Christiansted Alight

Last year on St. Croix we stayed in a marvelous place on the eastern end of the island, where the sunsets were a nightly spectacle. The sun went down behind a chunk of land to our west, and as the light faded, the distant house lights and street lights gradually popped on. There were a few magical moments each evening when we could all the lights twinkling, as well as the sunset, and the shapes of the land and ocean. Totally gorgeous!

This studio painting, created with the aid of a photo to help me recreate the shapes of the land masses, is an attempt to capture that brief interlude between day and night. I wanted the sky and the ocean to look very luminous. I wanted to show the land masses as a large dark silhouette. And I wanted those lights to look very bright. I decided that the ideal way to achieve all this was to pour layers of liquid color onto cold-pressed paper, preserving the tiny lights with dabs of masking fluid. I think that was a good decision.

Is that the sun, or the moon, going down? I'll let you decide for yourself ...

Christiansted Alight

watercolor, 14x20 framed

$350.00

Available this coming weekend at the 23rd Annual Caribbean Fine Art Exhibition, February 12-15, on St. Croix!

Please visit my web site to see lots more paintings:

http://www.alexislavineartist.com

The Gardener's Gallery

This painting was begun as a demo painting for one of my recent watercolor classes. I used a photo which I shot on St. Croix last year. The photo showed two connected houses, a big sky and a huge foreground, complete with all kinds of growing things, stone walls, pathways and steps. A big part of my lesson was showing my students how I zeroed in on one very small part of the photo, the corner of this house, to develop into my painting. To me, this was the most interesting part of the entire scene. I liked the architecture very much, the graceful archways which are so characteristic of the island buildings. And the plants and flowers surrounding it were lovely. I designed this as a vignette, deliberately constructing three corners empty of paint, all the while paying careful attention to their shapes, sizes, and edges. When I design a vignette, I consider the design attributes of the unpainted corners to be just as important as those of the shapes within the painted image area.

This painting will be in a large exhibition soon, on St. Croix!

The Gardener's Gallery

watercolor, 23x19 framed

$450.00

Available soon at the 23rd Annual Caribbean Fine Art Exhibition

February 12-15, on St. Croix!

Please visit my web site to see lots more paintings:

http://www.alexislavineartist.com

Standing Proud

Last year when we were down on St. Croix, in the U.S. Virgin Islands, we could see this old, ruined sugar mill from the place where we were staying. This is one of about 150 wind mills, left over from the era of sugar cane plantations several centuries ago. The island is dotted with old sugar mills, some in very good condition, others barely visible above the vines and plants that have grown up around and inside of them. This one looked quite intriguing and so we started asking around about it. Some people told us how to drive up quite close to it. But they failed to tell us that we had to go on a private road and that the owner was a bit of a "bear." A very private man. An extremely unfriendly man. Not the slightest bit flattered by the attentions of an artist at work. And - yup, even very ANGRY! I have always made it a point to not set my easel up on anyone's lawn or private property, and, honestly, did not realize I had done so - until this man drove up in his very large SUV and ordered me (and my husband) away. IMMEDIATELY! He sat in his car, glaring, gunning the engine, shooting virtual daggers out of his eyes, while we hastily threw my painting gear into the back of our car and drove off to save our skins. It was quite unpleasant, and scary too. We'll never go back up there, that's for sure.

When I paint on location, I usually shoot a few pictures to help me with details back in the studio. I had not gotten around to doing this that day. So I had to finish this from memory - a good exercise, I might add. I had designed and drawn my painting and blocked in my main masses on location, and had a good understanding of the textures, colors, and lighting. So actually, it was not too hard to finish this painting, a month or so later, back in my studio in North Carolina. This painting will be in a large exhibition soon, back down on my very favorite island, St. Croix!

Standing Proud

watercolor, 12x16 gallery wrapped canvas

$350.00

Available soon at the 23rd Annual Caribbean Fine Art Exhibition

February 12-15, on St. Croix!

Please visit my web site to see lots more paintings:

http://www.alexislavineartist.com

Out in the Rain

A couple of years ago I taught a workshop at a lovely place out in the country, north of Greensboro. It was supposed to be a three-day "plein air" workshop. In other words, three days of working at our easels, in the great outdoors. It rained for three days. No ... more correctly, it POURED for three days. Not conducive for outdoor watercolor painting! My students were an intrepid lot and retreated to the studio without nary a grumble. I shot a bunch of photos of the driveway on one of the days, during a brief lull in the rain, and made this studio painting shortly thereafter. I painted it on watercolor canvas, which allowed me to lift the light fence out from the darker foliage behind it. And it allowed me to pull and push the reflections down into the surface of the road. I wanted this painting to look really rainy, full of atmosphere and weather, but without being oppressively dreary as many rainy days can be.

Out in the Rain

watercolor on canvas, 18x21 framed

$425.00

Please visit my web site to see lot more paintings:

http://www. alexislavineartist.com

A Walk A Week

Speaking of elderly gentlemen out for a walk - remember last week's painting? - here are two more. This time, I know nothing at all about these guys, except for the fact that they were out walking in a park, directly ahead of me - and my camera. I've actually used this particular photo at least three times to inspire paintings of these men, because I like their positions, their gestures, their clothes ... and each time I have made a completely different painting of them. This one utilizes a new watercolor technique which I was recently taught by Linda Baker. It involves the use of copious amounts of masking fluid to block off areas of watercolor paper, which then receive a thorough dampening and a blast of liquid watercolor which is poured directly upon them. Sounds crazy? It is great fun to use this technique, and the results can be stunning, with great luminosity and complex, hard-edged shapes. This might explain to you why this painting looks not quite like my usual, softer style.

A Walk A Week

watercolor on cold-pressed paper, 24x20" framed

$450.00

Please visit my web site to see lots more paintings:

http://www.allexislavineartist.com

Centennial Walker

I just stumbled across yet another painting from that same sheep farm, which happens to be in Randolph County, North Carolina. As I stood in the middle of this lane, painting ("en plein air") the view towards the main road, the owner’s father made his daily half-mile, round-trip trek to the road, to pick up the morning newspaper. He stopped to chat with me and my painting friends, one of whom casually asked him how old he was. One hundred and two years old! And still walking half a mile each morning to get the paper! Undoubtedly reading it too! My goodness, I just had to put him into the painting. I shot about a dozen photos of him and added him into the painting later, when I was back in my studio. Notice that he is carrying a bag - containing the morning newspaper.

Centennial Walker

watercolor on cold-pressed paper, 26x32 framed

Private Collection

Please visit my web site to see lots more paintings:

http://www.alexislavineartist.com

History Presiding II

Here's a painting which just sold at a charity event on St. Croix. A portion of all sales will benefit the Sunshine Foundation, whose mission is to put an end to pet overpopulation on St. Croix by providing basic, high-volume/low-cost spay/neuter services to people and pets in need. Perhaps I should have painted a pet for this show, but I chose to paint one of the beautiful, seaside sugar plantation ruins on the island. I painted this on watercolor canvas, and had a ridiculously hard time painting that large smooth sky. It would have been far easier on watercolor paper, which grabs the paint much more securely than canvas and allows for large smooth washes. Suffice it to say that I labored over the sky, painting and re-painting it, over and over again, until I finally achieved the look I was after. (Never again will I attempt this on watercolor canvas!) And then the unthinkable happened. As my "perfect" sky was drying, a stray drop of water from my brush landed on it! I stared in horror at this drop and watched helplessly as it spread a bit, settled into the surface, and created a light blemish in the middle of the sky. Trying to remove it or patch up the blemish would have resulted in a nastier spot. I was extremely frustrated, and quite angry at myself for allowing that drop of water to deface my painting. So I took a few deep breaths, and thought about what I could do. And then it hit me! A rising daytime moon! You know the way you sometimes see a small pale moon in the daytime sky? Well, there you have it. A bit of careful lifting and shaping around that water drop, and I had my moon. And no one but you and I will know how it happened. Fortunately the water drop landed in a good location, and it's actually kind of cool to have that moon there. I like it! This is a painter's variation of "making lemonade out of lemons!"

Please visit my web site to see lots more paintings:

http://www.alexislavineartist.com