splashing around

I've been making some small watercolors lately - taking a little butcher tray of paint with me when I go out on a walk, just tossing it in a bag along with a few brushes, a bottle for water usually gotten somewhere on site (in this case an island stream), a pad of 5" x 8" watercolor paper, and a willingness to stay loose and look for the big shapes in nature.  Detail has its place, but it's not always what I'm after, in painting.   Here are a few of these recent watercolor sketches, from last weekend when my husband Ryan and I visited an island in Penobscot Bay.   We took a walk to a beloved place, and he beach-combed while I painted for a while.

First is a five-minute sketch of the island meadow, with hot sun on the grass, and clouds rising over the treeline:

Then later, a ten- or fifteen-minute sketch from the shade of the porch, with a view out toward the harbor:

And another five-minute sketch, the view from the island toward the northeast.  I only had time for the barest indication of sky, cloudbank, islands, water.  I could make large oil paintings from any of these sketches, I think.

And one final watercolor, a quick one from the meadow again - the shape of a spruce tree, the white-paper cloud rising over it, and the colors of the grass - yellow ochre from all the heat of summer, some reddish-brown and green too:

Splashing around with watercolors, sitting in the shade on a hot summer afternoon on an island in Maine... life is fine!

I hope the same for you - happy summer!