Day Two, copy after "Narragansett Bay, 1864" by William Stanley Haseltine

Today was kind of a short day - I arrived late (a bus cancellation and train problems) and left early. But I feel like I got a lot done! I tackled the water and painted that wave, and I corrected some of the drawing of the rocks. I put in the far shoreline. I did not repaint the sky yet. I started to correct the color of the dark areas of the rocks until I ran out of steam. In two weeks (no copying on Thanksgiving) I will put in the tiny people and the distant boats, finish correcting the rock colors, and repaint the sky.

A few interesting things happened today. A man told me he had just been to the place where this was painted last week. A woman told me that her father-in-law had given this painting to the National Gallery. And the guard in my gallery did a spot-on impression of Barak Obama. Never a dull moment!

Here is how it looks now:

Click on the images for a larger view

New copy, after "Narragansett Bay, 1864" by William Stanley Haseltine

For my next copy, I chose "Narragansett Bay, 1864" by William Stanley Haseltine. I chose it because it reminds me of the coast of Maine, where I've been painting since about a year ago during extended trips. (Retirement is grand!) I'm hoping that by copying this painting, I'll be better prepared to paint those rocks. Standing in front of this painting, it's easy to feel like I'm there in the landscape, with the advantage of having what feels like all the time in the world to work on getting the colors right, without the light changing, the wind blowing, or the bugs biting!

I went in with a completely white canvas, so I had to spend a very long time figuring out where to put the horizon. I measured repeatedly, making little tick marks with my brush to indicate where different elements in the composition fell. I also used an app that superimposed gridlines over a photo of the painting, which helped a lot. After about an hour and a half, I finally felt like I had the horizon and general rock shapes in the right places, so I started to block in the darks. Then I went to lunch.

After a nice long lunch with my fellow copyists (who have become good friends, especially since we also go out painting the landscape together!), I turned on the speed to try to get the whole painting covered by the end of the day (which is 4:00, when we have to stop copying.) I didn't quite make it, leaving the water on the right still unpainted. I'm a little afraid of that wave! That will be the first thing I do next week.

I'm excited about this painting! And I'm looking forward to next June and July, when I'll be back in Maine to tackle the real thing again.

Click on the images for a larger view

Day Four and Final, "Palmer River" by Edward Mitchell Bannister

Happy Birthday to Edward Mitchell Bannister! He was born on November 2, 1828 in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada. St. Andrews is a place I have been to many times to take painting workshops in the early 2000s at Sunbury Shores Art & Nature Center, taught by Sharon Yates. I didn't know that Bannister was born there before I started this copy, nor was I aware that he was a Black artist who was denied a formal art education because of his race. He moved to New England and was active in the abolitionist movement in Boston, and later moved to Providence, Rhode Island. He was one of the founders of the Rhode Island School of Design.

Today I lightened the clouds by scumbling over them with white. To my eye, I got pretty close to the color of the original clouds, but this photo makes them look very different. I think because the painting on the wall is lit by spotlights, and my painting on the easel is lit by the skylight, with the iPhone camera exaggerating the yellow in the clouds in the original painting. That's what I'm telling myself, anyway!

So I lightened up the clouds, and then I worked on the hillside, adding more yellow flowers, and also adding more dark values in the foreground and in the trees. I fiddled with the water some, but ultimately I felt like I was just noodling and not really getting much done. So I decided to stop.

I thoroughly enjoyed working on this copy, because it's exactly the kind of scene I like to paint when I paint outdoors. I hope the experience, especially the clouds, help me with my plein-air work. I'm going out painting tomorrow, at the State Arboretum of Virginia. I hear the gingko grove is a magical place to paint, even though most of the leaves blew off this week.

Click the images for a larger view