sketchbook :: while I was away

It's been a while! We had our spring visit to Edisto Beach, SC, last month. It was glorious! We just hated to leave when our week was up. Palm trees surrounded our rental cottage. Such a nice sound, the breezes through the palm fronds.

The cottage had a lovely screened porch too. A perfect place to sit and sketch.

This is just one of the pages where I sketched the shells we found on the beach. And you know I came home with many more photos of the marshes, and of course the surf. Lots of new imagery to be inspired by.

We also spent some time away staying with my mom while she had surgery. All is well, and she is doing great, but  it wasn't without a bit of stress and drama. So yes, I am so very happy to be back home, ready to fully enjoy our mountain summertime. A time to relax and breathe.

sketchbook :: lilacs

I've always said that it is a good spring when my lilac bush blooms.

Storm Passing

Storm Passing

watercolor on cold pressed paper

7.5 x 9.5 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

This one sat a little too long in progress, and I probably messed with it a little too much, but here it is anyway. I liked the dramatic light in this scene, captured when a tropical storm was passing just off the coast while we were at the beach last year. And yeah, I am still having fun painting the surf.

what to sketch

When I don't know what to sketch, I grab some produce from the fridge. Not a bad way to spend some quiet time with my paints, practicing color, light, texture and form. And then these items became part of our next day's dinner.

splash and splatter

Shoreline VI

watercolor on cold pressed paper

5.5 x 7.5 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

As you can see, I am still fascinated with painting the surf. The movement and color, a captured moment. Although with this one I tried a more subdued palette - is that possible for me? And I experimented with a bit of splatter, where I discovered that you can indeed splatter masking fluid, just don't expect to ever use that brush for anything else ever again. I have since picked up a couple of cheap toothbrushes for my splattering fun.

Sunrise

Sunrise

watercolor on cold pressed paper

7.5 x 9.5 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

For lack of a better idea for a title - sometimes simple may be best. I have other works, drawings, that have been in progress for months, yet images of the surf keep calling for my attention these days.

sketchbook :: softly spring

Well, I didn't mean to miss posting last week, but the days just got away from me. Here are two recent sketches. This was the view beyond the tennis courts where Kiddo was having her tennis lesson, sketched with a black grape colored pencil and then watercolor. Spring is very slowly coming to our southern mountains.

On a sunny Sunday afternoon I sat on the back deck and sketched these happy pansies, watercolor only. And as much as I try I can't seem to get good scans from this sketchbook without those pesky shadowed spots. I had thought this heavier watercolor paper would lay more flat, yet it doesn't. I don't mind a little warping of the pages in my sketchbooks, as they are "sketchbooks" after all. But it does annoy me to see those shadows in the scanned images. Ah well, so it goes.

what brings me back

Shoreline V

watercolor and gouache on cold pressed paper

5.5 x 7.5 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

Yep. Another painting of the surf. This one inspired by the early morning light on the waves. I love the color of the ocean at that time of day, when it's all glowing pastels. Yet it is so brief, as the sun rises well above the horizon and the color of the water becomes more saturated as the day moves along. I always feel fortunate when I am able to experience that soft morning light at the beach.

sketchbook :: daffodils

I kept looking for these blooms out in our front flower bed. I watched the buds grow bigger and then try to bloom despite the freezing cold. It was March 4th last year that I had daffodils blooming. This year, a full month later. Not as many blossoms, and much less showy than previous years, but just as determined non-the-less.

the color of a moment

Shoreline IV

watercolor on cold pressed paper

5.5 x 7.5 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

My obsession continues. Waves, water, sand, all that movement where the two elements of water and land collide. Ever changing shapes, color and light. It's a moment that was here and gone, just like that.