Summer Memories II

“Summer Memories II”       2.5” x 3.5”         Pastel        $26.25       © Sharon Lewis
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            I’m ready for the cooler temperatures of fall but still holding onto the memories of the long days of light I enjoy in summer. I’m remembering looking out over the many blues and greens of  the sea against the background of fluffy clouds and a beautiful, blue sky. Ah, the end of summer and the beginning of fall is always bittersweet.

            Happy Weekend!

 

Summer Memories

“Summer Memories”        2.5” x 3.5”         Pastel        $26.25       © Sharon Lewis

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             Like many of my friends I have mixed feelings about Labor Day. I appreciate that it’s a holiday for most people but it also marks the end of summer. Although I love that fall will bring cooler temperatures and less humidity (eventually), I will miss the long days of light we enjoy during summer. Summer also gives us spectacular displays of clouds which I love. Yes, clear blue skies can be nice but for someone who loves painting interesting skies, I’ll take some huge clouds any day.

            Happy Weekend and Happy Labor Day!

 

Loser Buys the Beers!

“Racing Home”    Pastel    9” x 12”    $100    © Sharon Lewis
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        Several years ago I was on a ferry with family and friends between Boston and Provincetown. It was an absolutely gorgeous summer day in New England…cool and sunny on the water. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day until I got an additional gift: on our way back we ran into a sailboat race. All of a sudden there were tons of brightly colored sails all around us. I enjoy painting sailboats so I started taking so many photos that a fellow passenger asked me if there was someone famous on one of the sailboats. I laughed and explained I just wanted the photos to paint from. She looked a little puzzled as if that sounded crazy and for anyone who lives in or around Boston, it probably did sound crazy. After all, they can see sailboats all the time unlike where I live in landlocked Atlanta.       
       Just looking at this painting, I can remember enjoying being with my family, the warmth of the day, the cool breeze and the sun on my face, the sounds of the gulls hoping for a snack from an unwary tourist, and all of the colorful sails that I couldn’t wait to paint.

What Kind of Clouds are These?

“Through Borders Wild”      Pastel    9” x 12”      $100        © Sharon Lewis
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            I’ve mentioned before in this blog how much I’m fascinated by clouds. I have nearly walked into trees many times because I was so captivated by beautiful clouds. Fortunately, I have friends and family members who are very understanding and even occasionally save me from a painful intersection with a tree or lamppost. I have to admit that although I’m enthralled by the colors and designs I see in the clouds, I usually have no idea what type of cloud I’m studying. However. I’m thinking of getting a cloud book (yes, there is such a thing) that was recommended by my friend and fellow artist, Karen Margulis. It’s called The Cloud Collector's Handbook by Gavin Pretor-Pinney and contains descriptions and photos of every type of cloud imaginable. The clouds in this painting are to the best of my limited knowledge, cumulus clouds.

            Happy Weekend!

Looking for a Caldron of Clouds

Plein Air Clouds    Pastel     2.5" x 3.5"     $20      © Sharon Lewis

Plein Air Clouds #2     Pastel     2.5" x 3.5"     $20        © Sharon Lewis

Plein Air Clouds #3    Pastel    2.5" x 3.5"     $20     © Sharon Lewis

         I think I have never grown out of my early fascination with clouds. I remember as a child lying on my back in the grass (grass stains and dirty clothes never an issue back then) and staring at clouds seeing all sorts of animals and other cool things up in the sky. Especially during hurricane season, there were fast moving, powerful-looking storm clouds that would bubble up, like some huge caldron of clouds soon to boil over or explode….great entertainment for a child.

       Now I still walk around staring up at the sky, always on the look out for interesting clouds. The paintings above are quick studies I did at the beach over Labor Day.

       Hope your weekend is filled with glorious clouds and skies.      

Bittersweet Beach Memories

“Beach Memories”       9” x 12”      Pastel      $100     © Sharon Lewis
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             Labor Day weekend is always bittersweet. There’s the joy of being at the beach, with the gentle sea breezes, the cries of the gulls, the hypnotic rhythm of the waves breaking on the shore. There’s the fun of surfing the waves over and over again just like I did when I was a child growing up in Florida. But then there’s the slow realization that it will probably be many, many months before we see the beach again. As much as I enjoy the advent of cooler, drier weather, I love these long days of light and I feel so lucky to live close enough to the east coast that the beach is just a relatively short drive away.

            Have a wonderful Labor Day Weekend!

 

Plein Air Painting in a Beautiful Place

Maine Cloud Studies                 2.5 x 3.5          Pastel            $20 each            © Sharon Lewis

            I am back in the heat, humidity of Atlanta with lots and lots of rain thrown in! Other than one night of rain, we were so lucky in Maine to have sunny and cool weather. It was ideal for painting plein air or on location. I didn’t have to go far and wasn’t exactly roughing it since from the deck of the house we were staying in I had a wonderful view of a beautiful sky with lots of clouds. I wanted to do a series of cloud paintings (one of my favorite things to paint) and since the clouds were changing so rapidly, I chose to do mini paintings, some of which I’ve posted here.

            I hope you are enjoying your summer wherever you are.

Looking Up

“Looking Up”     9” x 12”    Pastel     $100      © Sharon Lewis
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             Ever since I was a little kid I have looked up into the sky, fascinated by the clouds and how they changed. It’s like having your own natural gallery of art. Maybe it was due to some early esthetic sense… some precocious love of beauty…possibly. Or maybe it was because as a little kid, I kept getting slammed flat on my back, with the breath knocked out of me by the boys in my neighborhood. You’d be amazed how beautiful the sky can look to you when you finally get air back into your lungs again. Let me add that these boys were not bullies in any way. No, this was the result of me insisting that they let me play “touch” football with them. As the only girl and the runt in this bunch of kids, I was just an easy tackle…that is when they could catch me. 

            This summer I was so fortunate to see many breathtaking skies in the UK. This painting is what I saw one day when I looked up over the water into the skies of Scotland.

Can’t Remember the Last Time We Saw a Blue Sky!

“Big Sky”   9” x 12”   Pastel    $100   © Sharon Lewis
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            We have been extremely lucky here in North Georgia because we have avoided the ice and snow other parts of the country have been inundated with. However, it’s been raining for days! I think it stopped for a little bit one day last week and I saw people walking around with dazed looks on their faces, pointing up at the sky. I thought maybe there was some cool celestial phenomenon that they were pointing at but it was only the sun. Now I’m thinking if I saw sun and blue sky again, I might be one of those people pointing up and smiling, looking a little like a crazy person.

             To perhaps avoid this possibility, I’m posting a painting of sun and blue sky. This is based on photos I took in the Lake District in England, where we saw some amazingly beautiful skies this summer.

            I hope wherever you are, that your weather is terrific or rapidly improving and that you too are enjoying blue skies.

A Cloudy Day on the Isle of Skye

“Cloudy Day on the Isle of Skye”   5” x 7 “   Pastel     $50    © Sharon Lewis
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             It’s been a grey, cloudy, cold day here much like it was this past August when I was on the Isle of Skye. They told us they were getting weather in August that they normally didn’t get until late fall. I didn’t mind because ever since I heard the name “Isle of Skye”, I knew I had to visit here. And I wasn’t disappointed. The island is gorgeous and the people couldn’t have been friendlier.

            Today’s painting is based on photos I was able to take in between rain showers. We were fortunate in that the sun eventually came out on this beautiful island off the coast of Scotland.

Light Show!

“Fleeting Light”    2.5” x 3.5”   Pastel     $20      © Sharon Lewis
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            Every once and a while you get lucky and have a camera or paints available to capture that very brief, fleeting instance when the sun catches the edges of clouds and you’re treated to a beautiful light show.

            Today’s painting is based on just such a moment. It was a cool summer night near Bailey Island, Maine, one of my favorite places to visit. We had just finished a delicious dinner of lobster and blueberry pie near a marina, when I stepped outside hoping to get some good photos of sailboats coming in for the evening. Instead I found that I had walked out just in time to capture that perfect moment when the setting sun sets the clouds all aglow.

After a rainy night in Georgia

After the Storm    4” x 6”    Pastel    $35   © Sharon Lewis
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The sun has finally come out after a rainy night in Georgia. I couldn’t help but think this morning when it was still raining, of the refrain in the song I associate with Ray Charles, “Rainy Night in Georgia”….

“A rainy night in Georgia,

A rainy night in Georgia,
It seems like it's rainin' all over the world
I feel like it's rainin' all over the world “

What a great bluesy song! If you read all of the lyrics you’ll notice that the songwriter, Tony Joe White, paints a series of pictures with his words, much as artists do with paint.  And if you listen to Ray Charles singing this song as I am now, he adds his own lyrics making the picture he paints his very own (listen here).

Today’s painting is loosely based on one of my photos and seems to express how I feel about today’s weather. The wind is blowing the dark storm clouds far away leaving us with glimpses of a brilliant sun-lit sky. A good way to think about leaving the work-week behind us with a great weekend ahead. Happy Weekend!