Cottage Gardens

 Garden Cottage

11x14

On Cape Cod, my other favorite scenery are the cottages with their overgrown, thriving, lush gardens.  Since the climate is so mild, the flowers are so happy.  Can you believe that they can grow these Stargazer Lillie's as in the last picture?  They are all over the place standing tall.  Even the Casablanca variety! 

I would see the cottage I painted on Route 6A when we were driving by in the fast flow of traffic with no place to pull over (not the appropriate time to ask to stop and take a photo).  You can only see the house at the opening of the driveway because it is surrounded by tall bushes, trees and vines.  I loved the blue shutters with the pink roses in front.  The blue was not the french blue shutter color, but instead a light cerulean blue.  And the house was the faintest golden yellow.  Of course, had the flowers not been there, I may have never really noticed the house.

Have a great week!  Thank you for visiting!

Sail, Sail, Sail Away

 Waiting for the Tide

11x14

 Where Ocean Meets Sky

7x11

Low Tide II

11x14

Yes, more beach paintings.  What can I say.  This is where I spent most of our days on vacation.  I took several photos, but, there is nothing like painting right in front of your subject.  Aside from photos distorting perspectives and making shadows darker, I find that when I paint on location, I capture the feeling and essence of the scene despite what the final painting may look like.  If the feeling is conveyed to the viewer, then a connection has been made.

My personal favorite is Where Ocean Meets Sky.  There are many days when the clouds are so thick and the ocean and air are so still that you cannot see the point where the ocean and sky meet because they are so close in color.  Sometimes the colors are blues to lavenders or greens to lavenders.  Sometimes you can see hints of pink or yellow in the sky which are then reflected in the water.  

In all of the paintings, the boat, Bay Rose is present.  I ended up meeting the owner of the boat on our last day.  It turns out that this is the boat's first season in the water.  It is a brand new boat, 3rd of its kind made out of all wood.  The inside of the boat had the fresh smell of cedar.  Bay Rose always stood tall and straight even when other boats sat at a slant on the sand.  Bay Rose has been popular for her first season on the water.  One night I watched a photographer hang out and photograph her for over an hour during the sunset.  

Be sure to be checking by facebook page for a chance to win a set of notecards in the month of September!

Summer at the Beach

 Heart of a Shell

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Memories of Summer

7x11

Alone on the Beach

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Here are some paintings I did while in Cape Cod.  I actually did Memories of Summer prior to the seashell in the last post.  My niece was with us so we ended up having a painting marathon of seashells.

I went to an art show and a couple of art galleries while there.  Lots of hydrangeas, boats, low tide, sunsets and marsh paintings.  I learned that I don't need to be so hard on myself.  There are so many different ways one can interpret, translate and express what they see or feel.  What I saw was a common feeling of all of the artists loving and appreciating the subject.  I felt connected to these artists because I love and appreciate the same beauties of Cape Cod.

Please check out my UPDATED website www.lianayarckin.com for original art and prints.  All comments and thoughts on the website are truly helpful.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jean Haines' August Challenge

Seashell

11x7 watercolor

I painted this in response to a fellow blogger's August Challenge.  Jean Haines posted a photo of this shell and challenged artists to paint it in their own way.  Here is my interpretation.  I enjoy doing these challenges sometimes because I don't have a personal attachment to the subject I guess.  This gives me the freedom to do whatever I want while painting.  I really enjoyed doing the background and trying different techniques that I usually don't use.

Cape Cod

 Low Tide II

11x14

Waiting for the Tide

11x14

I had to include these photos of low tide and the sunset in Brewster, Massachusetts with my watercolors. The sunset has been absolutely stunning every night.  We have had very clear, still nights and days so when the tide is in, the water is like a sheet of glass.  Click here to see more amazing photos of low tide.  Don't you just love the last photo of that uber cute garden house!!!  It is so cute, if it was a painting, I think it would not be believed.

Low Tide II was painted in the morning from my balcony.  The houses are set up on a bank with the beach below.  The tide goes out probably over a mile.  It is so peaceful to walk all the way out to low tide with nothing but beach all around you.  There are shallow tide pools left between sandbars where minnows and hermit crabs hang out.

Waiting for the Tide was painted around 5:30/6 p.m.  The tide was coming in and this one sailboat was standing so tall with its hull buried in the sand waiting for the tide.

Thanks for visiting and thanks for your thoughts.  Have a great week!