This week on Tuesday I headed out to do some painting. The weather has turned colder here in the last couple of days, with lows dropping into the 20s overnight and daytime highs barely hitting the upper 30s. In fact, it was so cold and clear today that when I stopped at Niles Beach to see if there was anything worth painting there, I noticed you could see the Boston skyline on the horizon. That’s clean air! When I started to paint last March, I experienced the same kind of paint-handling problems as I did this time, I just was inexperienced and didn’t realize that it was because of the cold that my paint would curdle up on the panel as I brushed it around. Between the curdling paint and the staccato tremors in my hands due to the cold, I ended up with a less than satisfactory painting, which you can see here:

Good Harbor Beach, 5x7, oil on panel.

You can see a close up of the sandy, lumpy texture here:

Good Harbor Beach, detail.

So, the next day I decided to minimize weather considerations and paint from the relative warmth and comfort of my car. I also switched to watercolor, in order to not leave a mess on the front seat. So, it wasn’t a total loss. I have to find a small dropper bottle to carry some denatured alcohol with me, as Richard Schmid claims that this will help keep the paints fluid in cold weather. I’ll report back when I know if it works or not.

Folly Cove Waves, 9x12", watercolor.

Dropper Bottle, 5×7″, oil on panel. Purchase here.

Good morning. Today’s piece is a little green glass dropper bottle I have in my studio, and honestly it’s a pretty subtle piece, with the details being very hard to discern in the photo. I veered a bit from the paintings I’ve done so far in that I put some of the background in. I think it works ok from a distance, (or in a small photo) but something about it bothers me up close…perhaps to takes too much attention from the main item, which is so subtle to begin with? I’m not sure I can place my finger on it just now, but if I do figure out what’s bugging me, I’ll post an edit for you.