Photography

Watercolor Class Week 6: lessons learned

~ MaryG ~ 5 Comments

Each of the primary colors has a complementary color that you really want to avoid mixing with, at least for sunsets. If you put wet complementary colors near each other or layer them, you’re going to get brown. 💩

Red & Green = Brown

Blue & Orange = Brown

Yellow & Purple = Brown

That’s why my blue/violet to orange sunset sky ended up looking like a fried egg, especially from a distance,

The teacher said you can’t go directly from blue/purple to orange. You need some pink to transition.

She suggested using Alizarin crimson (not cadmium red) to make pink. It has blue undertones.

I tried again to get Key West sunset vibes, but without an ugly brown ring.

I’m not happy with the result. I really wanted a nice blended smooth gradient. The teacher said I painted “into it” too much. I need to try again, wetting the paper in both directions with my largest flat brush and then dragging the wet paint across in one direction only – end to end. In fact go off the paper with the brush.

Rather than masking, I could use a paper towel to lift out a circular moon or sun. (You can hold the paper towel in a round bunch and rotate the watercolor paper to create the circle.) And again, avoid complementary colors that will bleed into each other and make brown.

There are two classes left in this session and I need to decide what to do. I’ve been enjoying the class, but I’m not 100% sure that watercolors are my thing. But perhaps I should re-register and give it a bit longer.

One of the women who keeps re-registering is a very good watercolorist. She creates beautiful paintings of natural subjects like oyster shells and winter trees, and I can see that the teacher gives her good advice. Is that what I aspire to?

I am curious about both acrylic and oil painting, but those are more of an investment, and not as easy to whip out and work on at home.

Maybe I should take another drawing class and also re-up for one more 8-week session of watercolors. Maybe after that, I’ll feel confident enough in my drawing and color skills, to try working with real paint on an actual canvas.

Charcoal pencil sketch of a pug (like Horace from Poldark)

On the other hand, 8 more sessions of watercolors is a lot, if I decide I’m not that into it.

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Update: Third and final try on this silly Key West sunset! Water colors are hard.

Thursday Doors—St. Ann’s Church, Kennebunkport, Maine

~ MaryG ~ 5 Comments

Good GOD I’ve taken a lot of photos of church doors over the years—especially for a Unitarian.

Here’s another one in the Protestant realm:

This is the entrance door of St. Ann’s Chapel in Kennebunkport, Maine, which has to be one of the most beautiful—perhaps THE most beautiful— seaside chapel in all of New England.

Built in the late 19th century (The Gilded Age), this church operates in summer only, when the well-heeled WASPy residents of Kennebunkport are in town (including the Bush Family).

What really got me was the OUTDOOR chapel with the sweeping views.

The rocky coast of Maine near the chapel
Nice view
Seriously, this chapel has the best New England location I’ve ever seen
As descendants of “peasants” from Italy, our ancestors were more likely to have hauled the rocks to build this church than to have ever visited it.

Multiple Bush family weddings have taken place here. They are longtime, generous supporters of the church and their compound—Walker’s Point—is close by. Not to get political, but I can’t believe I’ve lived to an age where I think of the Bush family with some fondness. Thirty-year old me would not have believed it! I’ll take Walker’s Point over Mar-a-Lago (and all it represents) any day of the week.

Dan’s Thursday Doors

Masking with tape

~ MaryG ~ 4 Comments

I wanted to try another one of the “resistance” methods from Monday’s class, so I blocked out the sun and the other large sphere with blue painters tape. I’m not sure why I got that dark ring around the sun. Maybe the paint collected and mixed under the tape? I painted the sky very wet. I’m going to bring this in next week for feedback/help from the class.

Here was the inspiration:

Key West sunset with the Naval Air Station on the horizon (supposedly that is truly the Southernmost Point in the US, rather than the tourist buoy).

Fond memories of Key West. Hopefully we can go back sometime 🌅

Watercolor Class Week 5: masking fluid & MagicErase

~ MaryG ~ 12 Comments

Yesterday was a discussion of the various “resisting” techniques (tape, wax crayon, etc) and a demo of how masking fluid works.

I gave it a try in this painting, inspired by my photo shoot on the rail trail the other day.

Here’s the inspo pic:

You can see I tried to use the masking fluid (aka rubber cement) to try to create those tiny rays around the sun. The teacher said to rub them out a bit with a MagicErase sponge, which is a tool that watercolorists use to soften areas and rub out paint that has already dried.

I also used the MagicErase sponge on the bike path because I felt I had “overpainted” it. One of the hard things with watercolors is knowing when to stop. It’s very easy to ruin a nice effect by doing too much.

I sat away from the major gabbers in the class and was happier (although it did not go unnoticed that I changed my seat).

A single bloom

~ MaryG ~ 23 Comments

My husband very kindly ordered and planted a bunch of dahlia bulbs to fill in a dead area in our front garden.

Unfortunately, the deer kept eating them and only a single one bloomed.

It’s such a great color though—the one bloom.

Fuschia?

Raspberry?

Magenta?

What would you call it?

Thursday Doors—Dublin Unitarian Church

~ MaryG ~ 16 Comments

I’ve already posted many Irish doors from my trip in June, but not this one:

This is the Dublin Unitarian Church, which I walked by many times before realizing what it was. The church was right near our hotel, but so “tucked in,” I didn’t notice it until the very end of my time there.

It’s clearly in the gothic style, similar to last week’s doors. I guess I like “recessed arches.” (Thanks to Suzette for naming them for me.) And look at those cool hinges.

Seriously, this church has NO breathing room on either side. By the time I noticed it was a Unitarian Church, it was time to go home. I never got to see the inside. The doors were locked both times I tried. ☹️
Similar to Unitarian Universalist churches in the USA, it uses the flaming chalice symbol.

What’s the difference between Unitarian Universalist and just Unitarian?

PerChatGPT:

American Unitarian Universalism (UU) emerged in 1961 from the merger of Unitarian and Universalist traditions, forming a non-creedal, pluralistic movement embracing humanists, theists, atheists, pagans, and others. It emphasizes individual freedom, social justice, and spiritual diversity without doctrinal boundaries.

European Unitarian churches, including Dublin’s, remain rooted in liberal Christian heritage, emphasizing reason, conscience, and the moral teachings of Jesus while rejecting the Trinity. They are typically more theistic and biblically grounded, though open and inclusive. In short: American UUism is multi-faith and post-Christian, while European Unitarianism is liberal Christian with freedom of belief.

For more Thursday Doors, see Dan’s blog No Facilities.

Supporting Susan

~ MaryG ~ 12 Comments

We have a woman in our church choir with dementia or Alzheimer’s (not sure of her official diagnosis). She has a lovely singing voice. In fact, she was a music teacher at one point.

But Susan (not her real name) is getting worse. She has an extremely difficult time keeping track of her sheet music and the folder it lives in. Last Sunday, as we began to warm-up before the congregation arrived, she turned to me and said, “I have no idea why I’m standing here, but I was a music teacher once.” She gets upset when she doesn’t know what’s going on. She’s never caused a scene or melted down, but her anxiety is a real issue. She needs constant reassurance. And she can get snippy with people who are trying to help her.

Her partner Jim is a nice man who has already lost both of his adult daughters to diseases. He’s doing his best, but this has got to be really tough on him.

The plan now is to make a formal schedule whereby her fellow sopranos will take turns supporting her each week, so that nobody gets stuck doing it all the time. It’s going to mean showing up early, sitting with her, making sure she has music, reassuring her throughout the rehearsal and performance, and then making sure she gets back to Jim.

To be perfectly honest, I’m not looking forward to it. I never knew this woman before she had dementia. She’s not a family member of mine. I have no special fondness for her.

But clearly, I need to step up. That’s the whole point of church, especially Unitarian Universalist churches, where belief in God is optional. “Community” is the goal. I know that if I get dementia (or cancer or anything else), these people will support me. They are GOOD PEOPLE. Most are better than me. (I’m not just saying that. They really are.)

Here’s something Susan said to me in one of her sweeter moments: “I have a trick for when I don’t know what’s going on. I smile more.”

I’m going to try to remember that. Smile more. If she’s annoying me with her inability to follow along and constant questions, I’ll smile at her. She has a lovely smile. And so do I.

Selfie on the rail trail. I was trying to get a pic for a self-portrait for painting class.
Our rail trail yesterday

Smiling in annoying or uncomfortable situations might not help. But it can’t hurt. I think this might be a uniquely American thing.

Thursday Doors—Squeeze Burger, Sacramento

~ MaryG ~ 3 Comments

I went looking for a door photo for Dan’s Thursday Doors and found this:

If someone asked me yesterday if I’d ever been to Sacramento, the capital of California, I would’ve said no.

But I was wrong. My high school friend Susan and I took our 11-year old sons on an epic Northern California road trip in the summer of 2012 and stopped at the famous Squeeze Burger (formerly Squeeze Inn) in Sacramento. We were on our way to her house in Lake Tahoe from Oakland.

Upon further research, I found pictures of the famous cheese-skirted burgers online, which look familiar.

We were in the second Sacramento location (now closed), which featured the original tiny Sacramento storefront as a booth in the restaurant. Perfect for two boys traveling with their moms.

This is why pictures matter people. By the time you hit 60, you will not remember half the stuff you did in your life.

Thursday Doors—Trinity College Chapel, Connecticut

~ MaryG ~ 9 Comments

My college in Hartford, Connecticut had a spectacular gothic chapel on the quad. So Hogwarts! We were not an Ivy League school, but with that chapel on the quad—and scores of rich classmates from the snootiest boarding schools on the Eastern Seaboard—we could pretend we were. A couple of my more diligent classmates were able to transfer to Ivy League schools after freshmen year, but most of us just stayed and partied in Hartford.

My daughter had absolutely no interest in attending a small, private liberal arts college, but we did stop by one day when we were passing through the area. And the chapel still looked gorgeous.

My daughter in front of my college’s chapel doors in 2013.
The same doors as seen through an arch on the day of my graduation in 1987.

Posted for Dan’s Thursday Doors