More thoughts on light.
If you want to know a little story about this unassuming scene, click here.
Summer Sounds
Finished up the last of my summer paintings yesterday. Here’s one of them. A shame you can’t hear the soft symphony of bug & birdsong found here.
Under Stacks
“Fireflies Remembered” acrylic on 5x7 claybord.
End of summer memories are piling up. Painting so much I can’t keep up with photographing many of them. (Not that I really want to, photographing art is the bane of my existence.)
But, here’s one.
The rest you can catch on via my newsletter. (It’ll take me a bit until galleries get updated around here.)
& here’s a link with information on helping out these glorious little lanterns.
Out Back
When you’re young, there are things in life you take as a given. Because, what reason would you have to second guess them? As I’ve grown, the one thing I long for with an ache that feels like a part of me is missing is a garden. (Happily, in my current place we’ve worked hard to set up a mini one, but I still dream of acreage.)
This scene is of the first garden in my life, and I’ll always think of who tended to it, what it taught & provided, and how special it is to have a garden.
True Story
Sometimes the ocean really is that purple.
& now I’m enamored with light filtering up through tree lined streets.
Love Notes -
The most recent one in my sketchbook, next to another from last year.
Lost Inside
“Lost Inside” acrylic on panel, 2023.
Books, as ever. Here’s a bonus photo of those buttery brushstrokes I’m always so focused on.
Old Into New
The colors & textures of this field - strewn with decaying logs and fresh sprigs of grass - is a reminder this time of year always brings. Let things change.
Sunset at the Cove
“Sunset at the Cove” acrylic on clayboard.
I have a crush on this place. Expect to see more of it.
Warm up laps
At the point of quick studies and planning paintings with sketches.
See more of my plein air sketchbook here.
Burnout
Well - that was one hell of a dry spell. An entire year. Glad to be back with a brush in hand.
Master copy / color study of Sorolla’s “Main Entrance: Sorolla House” c. 1916 to ease back into this.
Laugh or You'll Go Crazy
Though really, why not do both.
Ten points if you can name who belongs to this rarest of smiles.
Hi Hello
Back from disappearing for a bit.
Fell in love with the simplicity of a no. 2 pencil recently.
Is there anything greater than Toulouse Lautrec?
I didn’t think so before I did this study and I’m more convinced after.
Pages in my sketchbook - two color studies playing around with palettes I don’t naturally gravitate to and this study of ‘At The Moulin Rouge’ circa 1895.
Lautrec has made a solid case for bringing black onto my palette.
Tucked Away
Oil on panel, 2021. Lauren Elyse S.
This park has a lot of little secrets, but one of my absolute favorites is this lion fountain that you have to wander a bit to find.
Sketchbook Dump
Just a few pages of my current sketchbook as I practice & plan for more plein air sessions.
On A Cliff's Edge
“Cove at Midday” Lauren Elyse S, 2021. Oils on clayboard.
Literally. Finally got out to plein air with my new, lightweight set up yesterday. Could’ve done without the sand wasps about my ankles.
Am Wandering
My love affair with wandering and this cove continues. A few drawings and a painting from today.
The Start of Wandering
Click either photo to read more about this drawing.
It’s time I got back outside more to art. The last year and a half was a lot of indoors and digital work, time to flip the switch.
Sorolla's Alcazar
It feels a bit cliché to have Sorolla as an art hero, but he’s earned that status about twenty-three thousand times over and all you need to do is look at one single piece of his work to understand why.
Digital study of his Rosebush at the Alcazar of Seville.