The Cabin from the Road

Posted on August 15, 2020 by Sarah Sullivan

We packed up yesterday and drove home across the dessert from the Arizona mountains. There was a lot to do and I didn’t have a chance to post this last plein air view of my sister’s cabin.

In all the other cabin scenes that I painted, I showed the cabin from its social side, that is, the side where people gather under the shade trees. This is the view people passing by on the dirt road might see, if they paused a movement to peer between the oaks. I like it because the old chimney is gorgeous and the whole cabin is cradled by the greenery. It truly seems to belong just where it is.

I am so lucky in this summer of coronavirus to have been able to visit my brother in Colorado in July and my sister inAugust. Two weeks of plein air painting is really special, and now I have plenty of partially started sketches to finish as we continue to hide from COVID in San Diego.

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Cabin, Trees, and Fence

Posted on August 13, 2020 by Sarah Sullivan

I wanted to show how this cabin in the Arizona Mountains is sheltered from the summer heat by trees. I have been sketching it all week, but had to move out beyond the fence before I could get a bit of what I want to show.

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In a Field

Posted on August 11, 2020 by Sarah Sullivan

There are three horses who graze in the field across the fence from where we are camping. I have tried to sketch them a few times, and am getting a bit closer to understanding their shapes. All three have interesting faces and I’d like to do closeups of them before we leave.

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Slow Days of Summer

Posted on August 10, 2020 by Sarah Sullivan

Hanging out with family under shade trees in the heat of summer may be one of the best experiences ever. I wanted to capture this feeling of slow togetherness in this sketch.

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Tree by a Fence

Posted on August 9, 2020 by Sarah Sullivan

The oak trees in the mountains near Prescott have rich colors and great spreading limbs.

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People and Horses

Posted on August 8, 2020 by Sarah Sullivan

We are camping in the Arizona Mountains, and even though we are at 6,000 feet elevation, we were glad for shade by late morning. When horses came by, hoping for apples, I noticed what a great composition they made behind the group so I jumped up and grabbed my sketchbook. The horses wandered off fairly quickly but not before I captured enough of them for this sketch.

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Restless

Posted on August 5, 2020 by Sarah Sullivan

The Zoom model today sat in her chair in a restless sort of way. Her arms and hands were relaxed but her shoulders were tense as though she were thinking through a to-do list. I accentuated her uneven shoulders to try to convey this feeling.

One of my Zoom friends from Fresno suggested I look at David Park’s paintings. I was able to get two books about his life and work through our curbside pickup library program. At the end of his short life he did some amazing paintings in gouache and I hope to absorb some of his approach in my own paintings.

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