North Creek Farm WIP

I have started my first post-Maine painting (that is, a painting from a photo that I took while in Maine). I have been thinking a lot about my whole experience while I was there, and the main thing that stands out to me was the last full day and North Creek Farm, where we stopped for lunch. It was this adorable little farm/restaurant/store--very hippy-dippy, but in the best possible way! They had chickens with fluffy, feathery legs running around free, some really cute, furry dogs and a fat cat who slept in the greenhouse. Not to mention, the food was arguably the best we had on the trip. The ham and cheese sandwich was A-MAZING, and my friends and I shared a humongous slice of homemade blueberry pie for dessert! Being unable to eat seafood (I'm allergic), this was like the quintessential Maine meal for me and the atmosphere was just perfect.

So I decided to paint from a photograph that I had taken at North Creek farm. Right before we left to return back to the house, I shot a photo of the barn, which was adorned with buoys. It's not really something you see in the Midwest. All throughout Maine, you see houses strewn with buoys and these are the houses of lobster fishermen. They use the buoys to see where they have left their lobster traps in the ocean. And each buoy is painted differently, for each lobster fisherman.

 Normally, I'm not one for architectural paintings, but I like this photograph and I like the, dare I say it, whimsy of the buoys. Plus, it gives me an opportunity to do some wet-in-wet painting, which I always love.

This is just a WIP (Work in Progress), but I still feel like I'm getting off to a rough start. I haven't done a full-rendered painting in a while because I've been focusing on my splashy icons. I think I'm becoming rusty, which kind of scares me a little. I'd like to be able to work both ways equally well.

I plan on working on this some more today.

Also, I can't seem to find my tube of Alizerine Crimson watercolor that I bought recently. I really hope I didn't leave it in Maine. This painting needs a lot of Alizerine Crimson.