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The Summer Knows

8/25/2024 4:00:25 PM | By Gail M. Gallagher | Comment on this

Recent hurricanes have brought cool breezes and a hint of Fall in the air. A melancholy feeling lurks around the edges of my consciousness. A song, "The Summer Knows" fits my mood perfectly. We are in the "last caress" of these summer days. There is a nice instrumental version of the song by guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli here.

This summer, I was able to complete a number of still life paintings with garden flowers and lighter backgrounds than the winter set ups. It was especially nice to paint with the perfume of the white hydrangea filling my studio. The Knock Out roses are getting ready for at least one more big bloom, so I shouldn't say good bye to summer yet.

A plein air workshop with artist, Megan Euell was my birthday week treat this August. We painted along Peconic Bay at Clam Island State Park. Megan did a demo painting while also helping each of us with composition and decision making along the way. Megan would come over to where I was painting and ask what I was thinking, which was usually that "something" was off. She would then help me to actually see what was bothering me and how I could fix the problem. The best tip was to blend the paint with my pallet knife and not my brush. I had seen this before, but never applied it to my practice. How does it help? For me, I am forced to think about colors in advance. I create piles of paints with the pallet knife, blending them thoroughly, holding up the loaded pallet knife to the scene in front of me or against the canvas to see how the color will look before jumping in with paint brushes.

The way to Clam Island

I also took a plein air painting workshop through the Bridgehampton Museum. The workshop was held at the South Fork Natural History Museum with Howard Rose as the artist/instructor. This was the last in a series of five that the museum sponsored this summer. I am so glad that I at least made this last one. It was SO good! Howard began the workshop by taking us on a brief walk around the property looking for views to inspire paintings. "Image you were forced to paint 20 paintings here." As we walked, Howard asked for our thoughts and pointed out pathways, shadows, and landscape characteristics that could be described in paint to create a beautiful painting. This especially impressed me, as I've often fallen into the trap of "oh, this view doesn't inspire me" when I could be looking at nature and the effect of light and be inspired by it all. One of the students, who had limited mobility, set up her walker and easel in the parking lot and created a beautiful painting. So inspiring!

Howard critiquing our work at the end of class.

View towards the Nature Center

Howard did compliment me on having plenty of paint on my pallet, thanks to my previous workshop with Megan Euell and handy pallet knife. Hopefully a few finishing touches and this painting will be in the Plein Air Showcase at the Bridgehampton Museum