Maine: Mainely pour Vacance

"Mainely for Vacation", by Robert Leedy, 2008, watercolor on Arches 140 lb. Hot Press paper, 22" x 15.5"

We finally got our rain that was evading all of the weather forecasts. It started a bit Wednesday night but then miraculously stopped Thursday in order for us to paint. It resumed last night (Thursday) and as I sit in the bookstore downtown having coffee this morning, it is raining pretty hard. Looks like painting is out for this morning…

Thursday was a good day. We got a late start and painted once again at Bob’s place on Marshall Point. I began a drawing of a neighboring house which had a great architectural feel to it.  It is one of those dark red houses that you see so much of up here. David’s assistant, Christy Gallagher, also chose it as a subject matter and we discussed how it had a sort of mysterious air about it. Christy did a terrific painting of it. There were several of us painting and it was probably a good thing that the house is a vacation home and no one seemed to be there at the time.

I went to lunch at The Dip Net in Port Clyde and got that out of the way. I got a late start with my painting but there would be no interruptions until quitting time. Fairly late into my drawing, I realized I had not allowed the space that I originally intended; I did not want to correct the drawing as I only had a few hours to paint. I went for a loose, carefree, painting playing with complementary colors, simple shapes, and varying intensities of color.  I was dangerously treading on a cliff there for a while until I saw that I would pull it off successfully.

Although it was a fairly humid day and I was painting on Arches Hot Press paper – a relatively absorbent paper – I almost could have worked with Cold Press which dries slower. But the Hot Press does make a good surface for loose, fast painting as I was doing. 

This painting is finished. I may go back in and punch up small bits of color. 

I am quite happy with this one…