Andrea Doughtie, Rural Painter

Finally the beans are in full bloom! I’ve been waiting to paint them before they start ripening. Once in a while a picture just paints itself and this one did. For once the sun stayed out, the weather was pleasant and the colors just fell onto the board. The so-called wildflower garden in the lower left is now terribly unkempt, with some echinacea and goldenrod taking over, a few lupines blooming way past their season. The bean crop looks to be a good one this year (there’s another teepee of it close by). Last year I carefully started the beans indoors where they thrived. But a week after I planted them outside a mouse or a vole cut them down–first and only time that has happened. At first I couldn’t imagine what was going on but then I looked out to see the little critter in action.

Found a terrific quote from Thomas Traherne: “…you never enjoy the world aright, till you so love the beauty of enjoying it that you are coveteous and earnest to persuade others to enjoy it.”

Scarlet Runner Beans 14 x 11-1/2 oil on birch panel $200 + S & H

When we first moved here several people offered to share bee balm with me. I thought that was generous, and it was, but now that I’ve planted some I can see why it’s not hard to give away; it grows like a weed. I think it’s a funny flower–very frowsy, as if it just got out of bed. There are a lot more colors of it in the garden than I ever planted–a whole range of fuschias, pinks, lavenders and white. It’s well named. Bees– and butterflies– flock to it. As a flavoring for Earl Grey tea it’s useful as well as entertaining. I painted this on our screened porch in beautiful fall-like weather. The Royal Worcester mug was a gift years ago, alas now chipped from much use, but a nice complement to the bouquet.

More people have asked about prices so I’m going to start posting preview prices as I blog.

Bee Balm 14 x 11 oil on birch panel $200 + SH

Painting with a palette knife is not something I do very often and I’d forgotten what a pleasure it can be. The painting below was started by just smearing some paint left over from my palette onto a piece of masonite. Then I kept smearing until something grew out of it. I’m always pleased when a picture emerges from my imagination. I’ve spent so much time in the woods painting and also just sitting and staring that woodsy landscapes must be stored in my brain.

Textures 8 x 11 oil on masonite, unframed

A carpenter friend gave me a whole stack of beautiful birch panels, left over from a job. It has been hard for me to cover up the wood patterns with gesso so I decided to see if I could get a painting just using the grain. It was a lot of fun to make a landscape–clouds, hills and foreground–mostly from the pattern that was there. The wood accepted several layers of very thin stain so I was able to preserve the grain and accentuate it in places. (The light in the sky came from sanding out the color.) I don’t know whether I’ll try this again but it’s good to play around with something a bit different.

Stained Landscape 12 x 15 oil on birch panel

After a fabulous week in California I’m back in the woods. Right before I left I had nearly finished a painting of hollyhocks and was relieved to see that they were still blooming. Hollyhocks seem to me such an atmospheric flower, the essence of high summer, and very old-fashioned. They didn’t grow in Georgia where I grew up but a Yankee friend says she used to make dolls’ skirts out of the blooms. Painting them was tricky as they kept turning toward the sun during the morning and by late afternoon dropping some of their blossoms. So I painted as fast as I could and am pleased with the loose breezy look.

Hollyhocks 24 x 12 oil on birch panel

Although it never seems to rain here, it was hazy and overcast for the first part of the morning. As we drove toward the mountains we could hardly see them until we got close. I liked the hazy look of the background, though. Some of the trees in the foreground were extremely dark which made a nice contrast. As I was working on another pastel (not the one below) a teacher from the Art Center came by and when I told him I was fairly new to pastels he gave me wonderful free advice about safety and materials. He liked what I was working on and that of course pleased me. I’m eager to try some of the techniques he told me about. He recommended looking at the Degas pastels at the Norton Simon Museum so that’s what I did in the afternoon. They of course were wonderful–very subtle.

San Gabriel Morning 9 x 12 pastel on paper

We’re in Pasadena, Calif. right now. Yesterday our son and wonderful new daughter-in-law had a huge party to celebrate their marriage in May. It was great to meet Jill’s family and so many of Gavin and Jill’s friends. I love visiting here. It’s so different from our little village–the exotic vegetation, the glamorous people, the traffic, the shops. It feels more like a big theme park than a real place to me. The landscape is spectacular. Right now it’s very dry and fairly warm. The range of earth colors on the mountains and the scrubby shrubs is a nice change from the constant summer green in Vermont. This afternoon Ed and I drove to the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains where I spent a couple of hours doing a pastel. I haven’t done a lot of work with pastel but it’s so much more portable than oils and not prohibited on a plane. I was quite pleased with the small piece I finished in one go. Yesterday we went to the Pasadena Museum of California Art and saw a wonderful show of Maynard Dixon’s work–lots of paintings of the West and of Native Americans. What a terrific painter–great draftsman and beautiful handling of paint. His clouds were particularly beautiful. It was fun today to be working with the same kind of landscape and palette.

San Gabriel Afternoon 9 x 12 pastel on paper

After a friend from Texas visited us last year she sent us a wonderful house gift–lots of Asiatic Lily bulbs. Now they’re in full bloom and absolutely gorgeous. When I was out selecting blooms to paint, a hummingbird was going from lily to lily, perching on the lower petal while he drank. They’re so territorial, it wasn’t long before a couple of other hummingbirds showed up and chased him away.

Orange Lilies, Blue Bottle 11-3/4 x 11-3/4 oil on birch panel

Years ago someone in an art class told me that “Shadows are your friends.” I do like shadows as a compositional element but it’s hard to remember that they’re always much lighter than I think they are at first. The lilies unfolded more and more as I painted and by the time I finished a couple of days later the bud had completely opened!

I’ve been frustrated for days because every time I prepare to paint, it starts raining. I’m waiting for the sun to come out to do some more flower paintings, indoors and outdoors. On the other hand, after enough hot weather in Houston to last us forever, it is nice to have chilly days in July.

Since I haven’t been able to use outdoor light I’ve finished up a painting of a still life set up with artificial light so I could work on it anytime.

This vase was my mother’s and I’ve loved it since I was a child. I don’t know what the red stems are but I keep them in the vase in the winter when nothing is blooming outdoors. That’s hydrangea in the little blue bottle. I’ve been so pleased with myself for learning to make an origami crane that I’ve put one in two paintings. Luckily I had some origami paper that was compatible with the design in the cloth. The blue ball is a Japanese fishing float I bought years ago.

Red, White and Blue 24 x 18 oil on canvas

These delphiniums are the most purple thing I’ve ever seen. I had to paint them outside because this is the only delphinium I’ve been able to grow and I wasn’t about to cut any of the blooms! Conditions were not ideal. The ground was so soft from all the rain that the easel kept tipping over and I was getting buzzed by deer flies and hummingbirds. Our garden is unkempt, to say the least. I tell myself that it’s like an English “cottage garden” but really, it’s just everything mixed in together, going its own way.

Getting a decent photo has been difficult. I’ve played around with the color settings a lot but still can’t get as deep a purple as the reality or the painting.