What is an artist to do on a hot summer day?

 It is 96 degrees here in sunny Kentucky.  I would enjoy painting outside, but the temperature plus 100% humidity makes for a hot, grumpy artist.

Instead of suffering & lugging my heavy easel, brushes and assorted other art supplies around with me.....

Grumpy fearless artist on a hot summer day

...I thought that I would invite you to come with me to enjoy the cool breezes of our local Kentucky Lake. Are you ready? Lets' go!

With my trusty Nikon in hand I will be able to capture endless amounts of inspiration to bring back to the comfort of my air conditioned art studio. Photos that I can use to inspire future paintings.

As I stand by the dock's of Green Turtle Bay Marina I train my lens on a large yacht leaving the harbor.

I have always enjoyed creating paintings of boats.

This luxurious yacht is a 58 foot " WestBay SonShip"

This photo screams out to me "Paint me!"

Normally I would spend a large part of the day snapping photos of  the water, people and animals frolicking, but for now lets just take this one image and turn it into a painting.

Step 1:

Back in the comfort of my air conditioned studio, I prepare my paint, paper and other supplies for a new painting.

Step 2:

I begin by drawing the yacht's likeness onto my 16 x 20 canvas.

   

Step 3:

Time for some "Fearless" Fun. I begin by pouring my transparent watercolors several times to create a range of light to dark values. I use exotic Japanese lace papers & plastic wrap to create unique textures on my surface as the fluid paints evaporate.

Japanese lace papers & plastic wrap = texture

Second pour of Pthalo Blue green shade 

In third pour I add Permanent Alizarin Crimson
Step 4:

Time to peel off my friskit and see what I have hidden under all of the poured paint layers. What you can see in the next photo is still in the early stages. I have a limited range of bright lights to middle values but no exciting darks. There is more work to be done on this image!

The friskit has been removed

Step 5 : Fluid acrylic paints

At this point in the painting process I need to add some ba-zzzing to this work. I use Golden Fluid Acrylics which are somewhat opaque to do this. Using an assortment of brushes and colors I work to bring out my center of interest 

(the Westbay SonShip Yacht).

The finished 16 x 20 mixed media painting that I call "Bon Voyage" is shown below.

"BON VOYAGE" © 2015 Beattie

Are you interested in learning more about the combination of photography and painting techniques, that I have written about today? 

Would you enjoy taking a Fearless Painting Workshop in a beautiful inspiring location; so that you can study how to turn your incredible photographs into even more exciting paintings?

Don't miss out on this Fearless opportunity! 

"By Land or By Sea" is my newest Fearless Painting class dedicated to artists that want to enjoy and learn how to photograph & paint dynamic land or seascapes.

Coming to the Acadia Workshop Center in beautiful Acadia, Maine July 11 -14, 2016

To read more about this exciting workshop click here to go to my website  art classes page.

Or you can contact Gail Ribas - Workshop Director at Acadia Workshops (270)-460-4119 for  more information or class reservations.

To learn more about the Fearless Artist please visit her web site .

The artist's web site accepts PayPal, Visa and Mastercard. There are original paintings for sale and information about the artist's art workshops that you can sign up for.

Be inspired by also watching Elise Beattie's  art videos on YouTube.

Thank you for visiting my artist's blog. Please come back regularly and share my blog with your friends.

- Elise