Søndersø Moment

Posted on May 13, 2019 by Sarah Sullivan

Søndersø Moment

After a very social weekend, it felt good to walk over to Søndersø, a small lake north of Copenhagen, and paint for the day. I found a bench near a swimming beach and spread out my gear.

The sunlight and clouds on the water was challenging and I was on my third try at it when an elderly woman walked out on the dock and stayed long enough for me to draw her into the picture. I liked the way she held onto the rail and soaked the view in. She seemed to appreciate it deeply and I wanted to capture that feeling in this sketch.

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Rhododendrons of Nivå

Posted on May 9, 2019 by Sarah Sullivan

Rhododendrons of Nivå

Yesterday I went to a rhododendron garden in Nivå, a small Danish municipality north of Copenhagen. There my desire to paint plein air overcame my Southern California reluctance to call 50 Degrees F (10 C) acceptable painting weather.

There were hedges and mounds of blooming flowers and I was overwhelmed by the beauty and the possibilities. I walked a long time in the immense garden until I found an elevated spot where the blue of the Kattegat Sea helped to emphasize the robust colors of the garden.

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A Better Black Paper

Posted on May 6, 2019 by Sarah Sullivan

Belgium Windmills

We passed an art supply store in Belgium and, out of curiosity, went in. Looking over their selection of paper, I noticed that they had a black watercolor paper made by Royal Talens under their van Gogh label. Although I like the black Derwent paper I typically use, it is not intended to be a watercolor paper and at times this limits what I can do with it.

I bought a 12-page tablet of the van Gogh paper and was eager to see how it compares to the Derwent paper that I brought along on this trip. Specifically, I wanted to know if it can take multiple coats of paint, how it would handle lifting of color, and how well it could take very wet or very thick paint. I worked all of these questions into this small abstract composition above and was pleased with the results overall. In particular, I like that it holds strongly onto the first coat of paint when I glaze over it with a second coat, as on the windmill in the front left.

Both papers are sturdy, but the van Gogh paper is textured and stands up to the watercolor media better. Both products come in a tablet with is great for sketchbook artists. The Derwent paper has a slight suggestion of red to it which I have appreciated very much as it seems to help make the colors glow. The van Gogh paper does much better with watery paint and both do equally well with thick paint.

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Describing Nature’s Beauty

Posted on May 2, 2019 by Sarah Sullivan

Describing Nature’s Beauty

There are so many ways of looking at, thinking about, and admiring nature. Some do it with words, photos, or paint, others in less common ways. Over the years I have come to appreciate the perspective of my favorite mathematician, whose efforts to describe nature’s processes with formulas has been his lifelong passion. Wherever he goes, it seems he shows his delight in nature by saying it with symbols.

I sketch him often with a tablet or computer, and a lost-in-thought kind of pose. This time I put some formulas into the clouds, to show his thoughts more concretely.

This is a 12 x 16- inch gouache painting on black paper.

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View from the Lighthouse

Posted on April 28, 2019 by Sarah Sullivan

View from the Lighthouse on Praia da Vitória

We stopped for the day on the Azores Island, Praia da Victória. I was able to get in a quick sketch as we rested on our way up to the lighthouse.

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At Sea

Posted on April 24, 2019 by Sarah Sullivan

We are three days into a trip across the Atlantic, from Fort Lauderdale to Copenhagen. Sixteen days to sketch two of my favorite subjects, people and seascapes, what good fortune I have. Here are a few sketches from these past few days.

Together

Watching the Sunset

An Intent Reader with a Good Book

Sunset for Two

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The Flower Fields at Carlsbad

Posted on April 15, 2019 by Sarah Sullivan

The Flower Fields at Carlsbad 1

The Flower Fields at Carlsbad 2

I went with friends today to Carlsbad, a small coastal city about 30-minutes north of San Diego. This time of year the commercial ranunculus flowers fields with their rows of bright colors draw people from all over. We spent the day there, painting late until the traffic jammed the freeways below the field.

Both the color and geometry of the fields attracted my eye. I liked the way the rows of flowers came down across the slope and made a turn just in front of where I stood at my easel. The second of these two paintings is more abstract and focused on the geometry of the flower rows, but the first gives a sense of the large scale or depth of the fields. I was able to finish both of these gouache paintings on site and to get a good start on a third, which I hope to finish tomorrow.

I used gouache on a 12 X 16-inch black paper.

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