Daily Practice - July 2026
Summer art time is the best time
Went out on a few plein air oil paining adventures this month!
I also went on an hike at Pawtuckaway State Park, with a small seeded notebook (with marks and some collage in it to start) that I worked in on the mountain and also a bit after from inspiration images. I’ll share more about this in mid-August to keep this email a bit shorter, and because I am still working in it a bit.
All fun, with varying levels of success. Truly all of these works are sketches rather than finished pieces.
Some constructive notes for myself…
I don’t think it looks dark while I’m out there but the colors of the finished paintings are kind of muddy. I brought a 1/2 linseed oil + 1/2 gamsol medium, but I did skip bringing the 100% gamsol I usually used to clean up, and just decided to put dirty brushes to the side and bring them home to clean.
Odiorne State Park was so windy and my set up blew over a few times. I picked up a new tripod to hopefully help with stability.
I probably need to work smaller outside w the pochade box I am using (UGo Small). The 9”x9” oil paper mounted on cardboard (so more like 10-11” top to bottom) is just a smidge too big; so I might look into 9”x12” and 8”x10” canvas panels.
I came across the artist Sam Allerton Green, a fellow New Englander, and became a little obsessed with his style. I’m excited for his zine, which I subscribed to. Tried to replicate one of my paintings in his way, not great but worth exploring further for sure!
Is this too much for one post? I honestly didn’t think I had this much to report! Next month I might try to split it to two. Excited to continue this learning adventure in August!
Thank you for reading!
Your paintings are dreamy! I’m not an oil painter, so I’ll just enjoy yours. And your sketches are art in themselves. Such variety of marks and they really read well.