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S.Weber

~ Traveler / Artist / Photographer / Observer

S.Weber

Tag Archives: St Martin

Works In Progress…

04 Friday Mar 2016

Posted by Susana Weber in Art, Caribbean, Nature, Painting, Pastels, still life, Travel ~ Photography/Art/Food/Culture, Uncategorized

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art, arts, landscape, nature, outdoors, painting, Pastels, rain, reflections, special place, St Martin, travel, tropical

Aren’t we all?!

Who said something about standing in the spring rain?

Oh, yeah… that would be me.
And here, it happens every day… faithfully. Everything reflecting in the lovely Italian marble floor… so beautiful, so… dangerous. I brought an old box of pastels, broken and worn. I used them years and years ago…I think. I’m so used to my soft pastels in the big box there was no hope of bringing along. So… the old box would do, of course!

Mistake.

I used these? Seriously.

They are the hardest, most frustrating materials. And…they won’t be returning to New England… they’ll be used up or buried on the island where no one will ever think of looking for them. A mystery one day when unearthed.

Until then… a reflective pool after a spring rain.

A work in progress.

After the Rain

After the rain – Pastel work in progress – approx 20×15

Collecting time…

03 Thursday Mar 2016

Posted by Susana Weber in Caribbean, Painting, still life, Travel, Uncategorized, watercolor

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art, arts, beach, Caribbean, painting, pebbles, St Martin, still live, texture, travel, watercolor

For all we really do is stand here

in a springtime rain and wonder if

time is passing by or we are passing

through time. Grasping every moment,

every drop, every breeze, every tick

of time. And do what we should do.

Beach pebbles - 12x9 watercolor

Beach pebbles – 14×10 watercolor

Unfinished but… delicious.

02 Wednesday Mar 2016

Posted by Susana Weber in Art, Caribbean, Food, Painting, still life, Travel, Uncategorized

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art, arts, food, painting, St Martin, still life, Susana Weber, texture, travel, vacation, watercolor

Are you done with those yet? The light isn’t right… it’s not going to be right today. Well… alrig__…. Hey!

Acacados - 12x9 watercolor

Avacados – 12×9 watercolor

 

Waking…

29 Monday Feb 2016

Posted by Susana Weber in Art, Caribbean, Painting, Travel, Travel ~ Photography/Art/Food/Culture, Uncategorized

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art, challenging yourself, inspiration, learning, paint sketching, reawakening, special place, St Martin, travel, vacation, waking up, Watercolors

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.

I learn by going where I have to go.

From “The Waking”-  Theodore Roethke – 1953

image

It’s a sad thing when your electronic devices remind you that your last post was one year ago… Very sad indeed… Sigh…

Then… Good morning. Waking. Inspired, as always by a tropical sun and warm breeze. Making use of my time and all these reflections and shadows. I’m waking… Going where I need to go.

 

Filling the empty canvas…

16 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by Susana Weber in Art, Painting, Uncategorized

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art, arts, canvas, inspiration, intensity, painting, special place, St Martin, travel, vacation

The large white space has been knocking around this room and that one for longer that I remember… a 4 x 5 foot canvas… totally empty, that I bought for something that must have been in my mind years ago. Every now and then it would be in the way and it would get shuffled to the basement or the studio upstairs… or even used in the big window in the summer as a sun shade. Forgotten, it would sit in a corner… or behind a stack of frames where I’d eventually rediscover it. It’s accusatory white face gleaming at me… wanting to be painted and hung somewhere… anywhere. It developed a cut from something… a careless moment or pressure from some unkind frame or piece of orphaned glass leaning too close… Oops! so sorry… I hope it doesn’t hurt too much. A 4 inch gash 2 inches from one edge. Now that would have to be fixed before it could be painted… another delay!

Lucy's Snack Inspiration

Lucy’s Snack Inspiration

Several years ago… (God, this sounds awful!) I actually decided what I wanted to paint on the now spotted, fingerprinted and slashed white stretched surface. Vacationing in St Martin a few winters back, I took a photograph of a building whose orange color hurt the eyes to look at it… but, it changed the mood of the day to pass by it’s glowing walls! Everyone who walked in it’s presence looked outlined and “graphic”. One woman walked by in an outfit the same orange color. It was AWESOME! But, even though I could ‘see’ the finished painting in my mind… the start was still years away. Then……………………. I started.

Work in Progress in the photo studio... this thing is BIG!

Work in Progress in the photo studio… this thing is BIG!

The photo is fine for a photo but the painting in my head was a lot closer… a color-blocked composition with a figure walking through it. I rearranged the elements… sky, wall, roof, gate, sidewalk, street, figure… tighter and more focused… the elements becoming an abstract by themselves. Oh, and see that big hole on the right… yeah, gotta do something about that. I sketched the elements out and used a little fixative on the charcoal lines… then rough scrubbed in the blocks of color and values. Because this was so set in my mind, I felt there were few decisions that hadn’t been worked out even though I don’t remember thinking about it that much. I was just executing an already done painting. Weird… Next…

WIP 2

WIP 2

Things started picking up and I put an orange wash all over the figure and the sidewalk. Anything in front of the walls of Lucy’s Snack would glow! The under-painting let’s me work through what the values of the elements should be. I left off the iron gate because it would be easier to over-paint the wall instead of painting around the delicate lines. I really missed it as an element and couldn’t wait to get it back in.

WIP 3

WIP 3

I work on detailing some of the green metal roof, putting in a shadow for the figure on the wall and under-painting the clothing. The time of day is early morning just after sunrise with the sun low in the sky. This is when colors are their most intense, washing out in mid-day and softening in evening. This is the best time of day to photograph… and I love the light. The light is certainly an important subject of this painting. Oh, yeah… the hole is patched. Duct tape on the back and filled the gap with gesso and orange paint. Fingers crossed.

WIP-4

WIP-4

More detailing, building up that glowing color on the walls, adjusting values… darker or lighter… over-painting the clothing to the black and white in my vision… Really missing that gate. She needs that element to walk toward… to be ‘grounded’.

WIP 5

WIP 5

Finally… the gate from the unseen doorway. It adds so much… oh, well… that’s just me. Things are coming together. Lots of adjusting here and there… I think her head looks too big… so, I make it smaller from the back taking out some of the cap in the final. Seeking more movement in the skirt. Finishing the sidewalk textures and the street and painted stripes. The purse looks too important… no, just unfinished. I add a texture and more shaping, a shadow, a reflection from the white skirt on the bottom.

Morning light... Final

Morning light… Final

Is it done? Seems to be. I’m trying not to overwork it. Time will tell.

WIP face detail

WIP face detail

The canvas size makes it hard to see detail… so I’ve included these. It is great to keep a record of whatever kind of art project you’re working on.

WIP Final detail

WIP Final detail

Filling the big white space...

Filling the big white space…

So it’s done… the white canvas is no longer getting kicked from place to place. There’s a fortune in orange paint on it. The price of canvas has doubled since this one was purchased. And the empty white space in the kitchen is filled with something that reminds me of a very special place on the planet. It makes me smile… and want to plan the next trip there!

Hidden hearts

14 Wednesday Mar 2012

Posted by Susana Weber in Abstract Macro Photography, Art, Photography, Travel ~ Photography/Art/Food/Culture, Uncategorized

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abstract, accidental image, art, arts, grafitti, heart, hearts, hidden picture, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, St Martin, tile floor

Editing the latest group of photos from St Martin… the hidden hearts have surfaced… some I see at the time the images were captured and some afterwards, viewing the thumbnails of the files in my image processing workflow. I have many of them from everywhere I’ve traveled. There’s a large file of them tucked away amid the files of other various hidden images… (a special catagory of photography close to my heart.) But, for now… here is a small gallery of hidden hearts found on the recent trip… and a few from a trip to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (home town!) that I made recently. They are present everywhere and to find one… all you have to do is… look for them. Try it and let me know what you find…

Park your dirty little heart right here
Time and Space
The crowned heart

The true love hearts
The peeling heart
The wild red heart

The secret heart
The glass heart
The rusted heart

The discarded heart
The mysterious heart
The posted heart

Artful food

12 Monday Mar 2012

Posted by Susana Weber in Food, Photography, Travel ~ Photography/Art/Food/Culture, Uncategorized

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artful food, culture, food, photography, St Martin, texture, travel, vacation

Eggwhite omlette

Eggwhite omlette

Fresh
Fresh
French loaves
French loaves
Eggwhite omlette
Eggwhite omlette

Toppings and textures
Toppings and textures
Apple tart tartan
Apple tart tartan
The decision
The decision

Baguette French Toast
Baguette French Toast
Guilty pleasures
Guilty pleasures
Cafe' aulait and apricot tartan
Cafe’ aulait and apricot tartan


One cannot live on photographs, editing, uploading, sketching and watercolors alone… so at some point one must prepare or… gather… some food and on the island of St Martin, it is artful indeed. Of course the French boulangeries are the obvious place to find it in its most artful form. In Marigot, Sarafina’s is a favorite just across from the ferry port and outdoor market. Trying to decide what to choose slows the line to a crawl… so better order two of whatever you choose. Even our everyday breakfast fare became something to make special… it only seemed right in the presence of such… artful delights!

 

© Susana Weber and Tattoo Communications, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Susana Weber and with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Change of air

10 Saturday Mar 2012

Posted by Susana Weber in Art, Photography, Travel ~ Photography/Art/Food/Culture

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art, arts, earth, illustration, landscape, nature, outdoors, painting, photography, plants, sea, Simpson Bay Lagoon, St Martin, travel, vacation, watercolor

Change sunrise

Change sunrise

A definite change… still, warmer, humid, mosquitos! Hearing things you don’t hear when the breeze is running… the dog down the hill… a carpenter cutting wood somewhere far off. Preceded by a night of wind and rain that rattled the shutters, the sunrise sky is like none we’ve seen since we arrived. I’ve amused myself with my watercolor postcards, finding hidden pictures on the tiles of the floor and pool lounging when the sun is not quite so high. I’m getting the hang of the watercolors. I’ve never liked the medium… I’m too impatient and tend to overwork a piece by not letting the color dry before I work on top of it. The breeze here taught me something. It helped dry things up and I could see that I had to wait. Learn something every day… try new stuff… keep those brain cells moving… :)))

Hammock on the porch postcard

Hammock on the porch postcard

 

© Susana Weber and Tattoo Communications, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Susana Weber and with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

True love

09 Friday Mar 2012

Posted by Susana Weber in Abstract Macro Photography, Art, Photography, Travel ~ Photography/Art/Food/Culture

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abstract, art, grafitti, peeling paint, St Martin, texture, watercolor

Regardless of how many vacation snaps I capture… or more arty landscapes, seascapes or still life compositions documenting a vacation trip. I always seem to have a much larger proportion of closeups of my true love… peeling paint! I’m drawn to it like a magnet… composing and adjusting for the correct DOF, focus and lighting. Add rust, scratches, plant parts, textures, rocks, tile, stone, concrete, wood and other surfaces too numerous to mention to the mix and you have a very full camera and vacation pictures that are a tad confusing to anyone casually looking at my files. My husband is used to me searching out the nearest dumpsters when were visiting some exotic local. Hey, exotic place = exotic grunge (theoretically)! For me… that’s where they keep the… ART!

Abstract peel

Abstract peel

 

© Susana Weber and Tattoo Communications, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Susana Weber and with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

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  • Works In Progress…
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  • Unfinished but… delicious.
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