A couple of weeks ago I was in Hampton painting en plein air with some fellow Hampton Art League members.    It was great fun and I always appreciate the camaraderie among the artists.    The Norfolk Paint Out is next weekend, October 22 – 24 (find more info at www.studiosatmonticello.com).   The following weekend there will be another paint out in Hampton, this time in honor of the city’s 400th anniversary.   I’ll post more information about the event once I get all of the details.

The first painting here was at the end of a side street in downtown Hampton that backs up to the Hampton River – I won’t be able to remember exactly what street unless I go back to Hampton and find it – it may have been at the end of East Sunset.  

I loved the way the morning light was hitting the white building and how all of the shadows from the tree seemed to danced across it.   As I was painting a young family came up to find out and if I was from the city and taking a survey or something.   They wanted to know because they were trying to rent the building for their work.   I told them who I was and what I was doing and they were satisfied.   Maybe an hour later the young woman came back.   She wasn’t interested in my piece but she wanted to ask my opinion about the looks of the building.   I guess there had been shutters that she had taken down and she still wasn’t sure doing so had made the building look better.   I couldn’t help her as I had never seen the building before.   I do think its a great little building with a lot of character though.

Old Nags Head

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are four miniature paintings I did en plein air while I was in Nags Head last week.   It was sunny, humid and warm most of the week, but the last two days were over cast and stormy and so I hit the beach with my painter’s box to capture some mood.   ‘Old Nags Head I’ was painted in the afternoon one day and ‘Old Nags Head II’ the next morning.   By the time I painted the fisherman standing in the surf the wind had picked up so much I couldn’t stand outside to paint.   So I set up my paint box just inside the sliding glass doors to the balcony and stood in the door way while I painted.   It was great getting out there and doing some en plein air painting, especially since a couple plein air events are coming up this next month.   Charles H. Taylor (4205 Victoria Drive, Hampton, VA /727 – 1490) is sponsoring a paint out this coming Saturday, October 3 with a Critique, Wine and Cheese Reception and Wet Paint Sale from 4:15 to 5:30 p.m. that afternoon.

And the big one is the Out and About Norfolk paint out at the end of the month.   Artists will be painting around Norfolk on Thursday and Friday, October 22 and 23 and on Saturday evening, October 24 there will be a reception, awards ceremony and sale of art work created during the paint out.

August 28

A Lovely Pose Today

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This was a lovely pose, the model bathed in morning light.

Rose Arbor

 

 

 

I finished this painting today – its not signed yet - and took a quick photo before I left the studio.   I’ve been doing a lot of work with graphite, ink and colored pencils lately so painting in oils this week has been lucious for me.

Downtown

Bright and Cheerful II

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

24 x 24      Oil

My latest finished painting.   A commission for a grandmother who loves her grandbabies and loves their bright and cheerful faces.

Thanks

Thanks to all of you who responded to my questionnaire about trees in the Hampton Roads area.   I’ve collected more than enough information and many useful insights.   My knowledge of native trees is sketchy and you all helped me a great deal and gave me some wonderful suggestions.   I now will be including some trees I was unaware of before and that will help me create more local ‘flavor’ in this new series which is scheduled to exhibit at the Norfolk Botanical Gardens in October of 2010.

Many trees are blooming now – the lovely Mimosa, the Crepe Myrtles, some of the Magnolias.   I’m off to paint.

Alisa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

24 x 30     Oil on linen

Yorkie Puppy