Rehoboth Nights

Rehoboth Nights
watercolor
by Jane McElvany Coonce

Today I finished my first night scene in watercolor.  I've done lots of night scenes before in oil, but this was a new challenge.

My brother has a beach house up in Dewey Beach , Delaware.  Dewey is the next town to Rehoboth.  We spend a lot of time up there, and we always go into Rehoboth for it's shops and it's restaurants.
This is a scene of the Rehoboth boardwalk at night.  In the summer, the boardwalk is hopping, night and day.  But we go up to the beach off season, and it's much more quiet.

I'm a member of the Rehoboth Art League, so I may enter this one in one of their shows this summer.

Pears and Lace

Pears and Lace
watercolor
by Jane McElvany Coonce

A new year begins with lots of ideas for the next painting.  I'm really trying to focus on watercolor while still doing the oils, too.  This is a watercolor I just finished from a still life set up.  I had never done lace before in watercolor.  I had done it in oil, but I find oil less stressful because if you make a mistake, you can let it dry and then cover it up with more oil paint.  In watercolor, there is no covering up.  You need to think things through before you ever put the brush to the paper.  You paint the tablecloth first as if it is a solid fabric with no holes.  Once it dries, you can draw with pencil the pattern of the lace, the flower shapes and the curly Qs.  Then you begin to paint the dots.  It takes a while but it was actually fun (and nerve racking). But, it worked out and I'm pleased.

First Painting for 2015

by Jane McElvany Coonce

I finished my first painting for 2015.  I have a private student that wanted to do crabs.  So I used photographs from a still life I had set up in the summer time when crabs were plentiful.  Might be hard find crabs this time of year.  Previously, I had done a crab painting with a suduko game on the newspaper.   I made this one a crossword puzzle.  My student and I did a paint-a-long, and she would do what I did on my canvas.  She added a few more crabs and a beer bottle, so the paintings aren't exactly alike.

The basket in the painting is the same old basket that my dad used to use to catch crabs in the Chesapeake Bay when I was a child.  We would camp at Seashore State Park, and every morning, he would go out on the beach with his chicken necks and string and a weight to hold the bate down on the ocean floor.  I was my dad's shadow, and he taught me how to slowly pull the trap line in and get the chicken neck off the ocean floor so that we could take a net and scoop them up.  We caught enough to fill the basket each day.  It was fun and I enjoyed "the hunt."  Later, we would carry them over to my grandmother's house who lived in Norfolk, and she would steam them up.  Of course, back then, I didn't eat crabs (what an idiot!)  Now I have to pay for them and they cost a pretty penny.
 However, it needs a title.  If you have any suggestions, please feel free to make them.  I am not very gifted in the titling paintings.

The January Art League Juried Show-2015

Cell Phone Eaves-Dropper
by Jane McElvany Coonce

I'm starting the year off right!  I made it into the January Art League Juried Show down at The Torpedo Factory in Old Town Alexandria.  Competition is always stiff.  There were 600 entries and the judge picked about 90 paintings.  So it's always a thrilling feeling when you get in.  It's like winning the lottery for the month!

This painting was done in watercolor from my trip to Umbria.  This was in a hill town of Italy.  The old lady on the bench seemed to be listening to this young man on his cell phone.  Was this boy talking to his girlfriend?  Was the old woman getting a kick out of what she heard?  I actually was attracted to this scene because of the light falling on both of the figures. He's in the bright light in the beginnings of his teenage years.  The woman, in her waning years,  was in the corner of an archway and would have been in the shadows if the sun hadn't been barely hitting her.  I thought it made a good story and an interesting composition.  Let me know what you think.

If you get a chance, go down to The Art League and see this fabulous show. It will be there for the month of January.

Miniature Show 2014 at Strathmore Hall

Cat on a Quilt (watercolor)

Evening Light in Georgetown ( oil)

Ever year, The Miniature Painters, Sculptors and Gravers Society of Washington, DC hosts its annual show at Strathmore Hall in Bethesda, Md.  Artists are allowed to submit 3 entries.  It is a juried show so no one is guaranteed to get in.  Luckily, I got all 3 of my entries accepted!  

The paintings that are entered are tiny.  My Georgetown painting is 3 inches by 4 inches. The crab painting is 6 inches by 7 inches and the cat painting is 6 inches by 8 inches (and for the watercolors, that includes the mat!  So the paintings are actually smaller than that.)

If you have never seen the miniature show, it's worth seeing.  The paintings that are entered are incredible.  Strathmore Hall is located at 10701 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Md.  It's open Tuesday through Sunday from 10-4 .  On Wednesdays, it's open 10-9.  The show runs through January 4, so if you are looking for something fascinating to do over the holidays, go see this show.  You won't regret it.  I'm always blown away by what artists do with such tiny brushes!

Crabs and Mallets (watercolor)

Metalica - Part 2

Metalica
by Jane McElvany Coonce

So here is the finished product, "Metalica", but I will continue on with how I ended up with this painting and the steps it took to get there.

After the first day, the painting was very wet.  To speed the drying time, I put it in front of a heat lamp overnight.  This made the paint dry so that I could continue working on it.  If it were still wet, it would be hard to get my lights on there without blending in with the first coat.

So the 2nd day, I have a dry painting and I begin to put on thicker paint.

Step 4 : I started with the top half and began to develop the plate, the metal cups and pitcher,the apple and the yellow bird pitcher with the stick candy in it.  Notice I paint the stick candy in solidly without stripes.  This is so I get the form of the sticks and make them look 3 dimensional.  The stripes will be added later.  I also block in a background with thicker paint, but I will come back to the background later.  All of this work takes the whole 2nd day.  Again, I take the painting home and put it in front of the heat lamp so that it will be dry the next day.

Day 3:  I focus on the bottom half of the painting (the table cloth) and refine the whole painting.

Step 5:  This time I focus on the cloth.  I work out the folds (the light areas and the dark areas of the cloth.)  At the same time, I add the pattern on the cloth.  The pattern of the cloth repeats the colors of the metal cups and pitcher.  I also to back and refine the upper half.  I put the stripes on the stick candy and add the little hard candies on the table top.  I go back and refine the yellow bird pitcher, adding some of the orange reflected light on the side of the bird.  I also play up the reflections in the metal pitcher and the silver plate.  I add the highlights to each of the items to make them sparkle and shine.  I work on the "portrait" in the plate, but keep it blurred since it's not really the focal point.  I add a little more thick paint to the background, throwing in a few colors from the cloth and the plate to repeat the colors that are throughout the painting.

It's a wild painting, but fun to do.  After 3 days, I'm finished and exhausted.  All that is left to do is sign it.  I usually wait until the painting is dry before I sign it.  That way, if I mess up the signature, I can wipe it and do it again without affecting the paint underneath.

Step 5 

Step # 4

Metalica - Part 1

Metalica
by Jane McElvany Coonce

Many of you have told me how much you enjoyed the step by step process of painting that I did with the Key Bridge.  So I thought I would do it again.  This time it will be of a still life I did.  I worked on it 3 days, straight all day long, drying it at night with my space heater.

Every spring and fall, I go up to Woodstock, VA and paint with a group of friends that I've know for years.  My art mentor and former art teacher, Diane Tesler, comes back from Indiana to see all of her old students.  Still lifes are set up and we paint for 3 days straight.  It's heavenly.  No laundry , no cooking, no waiting on anyone except myself.  It's a tight knit group and it's like going back to a class reunion every time.

So this is the still life I did in November.  I call it "Metalica" because it has those metal cups that we used to have when I was a kid.  There's even a self portrait in the silver plate!

So here is how I started.    I've numbered them so you can see the progression.  I'll do part one today and part 2 tomorrow.


 #1   I begin with a pencil sketch on paper so that I can determine what size canvas I want to use.

#1  Pencil Sketch

#2   On the canvas, I start  by drawing with paint.  I'm concentrating on the composition and placement of the items on the canvas.

#2 Draw with paint

#3  I begin to block in the objects with a thin layer of color.  Things at this stage may move later on, but I need to get something down so I can see what's working and what isn't.  This is all I get done the first day.

#3 Begin to block in