Watercolor landscape painting      10.5  inches x 7 inches  $150
Please contact me if you are interested in this or similar artwork.

Naples is filled with beautiful buildings, all in an Italian-style stucco with red tile roofs. Condos, hotels, businesses and stores all follow “the format.” Although this style creates a very unified look to the area, it can also be a bit redundant. Everything looks the same!

Luckily, I’m an Italian at heart, so the style appeals to me. I painted this plein air watercolor along a canal with a friend from Ann Arbor who also winters down south. I’m always drawn to architecture paintings and this building with the light shining in the bay windows caught my attention.

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Saunders Waterford Watercolor Paper
Medium: DaVinci Watercolors

Plein air pastel seascape painting    6  inches x 9.25 inches
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On the Naples dock again, this time looking back at the shore. There are well-spaced benches up and down the whole dock, which makes it perfect for artists wanting to paint plein air pastel seascapes of the surrounding views. It was a hot, windy day with strong waves hitting the shore at constant intervals. It was a challenge to try and capture the waves at the same position every time they came in, but I did my best to imply them. I again worked on a small piece of green Art Spectrum paper, allowing some of the color to peak through.

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Green Art Spectrum Colourfix Pastel Paper
Medium: Rembrandt Pastels and Sennelier Pastels

I’m still working diligently on the new sky series that I started in January. Part of my goal with this group of pastel paintings is to loosen up a bit and play with color and light. This particular piece is about as close as I come to an “abstract” composition, while still being very recognizable as clouds lit by the afternoon sun.

This artwork was created with:
Paper: White Kitty Wallis Pastel Paper
Medium: Rembrandt Pastels and Sennelier Pastels

Plein air pastel landscape painting    12.5  inches x 8.75 inches
Please contact me if you are interested in this or similar artwork.

Early morning on the beach. It was a moody scene for a plein air pastel seascape but I loved the dark sky against the sunlit beach. The Sea Grape trees created needed structure…

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Burgundy Art Spectrum Colourfix Pastel Paper
Medium: Rembrandt Pastels and Sennelier Pastels

Plein air pastel landscape painting    6  inches x 9.25 inches
Please contact me if you are interested in this or similar artwork.

One day down south I set up my pastels and easel out on the Naples dock. People were playing on the beach and constantly moving but I decided on a composition and ignored the tumultuous activity. This is a quick plein air pastel seascape of the scene which took me about 45 minutes to complete. I worked on a small piece of green Art Spectrum paper, allowing some of the color to peak through the colors I applied.

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Green Art Spectrum Colourfix Pastel Paper
Medium: Rembrandt Pastels and Sennelier Pastels

Plein air pastel landscape painting    9  inches x 12 inches
Please contact me if you are interested in this or similar artwork.

The beaches around Naples, Florida are really lovely and a lot of them are quite secluded. I painted this plein air pastel seascape late one crystal clear morning. I was working toward a looser application of pastel and a more abstract composition. Leaving the details behind and just trying to capture the feeling of a quiet moment in time…

This artwork was created with:
Paper: UArt Pastel Paper
Medium: Rembrandt Pastels and Sennelier Pastels

Top: Watercolor plein air painting     9.5 inches x 5 inches
Bottom: Pastel plein air painting        11 x 8.5 inches
Please contact me if you are interested in these or similar artworks.

I loved the entrance to this trendy little restaurant in Naples so much that I painted it one day in watercolor and then went back the next to tackle it in pastel. I had to position my easel in a prime parking space on a busy street to get a good view. I thought people might be miffed, but every person who walked by stopped to watch and comment on my progress. Not a bit of nastiness and I handed out a ton of business cards! I really like doing cityscape paintings. They are often difficult to set up, but usually more than worth the trouble…

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Yupo
Medium: Da Vinci Watercolors

Plein air pastel landscape painting    9  inches x 12 inches
Please contact me if you are interested in this or similar artwork.

Another situation where I simply turned my easel around after painting the previous posted seascape. Everyone on the beach came by to see my progress and I met a lot of nice people, mostly from the cold northern states!

The sea grape trees that line the beaches in Florida are an intriguing species. Their large waxy leaves are tinged with gold and red and when the light shines thru them they seem to glow. I wanted to catch a little of their sparkly color in this plein air pastel landscape. The large, distant tree in the background made a nice counterpoint to the spiky grasses.

This artwork was created with:
Paper: UArt Pastel Paper
Medium: Rembrandt Pastels and Sennelier Pastels

Plein air pastel seascape painting   11 inches x 14 inches
Please contact me if you are interested in this or similar artwork.

This plein air pastel landscape was painted on my first day out down south. It was a bit cloudy so I headed to the beach. I tend to stay away from sunny, blue-water seascapes. I like to capture a little more drama and subtlety when I paint the ocean. As I’ve said before, it always takes me a week or so to get used to the different climates, colors, shapes and atmospheres of a new location. This was a start.

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Richeson Pastel Paper with a watercolor underpainting
Medium: Rembrandt Pastels and Sennelier Pastels

Plein air pastel landscape painting    12  inches x 5 inches   $150
Please contact me if you are interested in this or similar artwork.

Since I was already set up to paint the bridge scene (from the last post), I decided to simply turn my easel around and paint what was directly behind me. No running around looking for a new view, just capturing the area I was in at the moment.

The Banyan trees down south are really interesting. The roots grow down from the limbs and create a constantly expanding sculpture. This tree was in deep shade with bright, sunlit lawn behind it. I decided to use a dark rust paper and let some of that color come through on the trunk. The really fun part of the pastel landscape came when I could “carve in” the vibrant lime green of the grass. It made the rest of tree pop. A true lesson in positive and negative space!

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Terra Cotta Art Spectrum Pastel Paper
Medium: Rembrandt Pastels and Sennelier Pastels

Plein air pastel landscape painting    9  inches x 12 inches
Please contact me if you are interested in this or similar artwork.

This sweet little bridge in our vacation complex called to me. It was midmorning and the light was changing quickly. Every time I looked at the water, there were different highlights and reflections. I zeroed in on one moment in time and tried to ignore the fluctuating sunlight that hit the river. Plein air pastel landscapes can be difficult that way. It’s very easy to get caught up in “chasing the light” and since it is constantly changing, it becomes an exercise in futility. You just have to go with your best gut instinct and stick with it!

This artwork was created with:
Paper: UArt Pastel Paper
Medium: Rembrandt Pastels and Sennelier Pastels

Plein air pastel landscape painting    9  inches x 13 inches
Please contact me if you are interested in this or similar artwork.

This dramatic scene was down the street from our condo in Florida. I painted a plein air pastel landscape of it both this year (above) and last year (below). They are very similar, done from almost the exact same viewpoint around the same time of day. Both were painted on art spectrum paper, this year’s on terra cotta, and last year’s on burgundy.

I was VERY excited to find out recently that Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine is naming me one of their “Three to Watch” in the May/June issue. It is an amazing honor to be featured in one of the best art collecting magazines in the world! And it’s a double pleasure: my good friend Nora Venturelli will be also be featured. Fantastic! I will post a copy of the article when it is published.

This artwork was created with:
Paper: Terra Cotta Art Spectrum Pastel Paper
Medium: Rembrandt Pastels and Sennelier Pastels