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.

 

 

 

 

What happened to all the boats?

 As you can see in my previous post one of my reference photos shows the masts of a lot of boats in the harbor.

My painting will not.

 

It's not that I can't paint 30 boats, but they aren't part of the story I want to tell. A jumble of boats from different boat building eras says more about the harbor than about the boats.

 

There were three wooden boats which grabbed my attention and they are my subjects.

 

Painting Water 

Many painters don't list painting water as one of their favorite aspects of painting. I find it not only one of the most challenging elements but also one of the most satisfying. 

 

My first step is to identify what type of water it is, besides being wet.

Is it calm? reflective? fresh or salty?

Is the day windy, slight breeze, or dead calm?

What color is the sky?

 

In this piece I have saltwater, a slight breeze, a light cloudy sky, and a good deal of distance between the horizon to the most foreground section of water. All of this comes in to play.

 

 

 

 

 To capture the distance, the color of the water has to change from the far distance (cool) to the foreground (warmer and more saturated.) 

With the slight breeze the "ripples" will go from barely anything to larger wavy water. The breeze will also mean I do not have detailed reflections of the boats but rather broken less defined shadows.

 

The photo above shows how I am building this water. Below the breakwater and above the hull of the background boat the water is "filled in." Below that I am leaving gaps in the paint and will come back in with additional colors after this blocking is done. 

Note: Just below the breakwater on the right side of the painting I am leaving the water lighter as a subtle nod to the lighter clouds above it. 

 

This is a big board, 32" x 44", so there are a lot of brushstrokes to cover it.