Summer, please come back!  I miss you already....

Speaking of which, I also miss all of my artist and blog friends.  I've been absent from the internet for a while, as you can see.  I blame it on Summer.  But... I'm baaack!!! Hopefully you haven't all left me by now, but I totally expect that you would have moved on.

Anyway, after a wild whirlwind of summer vacations and getaway weekends, most of which involved water of some form (pools, lakes, water rides), hot, hot sunny days, and sometimes camping, lighthouses, cliffs, DJ music and Tiki bars, I think I'm going into Summer Withdrawal.  Does such a thing even exist?

So.... what a great way to bring back the memories than by painting some waves.

Want to see more waves?  Water? Lighthouses? Sunsets? Tiki Bars?  Here's a small sample of my Summer (click on a photo for a larger image/slideshow, or hover the mouse over the image to see notes about it):

Now, I must admit that Fall is my favorite season, with all of its splendor and glory.  But, but, but... I'm just not ready for it yet.  Give me a week or two to get into the proper Spirit of Autumn.  In the meantime, I'm back to reliving the Summer.

Hope all of you had a great Summer too!

Ahhh... THIS is what Summer is all about.  Spending time on the beach.  

Another quick 15 minute sketch, no pre-drawing, just to exercise my skills.  It's not perfect, not intended to be.  Just enough to capture the essence of what I was seeing.

My previous post was Mead's Mills Ruins, done from a photograph over 20 years old.  I was not happy with the way the water was painted, so I called it a preliminary sketch and set out to do a bigger, more formal painting out of it.  Here is the result:

I took artistic license by adding in more rocks on the lower right as well as in the marshy areas.

After I finished the above painting, I had the opportunity to go back to Hines Park to see if the Mead's Mills Ruins were still there.  They were.... but a little more road weary.  Here are some current photos.  I was sad to see graffiti on this landmark.

You can see from the above photos the area of the waterfall I focused on.  Unfortunately, I was not able to access the exact angle of the area I'd previously photographed, which was off to the left more, coming in from the side.  There now existed a lot of foliage along the shoreline not there 25 years ago.  Funny how a landscape changes over time.  I only took the photos above by crawling through the trees downstream, trying to get a view not obscured by trees.

It was definitely worthwhile going back to visit.  Lots of memories and lots of reference photos for more Hines Park paintings.

Here is another scene from Hines Park in Northville, Michigan, at the Mead's Mill Ruins site.  This is a composite of several poor quality photos taken in the mid-1980's.

This was more of a sketch than a formal painting.  I fiddled around with the water a little too much, but I think if it was painted on a larger scale then it would not be a problem.  I do like the sunkissed glow on the rocks though.

I think I'm going to have to go back there and take some current photos of the ruins, and to see how much it has deteriorated since then.  Stay tuned for more photos and also a larger painting of this scene, which I'm working on now.