Seascape Artist

What do painting seascapes and doing laundry have in common?

First … for me … both are just as necessary in my life as breathing. Being from the landlocked Midwest … one would not expect me to have an affinity for seascapes and seascape painting … but rivers or lakes are just as fascinating to me as either the Pacific Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico – I have not visited the Atlantic Ocean yet that I remember anyway.

I have always loved watching the water .. seeing what critters may be in it swimming or diving or just edging around looking for their next meal. I was never a freshwater fishing person … too boring just sitting there watching the end of a pole waiting for it to bob up & down. Whereas watching the water between hiking around it or next to it was lots of fun … still would be if my RA (Rheumatoid Arthritis) could be reined in and the inflammation downgraded to livable for walking and exercising instead of making me a candidate for passing out just looking at a sidewalk let alone a hiking trail.

Yes … I do seriously miss the marvelously exciting adventures of hiking and biking – I always loved going places and doing things … I am a thin active person trapped in a couch potato body / life at the moment … I keep hoping for a medical miracle … but until I get one .. I will be the one painting those seascape moments of wilderness with no people that held LOTS of silence broken only by the wind, waves and my own breathing.

I have discovered that I can paint seascapes sandwiched in between loads of laundry .. between washer & dryer .. between the second load for the washer … watercolor pencils are easy to sketch out something … go load the washer … brush water over the layer … load the dryer … it makes the time pass VERY quickly when doing laundry and I sometimes wonder where the day went when doing all my laundry … until I look at the amount of painting I have accomplished that day!

I’ve learned that I do not dislike doing laundry now that I am doing something fun between laundry tasks … give it a try and discover watercolor pencils and their magic too!

I went to buy a new 12″ x 12″ square frame today – the one I had broke but the major reason is that I promised my daughter’s Mother-in-Law a painting for her church … event … not sure what it will be called yet … if she wanted to raffle one off to draw in more visitors. I need to create a painting that is pretty and nice to put in the frame to be raffled or something.

I got 2 really pretty blue frames … they are a metallic bright blue … they are metal frames according to the label. They have a mat that has four 4×4 openings – a collage frame … interestingly enough … I have some lovely 6″ x 6″ Bristol – smooth finish … or I have 12″ x 12″ watercolor paper 140 lb … not sure yet quite except that I got the blue because I believed it would be the best choice for seascape artwork which is what I want to donate. Hot pink and pea green did not seem to be a good match to my artwork so bright blue it was for both … seascapes have lots of blue in them and blues usually would be a great idea color match for many seascape paintings.

Perhaps 4 separate palm tree paintings? Or 1 large seascape? Decisions decisions decisions!!!! I do not have to decide right now tonite .. I just know that I will be using several shades of blues in both watercolor pencils and india inks … and perhaps even watercolor crayons perhaps? Only time will tell.

I saw some lovely square 8″ x 8″ with 5″ x 5″ opening frames today as well as 8″ x 8″ openings matted down to 5×5. Paper and frame sizes are changing from the old standards … I love the 6″ x 6″ size for my seascape tea party individual drawings … I have it all planned to create a plethora of single item drawings to be scanned and assembled together in the computer to create various seascape tea party prints. I plan to print them my self on 12″ X 12″ sheets of 140 lb watercolor paper too so I can frame them easily. The new papers and frame choices are very exciting and make for an interesting body of work for me in the near future of 2010.

My goal is to create at least one seascape tea party scene each month. I can re-use elements from one to anther – so far I have 3 plants and a palm tree in front of a sunburst created … I need some tea party items … tea cups … tea pots … a cheshire cat grin would be fabulous too I think … perhaps this is my love of Alice in Wonderland crossed with ocean beach love .. lol … interesting will be 2010 to say the least!!!!!