Cattails

 

 

Cattails can be used as a handy pointing device. The darkest one is pointing toward the breast of the yellow-headed blackbird. I was careful with its placement. Too close and one could imagine it piercing the bird. Too far away and the pointing would be lost.

 

 

 

A new painting

 During the summer I work on commissions. I find it a good time before I start painting for my winter shows.

 

Here is the start of one.

  Yellow-headed blackbirds are one of the more striking birds we have here in the Pacific Northwest. It is always a treat to see them around our lakes and streams during the nesting season.

 

  This may look like a simple composition. In many ways it is. A loose background, a hint of near-ish cattails and grasses in the lower left, and the foreground grasses and cattails.

  However, it is the placement of each cattail and grass blade which is important. Making this a vertical painting is helping to further the story of the long cattails and also illustrates a common position the yellow-headed blackbird takes when singing.

 

 

 

 

 

Finished - Painting #1000

 Yes! My 1000th painting is finished. 

This post is a continuation of the post on May 8, 2026. I needed the underpainting of the foreground grasses to dry before I could add the grasses in sunlight. In the meantime I completed the five paintings for my 2026 Sea, Sand, and Shore Collection at the Louisa Gould Gallery on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.

 

Here is painting #1000.

 

 

Touching

Original oil by Linda Besse

24" X 36" 

 

 

 

 

Finished

 

Old Friends

Original Oil by Linda Besse

32" X 44"  

 

 

 

Furled Sails

 

It's amazing how much time it takes to paint furled sails. One would think since it is a much smaller area than an open sail it'd be a breeze. But, to make the wrapped sail feel like cloth takes a lot of care to build the creases caused by the ropes and ties around the sail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boat Hulls

 

First I painted the buoys. The two matching ones didn't have much to them, but the round ones took some extra time with the stripe and reflection.

 

Next up were the hulls. I started on the water line (a deep cranberry) then moved to the white hulls.

A key to making this painting work is not only painting reflections of the boats in the water but also creating reflections of moving water on the boats. 

 

Much of this upward reflection is trial and error as I play around with lighter streaks, blending, darkening, more light streaks, etc. The idea is to make the reflection present but not a focal point. At the same time I worked on the reflections in the water, softening them and blending in warmer greens.

 

I've been looking forward to painting the wood of these boats. It was the wood and timeless nature of the boats which sparked the concept of the painting.

 

 

 

Water

 

At this point the boat reflections are just roughed in. I'll be able to gauge their look better once the hull of the boats is painted.