To the Sea Study

To the Sea

Study

Watercolor and Dry Brush

This small preliminary watercolor is drawn from my trips Down East and also to Pemaquid.  In this study I decided to simplify, by removing the cemetery from a larger earlier study (see below) and reducing the foreground trees to one large tree on the right.  I also was interested in trying to paint the foreground field using the dry brush technique. I also am trying different treatments with skies.  It's fun to just let loose with paint from time to time! (okay, actually all the time....).

Maine has so many peninsulas where the view to the ocean is still wild.  I find the contrast between the ochres of wild fields in the fall and spring and the blue of the ocean is striking   I find the views most interesting in spring, fall, and winter.  Summer has a beauty of its own but visually I find that  I'm more drawn to the play of light and reflections as the overall range of colors is reduced in the summer.

More and more development, means these views are not as plentiful as before, but the views are there if you take the roads less traveled.  

Elmer Ham floral

Elmer L Ham - Pastel Floral

Here is another fragment of a floral study by Elmer L Ham.  I've really enjoyed working through these fragments and experimenting with different compositions.  

I've never really tried collage before but I think I will in the future.  I'm now keeping scraps and bits that I used to throw away for further consideration down the road.   Sometimes preliminary pieces are so much more freeing to work on - that happy accidents can occur.  

While working on some of these fragments its been very interesting to see the different perspectives approaching abstraction. 

The above fragment is a Pastel.   Below is a watercolor fragment.

I'll include more floral still lives in other posts.  This subject matter definitely reflects Ham's training with Laura Coombs Hills.