Autumn on Lake Townsend

Here's another painting of Lake Townsend, done in the Autumn. In this painting I wanted to capture a panoramic view of this serene October day on the lake. This is one of my favorite roadside painting spots in Guilford County, just north of Greensboro. The shapes in the land masses, foliage, and water always intrigue me here, and on this day I liked it all ... dark background trees, brightly lit middle ground islands, and broken reflections. It all adds up to a big view and an evocative Fall landscape. I chose to paint this on gessoed paper, because I felt that the gessoed surface would help me to paint the water - to lift out the small, light reflections and to lift off the large pattern of reflected, light sky.

Autumn on Lake Townsend

watercolor on gessoed paper, 24x30 inches framed

available for purchase, $695.00

Please visit my website to see lots more paintings:
http://alexislavineartist.com

Too Splendid for Slaw

I painted this transparent watercolor several years ago, in the company of my plein air painting buddies.  We drove to Bethania, an historic Moravian community just north of Winston-Salem.  There are fine old buildings there, homes, a well-preserved church, and a field planted in the old style, with many vegetables and flowers that would have been cultivated by the original residents of the community.  I spotted this beautiful cabbage and set up my easel, to try to capture the graceful shapes and subtle color changes in its leaves.  When I was through, I was struck by the irony of driving 80 miles round-trip to paint a cabbage.  This year, with our heightened awareness of carbon footprints and miles-per-gallon, that might seem quite irresponsible.  So - I apologize.  As a plein air painter, we never know what we will find when we reach our painting site.  I could have painted 200-year-old buildings.   More significant than a humble cabbage?  You decide...

P.S. By the way, we plein air painters are committed to car-pooling these days, to lower the carbon footprints of our paintings!

Too Splendid for Slaw!

watercolor on cold pressed paper

Private collection, not available for purchase.

Please visit my web site to see lots more paintings: http://www.alexislavineartist.com

Crossing the Park

Fisher Park in downtown Greensboro is crisscrossed with a number of these historic, small stone bridges.  I love their graceful shape and the textures and colors in the old, weathered stones.  I started this painting on location in the park, on an overcast morning, and several times during my painting session it started to drizzle.  This was certainly cause for concern, as the raindrops could literally wash my paint off the watercolor canvas faster than I could paint it on.  So several times, I had to grab my painting and run for cover!  I painted as much as I could on location, and finished it later in my comfortable, dry studio.

Crossing the Park

watercolor on canvas

17 x 21 inches, framed

available for purchase: $495.00

Please visit my website to see lots more paintings: http://alexislavineartist.com

At the Hamilton Estate

Here's yet another demo painting ... yes, I've been doing a lot of teaching lately!  This was painted as a demonstration for my Thursday morning watercolor students.  I used a photo which I took on St. Croix at the childhood home of Alexander Hamilton.  I used the shapes and colors in the photo and moved them around and changed them in my design, to create a painting that is more coherent and pleasant than the original photo.  I also painted this as a vignette, in which I designed interesting, unpainted white shapes in the four corners.  This helps to keep your eyes towards the “body” of the painting, where all the “action” is.

At the Hamilton Estate

watercolor on cold pressed paper

22 x 26 inches, framed

available for purchase, $425.00

Please visit my website to see lots more paintings: http://alexislavineartist.com

Diva of the Pond

Here's another painting that was started as a demo.  This one was begun as a demonstration for a workshop I taught for the Cabarrus Art Guild, just north of Charlotte, NC.  I was emphasizing the creative interpretation of a photograph and was also explaining the concept and technique of negative painting.  My reference photo was a horizontal picture of a lily pond that looked entirely different from this.  I rearranged all of the shapes in the photo and drastically changed the colors, to make a painting that is much more moody and mysterious than the photo.  Much of the painting was created by painting “negatively” around shapes, in a succession of transparent glazes.  This results in a clean, luminous look, which is ideal for this kind of a subject.  I chose watercolor paper for my substrate, knowing that it would work best for the application of all of the glazes I was planning to do.

Diva of the Pond

watercolor on hot pressed paper

26 x 22 inches, framed

available for purchase, $595.00

Please visit my website to see lots more paintings: http://alexislavineartist.com

A Radical Radish

This painting was started as a demonstration painting for one of my watercolor classes.  I wanted to encourage my students to look at familiar objects in new and creative ways.  I had bought a bunch of radishes the day before and we each held one in our non-painting hand while we drew and painted it.   Making the painting very large - it is 22 inches high - forced us to look very hard at our small subjects, to study and savor their textures, colors, and shapes, as we had probably never done before.  This painting was created with many glazes ... layers of transparent pigment painted one over the other, to create new shapes and veils of colors.

A Radical Radish

watercolor on cold pressed paper, 30 x 24 inches framed
available for purchase, $650.00

Please visit my website to see lots more paintings:
http://alexislavineartist.com

In for a Dip

This watercolor was started on location and completed in the studio. It is, obviously, mostly about the chair. But I tried to do two slightly unorthodox things in this painting. I included a huge amount of negative space (background) which necessitated a lot of work to make all that background space meaningful. I painted numerous glazes on the water, to give it the depth and the reflections which I felt were necessary. Plus I placed the chair so that it is facing out of the painting. Normally I would face the chair into the body of the painting. But I wanted to try something different. I think the position of the chair gives the painting a bit more immediacy - as if the occupant has just walked out ... or jumped ”in for a dip.”

In for a Dip

watercolor on cold-pressed paper, 22x29 inches framed

private collection, not available for purchase

Please visit my website to see lots more paintings:
http://alexislavineartist.com