Beantown JazzFest

I did a little sketching at the jazzfest. I had to work fast because of the steady stream of people walking down the street in front of the scene I was trying to draw.

farm stand laundry

Last week I painted at a farm stand in Petersham. There were piles of pumpkins, lovely displays of mums and gourds. For some reason though , I was attracted to this line of laundry.

Gloucester Schooner Festival

Here are a few of the sketches I managed to do in my kayak this weekend. The swells in Gloucester harbor were decent- hurricane Earl had passed through the night before. I paddled over to Ten Pound Island, explored a little and drew the cormorants. The island is well known for at least two reasons- Winslow Homer stayed on the island in the summer of 1880, and several people reported a sea monster near the island in 1817. The origin of the island seems to be a bit of a mystery. Ten pound could refer to the amount of money that was paid to the Indians for the island, but another theory is that it refers to the number of sheep pens that were located there (pens were called "pounds").

Rockport

Yesterday I kayaked from Rockport Harbor to Halibut Point. No breeze on the way up, but quite windy on the way back and much harder paddling. I stopped and watched some sailing lessons. My favorite Micron pen ran out so I had to use the stubby brush one that came in my variety pack. Turned out perfect for sketching in a kayak that is rocking wildly in the waves. It's not as delicate as I'm used to, but very nice for some very quick work. It was a gorgeous day! I painted the drawings when I got home. They are all 5"x8" on very sturdy watercolor paper.

beach shack

There's a row of these rickety shacks on the wild side of Aruba, by Baby Beach and the prison. I am not sure I want to know the purpose of them but I like their artistic look. Barely put together, made of tin and wood, they look like they could just topple over into the waves.
High cliffs were behind me while taking this photo, and wild goats wandered around the grassy area by the beach. I'd like to go back and explore the few dirt roads in this area.

Tree and ferns

I am teaching art camp this week and this is a small section of a pen & ink that I did on the trails today while sitting by the brook.

Large shell

This was drawn from an 8" long shell that I found in Aruba. The background effect was done by sprinkling salt onto the wet paint.