Summer Fruit

Plein Air Easton!... Actual Fruit... Using Green in a Painting... Upcoming Workshops.

Before I start, I want to mention this weekend's watercolor workshop at the studio here near Greensboro. We'll be painting a Chesapeake workboat and it's reflection. Read more about it below, or here. 

It is high summer here on Maryland's Eastern shore. The air is close and hot.  In your ear there is always the not-so-subtle low hum of millions of mosquito wings in the close, wet air as the sun travels towards the horizon each evening. Here in Caroline County, a lingering odor of natural fertilizer, hanging in the heat is almost always at the edge of notice. While some of the things of summer are not the most pleasant, as July drips sweat on it's way to August, some of the best things in Maryland happen. These are the fruits of summer.

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"Fern Shadow" This year's Quick Draw painting

Plein Air Easton!  One of the best of all of the fruits of summer is the nearby huge event that is Plein Air Easton! Last summer, I was insanely fortunate enough to be juried-in as one of the fifty-some artists participating in the event, spanning more than a week.  The level of painting that takes place during this brief span is awesome.  Artists like Tim Kelly, Patrick Lee, Trey Finney, Sarah Linda Poly and so many others boggle the mind at their ability to creatively interpret what they see. The paintings produced during this competition/festival are some of the most beautiful you will ever see anywhere. And to know that they are painted outdoors in brutal Eastern-Shore-in-July conditions where the humidity is over 90% and the temperatures exceed 100 degrees most days is the truly amazing part. Watching a plein air painter feverishly working to capture an azure shadow on a canvas while standing on a hot tar road (or roof, in Patrick Lee and Bradley Milligan's case), is amazing. This year, while not a juried artist, I participated during the week as an artist thankfully selected to display in the Local Color show taking place in the gallery at Downtown Easton's beautiful Tidewater Inn. Also during the week, I joined the juried artists and many others in the annual Quick Draw challenge, where the artists completed a painting, on location, in less than two hours. This year I think I completed my best Quick Draw painting, a fern hanging in front of a store near The Tidewater.

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blackberries, nestled among thorns

Actual fruit... Some of my favorite fruits actually grow wild behind and around the studio here outside of Greensboro. Blackberries, big and plump and sweet are ready for picking right now along the brambly tangled hedgerow at the edge of the woods. They are a summer delight in one way, and a bane in another. While they are delicious, the blackberry canes are studded with long, recurved spines, like fish hooks waiting to catch you as you reach for a dark shining berry in the shadows of the brambles. I bet I've picked three quarts of the beautiful little morsels this year, at the same time looking like I got into a drunken brawl with a sackful of angry badgers. My arms are covered in cuts and little puncture wounds from the dangerous spines.

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passionflower

Another fruit that I have come to love, and that grows wild in the same place as the blackberries, is the Purple Passionflower. Growing on a sprawling vine with beautiful tropical-looking flowers, the fruit develop as summer progresses.  Before they are ripe, the tennis ball sized fruits are solid and green, and smell terrible. But when they are ripe, the fruit wrinkles a little, and is filled with small sacs of juice. The juice is amazing, and is one of the primary flavors in the drink, Hawaiian Punch. 

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passionfruit

I gather grocery bags full of the ripe fruit each year, extract the juice, and freeze it as ice cubes. The cubes, two to a glass with a little vodka, makes a great passion fruit martini. I suppose there are other ways to use the delicious liquid, but I don't see a reason to try anything else. It's that good.

Using green in a painting... Now that summer is fully here, I'm faced with a dilemma. Everywhere I look, bright greens are everywhere. And that is great. Summer should be filled with green things growing, like the blackberry canes and passionflower vines. But for some reason, I prefer the subdued shades of autumn. Even when I'm painting a forest scene, I find I'm adding violet or burnt sienna to my greens, toning them down a little from their natural brightness.  I had a discussion about this the other day with fellow artist Jim Rehak, who loves painting bold colors. We agreed that I naturally paint more along the lines of Wyeth, with a limited palette of subdued colors. I'm okay with that, but I want to work towards expanding my palette, and broadening my own preferences. 

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This Weekend's Workshop... If you haven't already signed up for this Saturday's watercolor workshop, "Painting a Chesapeake Workboat and it's Reflection," you'd better hurry. There are a few seats left.  This should be a good day. We'll start with a bring-a-dish potluck lunch at 11:00. After we eat and talk, we'll head to the studio. There, beginners and more seasoned watercolorists will look at how to create realistic reflections, how to thoughtfully reserve whites in a painting where no paint is used, and how to make water look like... well... water. Not always easy, but the way we'll do it on Saturday will be straightforward and simple. Paper will be provided, and if you are a rank beginner, you can borrow a palette and brushes for the day. Sign up soon by calling (410) 200-1743 or emailing [email protected]. See you Saturday!

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