Sketchbook Page - Harbor View Hotel Porch

This morning's sketchbook page was drawn last month on the front porch of The Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown, on Martha's Vineyard. Their front porch has a beautiful view of the Edgartown Lighthouse and it's a great place to stop and rest for a bit while walking around town. It's also a nice, comfortable place to sit and draw outside, without being in direct sunlight. A nice employee even offered to bring our dog, Bilbo, water while my husband and I were working in our sketchbooks.

After sitting on the porch for a while, we took Bilbo down to the Lighthouse beach, where he proceeded to have the time of his life. There was much frolicking in the sand, flinging of seaweed, and splashing in the ocean.

Sketchbook Page - Dutcher Dock, Menemsha

Today's sketchbook page comes from the Dutcher Dock area of Menemsha on the island of Martha's Vineyard. Those colors aren't exaggerated, it really was quite vivid in the middle of August.

I love Menemsha, it's my favorite place to buy fresh seafood. While I was on the island this summer, I made good use of it and on four separate nights cooked scallops, crab cakes (from scratch), flounder, and striped bass. I also made sure that I ate more than my fair share of clam chowder.

Sketchbook Page - Polly Hill Arboretum

I'm planning to post some pages from my sketchbook over the next few days, as I have several small paintings and sketches that I haven't shared yet. Today's page is from this past August and was painted at Polly Hill Arboretum on Martha's Vineyard. Polly Hill is a lovely, peaceful place to sit and draw or read. I highly recommend a visit if you're ever on the island.

Save The Gay Head Lighthouse

A while back, I donated the use of my "Ocean View of Aquinnah" watercolor painting to the Save The Gay Head Lighthouse campaign.

The historic lighthouse, located in the town of Aquinnah on the island of Martha's Vineyard, is in danger of falling in to the ocean due to the erosion of the clay cliffs. People have been working hard to raise money to move the entire lighthouse to a safer location near the cliffs in Aquinnah. Thanks to the efforts of many, the project continues to move forward!

They have been selling my watercolor painting on mugs as part of their fundraising efforts, and the mugs are now available in their online shop. I receive no money from this, I have freely donated the use of my painting to the lighthouse preservation campaign.

You, too, can help support the campaign by purchasing a mug or making a donation! You can read more about the campaign at their website, and the mugs are available in their Lighthouse Gear shop.

A New Mailbox

For several years I have painted mailboxes for my parents' home.  The last one I painted for them was five years ago and it was starting to show its age, so this summer I decided that they were due for a new one.  The past few mailboxes have been more illustrative, so this time I decided to go with a more graphic design inspired look for a change.

The mailbox I started with was originally a bronze color, but I primed it with a pearly white finish for the base of the design.  Once the base coat was dry, I used painters tape in varying widths to mask out the herringbone inspired pattern.  I didn't do any measuring for the pattern, just eyeballed everything for the stripes.  I wanted the color blocks to be similar in size but with enough variety to add more visual interest.

Then it was simply a matter of going through with three different shades of blue and aqua house paint (acrylic paint would work fine, too, but I had these colors on hand from a previous project) and a sponge brush to dab in the color.  I used a sponge brush instead of a normal brush so that I would have a flatter finish with the color.  I tested how a normal brush looked, but I wasn't happy with being able to see the brushstroke lines.  I did use a normal paintbrush for painting in the lettering.

The lettering was put on the mailbox out by first printing out the address using my computer (the font used was Futura).  I then flipped the printouts over, and on the back of the paper I covered where the lettering was with pencil.  If you're trying this at home, you can just hold the paper up to a light to make sure that the back is sufficiently covered with pencil to cover the letters.  Once that was done, I taped the sheet to the mailbox, with the pencil covered back against the metal and the printed lettering on top.  I then simply traced over the printed letters, and the pencil on the back of the paper transfers your tracing on to the surface of the mailbox.  It's the same concept as carbon paper.

After all of the painting was completed and all of the tape removed, I sealed everything with Rust-Oleum's Crystal Clear Enamel spray to make the paint last longer against weather elements.  Then it was just a matter of installing the hardware and the mailbox was done.  Ta-da!

Sketchbook - Edgartown Lighthouse By Moonlight

I'm back from my time on Martha's Vineyard.  I'll be going back in August for a few more days, but for now I'm back and armed with tons of new references photos that I took while I was out there.  I did a little bit of sketchbook work while I was there, but also wound up bringing home lots of ideas for new paintings.  

This watercolor is one small painting I did in my sketchbook (size 5" x 8") while I was on the island.  I snapped some photos of Edgartown Lighthouse on a moonlit night and then painted from those once I got back inside, since it was too dark to be able to paint outside.  

I've never actually painted a moonscape before, so this was some good intro practice.  I wanted the colors to be much darker and more saturated, but the sketchbook watercolor paper could only handle so much.  When I tried to go bolder with the color, my initial washes kept pulling up, even when they had been thoroughly dried.  Lesson learned - I definitely need a heavier weight paper to paint a proper moonscape.  

On an unrelated note, the free worldwide shipping offer that I posted about yesterday is still available from my Society6 shop.  If there is something you've had your eye on, now might be your time to act!

To the sea we go!

I'll be on Martha's Vineyard for the next week.  Hello ocean breezes!...in theory at least, since I know they've been getting the heat wave, too.  Anything must be better than the mid-90s heat that we've been having here!

I'm planning to take lots of photographs (good camera and iPhone both) and hopefully do some drawing and painting in my sketchbook while I'm there.  I'd like to have some new watercolor paintings to post when I get back.

In the meantime, you can follow along with my photos from the island on Instagram.  Just follow me @JackieOcean. You can also click on here to see previous blog posts with my artwork from Martha's Vineyard.  Here's a few photos from last summer on the island.

Photo published in Boston Magazine

Here's something fun to kick off the month of June with.  The current issue of Boston Magazine includes a photograph that I took of the wall of vintage mailboxes at Alley's General Store on Martha's Vineyard.  My photo can be found on page 73 in their Summer On The Cape article.  

The article can also be read online right here on the Boston Magazine website.  The page with the story that my photo accompanies can be found on the 5th page of the website version of the article.  

Lighthouse - New Watercolor

For my parents' Christmas gift this year, I painted a watercolor of the Gay Head Light in Aquinnah, Massachusetts, on Martha's Vineyard, for them.  The actual watercolor painting measures approximately 10" x 16".

The Gay Head Light is the only red brick lighthouse on Martha's Vineyard. All of the other lighthouses are white with black trim.  It was first built in 1799 as a wooden tower on the top of the clay cliffs in Aquinnah.  The current brick lighthouse structure was built in 1856.  At one point in its history, the lighthouse was actually moved back from the edge of the cliffs to prevent it from falling, as the clay cliffs have been subject to erosion over the years.  You can read more about the Gay Head Light right here on Wikipedia.

A second watercolor painting that I made this summer of the Gay Head Light and the clay cliffs of Aquinnah can be seen right here in my blog.

Prints of this painting are available in my Society6 Shop. In addition to art prints, the painting is also for sale on phone cases, pillows, greeting cards, tote bags, and more!

Ocean View of Aquinnah

This watercolor painting is of the clay Gay Head Cliffs in Aquinnah on Martha's Vineyard.  I used a photo I had taken while deep sea fishing the previous summer as reference.  The painting measures approximately 11"x8".  You can see the less detailed color study that I did for this painting right here.

Prints are available through my Society6 shop!

Clay Cliffs - a color study

I painted this small watercolor of the clay cliffs in Aquinnah on Martha's Vineyard as a color and composition study for a larger painting. This was done in my watercolor sketchbook and measures approximately 4 1/2" by 6".

West Tisbury Tractor - new watercolor painting

This is a new watercolor painting of a tractor in a farm field in West Tisbury, on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. Completed in August of 2011. Some in progress pictures of the painting can be viewed here.

Prints are available through my print shop.

Philbin Beach Rocks - watercolor sketches

I was able to do a little bit of painting while I was on Martha's Vineyard last week visiting my family and working on planning my wedding for next summer. I took two of my watercolor sketchbooks to Philbin Beach in Aquinnah so that I could paint in one while the other was drying. It was pretty hot and sunny, so the paint was drying faster than I would have liked, but I did my best to just work with it and not get too hung up on precise details. These three watercolor sketches are the result.

I'm hoping to do more painting here at home over the next few weeks, using some of the photos I took last week as reference. Later in August I'll be returning to the island for another visit/wedding planning session.

To see more of my Martha's Vineyard drawings and paintings, just click here.

Lighthouse - sketchbook

Here's another page from my sketchbook, featuring the Gay Head Lighthouse in Aquinnah on Martha's Vineyard. Drawn with pen in my moleskine sketchbook.

To see more of my Martha's Vineyard drawings and paintings, just click here.

New watercolor painting in progress

I started a new watercolor painting yesterday, based on a photo I took in West Tisbury when I was on Martha's Vineyard last summer. I'm trying using Strathmore 500 series cold press illustration board, which I don't have much experience with. It reacts differently than normal watercolor paper, so I'm having to slightly re-adjust my painting strategy.

Inspirations: Random Sketchbook Pages

My sketchbooks tend to have pages filled with random bits of whatever I find in them. Here are some of those pages from my current sketchbook.

Clay Cliffs watercolor

A small painting of the Aquinnah Cliffs, as viewed from Philbin Beach on Martha's Vineyard. This was done in my watercolor sketchbook and measures approximately 4 1/2" by 6".

Two years ago I posted a painting from the same watercolor sketchbook of the same cliffs, just a slightly different view. It's fun to look and compare the two.

Foggy State Forest

Another page from my watercolor sketchbook, this time featuring a foggy State Forest on Martha's Vineyard. Measures approximately 4 1/2" by 6".

Old Stone Wall from Up-Island

I love those old stone walls that you can find all over Martha's Vineyard, especially up-island. This picture was done in my watercolor sketchbook and measures approximately 4 1/2" by 6".

More Vineyard pages from my sketchbook

This first sketch is a drawing I started of Edgartown Harbor, over by the Yacht Club, but I didn't finish it because people kept standing right over my shoulder and annoying me. It was really just too busy down by the harbor to try and draw that afternoon.


This second drawing was done while waiting to go to the Chilmark Flea Market. My mom has a whole bunch of plants out on her porch that are waiting to be put in to what is going to be a vegetable garden.