this year I had a special treat. I was there at the perfect time to see mating horseshoe crabs. In a remote stretch of beach it was fascinating to watch this species older than dinosaurs. The females, about 1/3 larger than the males, would move toward the shallow water and attract numerous males. Some females had at least five males in attendance and she would bury herself in the sand beneath the water. Often the only way I would know she was there was her tail protruding above the sand.

As I child I remember seeing numerous horseshoe crabs during the summer but for decades since there have been so few. It was gratifying to see dozens in 60 yards of beach.
Here is one of my photos.

Finished

The World is my Oyster

9" X 12"

Original Oil

The Wave

Notice the bluish teal spots in the the breaking wave. I am using the color to give a sense that the sky is reflected in the delicate bubbles.

A new painting

As promised, I am back to a wildlife piece.
The last oystercatcher piece I did (see blog post March 20th) is slated to for the
Wildlife Treasures Show
Nature in Art Museum
Wallsworth Hall, Sandhurst, Gloucester
England
which runs July 25th - September 3rd, 2017.

In this rendering, I wanted to show not only a different position for the bird but also paint a different treatment for the water. Rather than blues and greens, here is a chance to play with browns and golds.

For the crest of the wave I grabbed one of my least used tubes of paint, Rembrandt Deep Gold. Not sure when mixing it with burnt sienna, yellow ochre, and naples yellow if the metallic will read, but at least while working on the piece it has a nice effect. And, something I haven't tried before.

Finished

Cottages

14" X 18"

Original Oil

This and more of my new original oil paintings will be at the Louisa Gould Gallery, Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts starting May 24th.

There will be a special artist reception with live music Sunday, May 28th from 5 - 8 pm. 

I'll be there to show you my completed work.

The warm colors

Up to this point, I have been using cooler colors for the pink & green house and the pink & blue house. The reason I wanted to paint this piece was the contrast of the warm colors of the sunlit near house with the two other houses.

I am really enjoying these yellow and oranges.

Almost there. This has taken a lot of hours, but painting that lower left orange rocking chair made it all worthwhile.

In case you are wondering where these gingerbread houses are, they are in Cottage City, Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard. You can find out the history of this place with this link
 http://www.didyouweekend.com/content/gingerbread-cottages-oak-bluffs-marthas-vineyard
and this link:  http://www.mvcma.org/history.html

Tiny brush work

The upper pink balcony took a lot of tiny brush work. On my palette I have three main pinks mixed, starting with a base of rose madder, and am using them throughout the piece.

Some roof detail completes the upper right section.