Dingies at the Dock 12"x12" on gallery wrap canvas
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There’s a dinghy with a beautiful blue interior that I love to paint. It’s called Whirligig and it lives in Tenants Harbor, Maine.

Every time we visit, I try to get a new photo of it and any other boat touching it on the crowded dinghy dock. But there’s one photo I keep coming back to.

I keep coming back to this photo.

My first painting using that reference was called Dinghies at the Dock. I stuck pretty closely to the original photo and the real life colors of the three dinghy’s interiors. It’s 12”x12” in oils. Note that I left out the shadows of the ramp railings that fall inside the dinghy.
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Blue on Blue Dinghy - 6"x6" oil on canvas
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My second painting included only whirligig and the dock. It was small, only 6”x6”, but in acrylic. This time I got some of the transom in, using other photo references of the boat.
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Whirligig - 24"x24" on gallery wrap canvas
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My latest painting included all three boats again, but it's 24”x24”, also in oils. This time I turned the image a bit and went wild with the inside colors of the other two boats. Scaling it up this big was a challenge, but I think it makes a great statement at this size.
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The first painting hanging on the wall, showing the gallery wrap canvas.
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And this summer, when we stopped in Tenants Harbor on our way home from Penobscot Bay I couldn’t find Whirligig! Admittedly, it was the weekend, so maybe she was on a mooring doing her dinghy duty. I hope so, I’d hate for this to be “goodbye, Whirligig!”.
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Patricia with her finished painting, before removing the blue tape

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of teaching a painting class in France to French speakers. They are the students of my former French teacher, who now lives in France and teaches English. I taught the class in English, and Veronique wrote the English words that people didn't  understand on the whiteboard, along with French translations.

There were 13 students, two were water color painters, and I don't think the others had tried painting before. We painted in acrylics. In the first lesson, we created our drawings, using one of my buoy paintings as a guide. Some people drew freehand, using a couple of techniques to make it easier: draw from your reference photo turned upside down, and draw lines as guides on your reference photo and your paper that go vertically and horizontally through the middle of the photo and your drawing. One person traced, which is also a fine way to start.

Finished paintings, after the blue tape removal

I was pretty freaked out the first night, because I'd never taught that many people before. And I was concerned that we were using one of my paintings rather than the original photo as a reference. A week later, we painted. Everyone was excited to use the colored paints.  That night was so much fun. I loved to see how engaged the students were, and enjoyed their enthusiasm. Perhaps working from the painting as a reference was actually easier? The paintings turned out beautifully, and everyone was really pleased with their results. And they were learning English too! They all posed for pictures with their work afterwards.

We're in a crazy time right now, with lots of uncertainty. Is it time for you to pick up a paint brush and have some fun instead of spending so much time on the news? If so, I have two thoughts for you.

Two paintings we learn how to paint in the online class.

FIRST IDEA

First, I've just made my online beginner oil paintings class free of charge. It's a six lesson class that you can do at your own pace. It starts at the beginning and leaves nothing out. There's even a discussion of the supplies you'll need (some of which you probably already have) included in the first lesson.

The class is designed for total beginners, who don’t know where to buy the supplies and have never even held a brush. And for those who’ve tried, gotten frustrated, and put away their paints. If you’ve painted in watercolor, acrylic, or pastel, and would now like to try oils, it will work for you too, though there will be some review.  This page on my website, explains it all.

And let me explain why I suggest oil painting as a medium, rather than water color or acrylic. That's because it's the easiest to learn. Because it takes a few days for the paint to dry, you can scrape off bits you don't like and try again. Time is on your side, no need to rush. If you don't want to work with the solvent required for oil paint, there is a an alternative, called water mixable oil paint. It doesn't use solvents and cleans up with soap and water.  I provide a PDF on how to take the class with water mixable oils. I use them frequently myself.

Water color is the most difficult to learn, because there are no do-overs, only start-overs, which is really frustrating, especially when you're starting out, and you need to learn all the stuff that is the same for all mediums. I love watercolor paintings, and I love how easy it is to carry the gear around. Painting with water color is great for travel, but learning the basics in another medium is my recommended way to start out.

As for acrylics, the paint dries fast, and I mean really fast. If you want to change something, you can't scrape it off. You can paint over it, which is not quite the same as a do-over. You have to be careful to keep your brushes (and the paint you are working with) wet all the time. Lots of brushes have been thrown away because they weren't kept wet. If the paint gets on your clothes, they become painting clothes, the paint will not come out (with oil paint, if you catch it soon enough, you can can get the paint out). That being said, if you prefer the look of acrylic paints, you can do this class in acrylic, because much of what I'm teaching is not medium specific, and I provide a PDF to explain how. I paint in acrylic too!

SECOND IDEA

If you have painting experience, and don't need to start from the beginning, I have another idea. My friend Carol Douglas teaches a wonderful week long workshop in Acadia National Park in Maine each August and another in October in Rockport, Maine. You can check them out here. While there are other week long workshops in Maine each summer, and I've taken quite a few, I don't think you'll learn as much from any other instructor, nor will you find a more beautiful place to be inspired.

Note: While this blogpost was written in May, 2025, it wasn't live until September 22, 2025. These things happen..

Buoy 5 - 6"x6" oil on canvas board (finished on the left, value under painting on the right)

What's the most important thing to do well when creating a painting or an art photograph? Some people will say color, some will say drawing, some will say mood, and some subject matter. All those things are important, but what really matters most is composition.

Buoy 7 - 6"x6" oil on canvas board (finished on the left, value under painting on the right)

What is composition? It's not just a drawing. The shapes that are created and how dark or light they are (value in art speak) is what's important. I like to think of the composition as the arrangement and value of interlocking shapes on the canvas (or paper). This works for both representational and abstract art. In representational art, the composition is with the painter throughout the process. That's not required in abstract painting though it does have to appear at some point, even in intuitive abstract painting.

Churchy at Low Tide - 8"x8" oil on canvas board (finished right, value under painting on the left)

In landscape painting, we often create what we call a value under painting, or value roadmap to help us keep the composition in mind as we paint. It's also common to create several initial value sketches to choose the most compelling composition. These value sketches can take the place of the value under painting when time is of the essence, as it usually is in plein air painting.

Winslow Park - 6"x6" oil on canvas board (value sketch left, finished painting right)

Above, I used makers to create the different values, usually 3 to 5 values are needed.

Near Rasteau - 8"x8" oil on canvas board (value sketch left, finished painting right)

In this example I used a pen and hatching to create the different values. It's also common to use a soft pencil to create a value sketch, often called a thumbnail sketch to emphasize that detail is not the most important thing. I may have gone a bit far that direction on this last one!

If you want to try this for yourself, take a photo of a painting and turn it black and white on your phone. It will be easier to see the composition that way than when it's in color.

Two minute sketch of the village of Gordes in Provence (Tombo marker)

Sketching quickly is both fun and skill building. If I don't have time to paint, sketching is the best way to keep my painting skills from getting rusty, since it's used at the beginning of the process. I did the sketch above while my companions in the car were taking photos.

You might ask what's a sketch? To me, it's a very quick drawing, using a single drawing tool, where mistakes are left in, there's no erasing. The purpose is to catch the essence of something in minimal time, especially if that something is moving.

Quick sketch of two women knitting (Tombo marker)

There are so many fun things to sketch. I particularly like to sketch people. It's more enjoyable to sketch them live than from a photo. But you have to either have their permission, or do it surreptitiously. I do the later a lot in airports or on a beach where people are absorbed in a book or sunbathing. In the above page from my small sketchbook, I got a chance to sketch my friends at Knit Night. We talked, they knitted, and I sketched. My sketching is much better than my knitting.

Less than Minute sketches of a sailboat swinging on it's mooring (Micron pen)

If we've met, you probably know that I love boats. They're right up there with people on my fun to sketch list. And I don't need their permission. When they're moored they tend to move around, which is a challenge but also a good learning experience. Drawing and painting boats from photos has the problem of foreshortening. The end of the boat that is farthest away tends to appear even smaller in a photo (especially from a phone camera) than it is in real life. So being able to get a quick sketch in to use with a photo for detail is very helpful when creating a painting.

30 second pen sketch of a flying pelican

Birds are also fun and you have to be very quick to capture them in a sketch. I particularly like pelicans because they are so angular. And cormorants drying their wings sitting on a buoy are interesting to draw. I'll look out for one when we're next on our boat.

Trees are great to sketch in winter, when all the branches are showing. And they don't move very fast if the wind isn't blowing. This post on my old blog called Drawing Trees has long been the most popular, and I'm not sure why. I would call this more of a drawing than a sketch. It probably took 10 minutes.

Blue Green Abstract  - 5"x7" acrylic on paper

I’ve painted in a number of mediums: oils, gouache, water color, and pastels. But when I’ve used acrylics, I haven’t been excited with the results. Until recently. What made the difference? Realizing that they aren’t oil paints.

Red Sailboat Boothbay - 6"x6" oil on canvas left, acrylic on paper right

Last fall I took a painting class that wasn’t about a specific medium or painting techniques. It was about finding joy in your work, with painting as the work. Louis Fletcher, the teacher, believes that when you’re struggling the work shows it. And when you’re enjoying yourself, and you love the results, your unique style comes out. I love this idea and will return to it in another post.

Boats drawn from figure 8's - acrylic on paper

I decided to do Louise’s exercises in acrylics because I wanted to avoid using solvents inside the house when it’s too cold to open the windows. But I was still thinking about acrylics as oil paints with water as the solvent. And I think that was what was getting in my way in my acrylic painting. I wasn’t treating it like a new medium, with different possibilities.

More figure 8 boats - acrylic on paper

While the class had demonstrations in multiple mediums, there were lots in acrylics, and I was able to learn about layering and the benefits of a fast drying medium. And there was so much experimenting! It’s been fun to see what I can do with these paints. In these dinghy paintings, I painted over colorful backgrounds made using up extra paint from previous paintings I love the added depth and texture. For how to draw Figure 8 boats, look here.

Great Island Dinghy - 8"x10" acrylic on paper

I’m sure there are analogies to my experience with acrylics in other areas, like moving from a camera to the one on your phone, using a new material in construction, or cooking with a new gadget. We need to let go of the old ways, and what we know, and spend some time exploring the potential of the new material or gear. And learning from others via YouTube, a class, or a generous friend, can be a big help.

Nature's Grace - 5"x7" oil on panel, with knife

Sometime back the Boston Globe posted an article on how the interior-design world has turned against the color gray. How do you feel about that? Are you done with gray walls? Or maybe done with gray period? We’ve never had gray walls in our house, ours are mostly white or off white to allow for lots of light and flexibility in hanging paintings.

Isle-au-Haut Rocks - 5"x8" oil on treated paper

Buoys  - 12"x12" oil on canvas

When a painting catches your eye from across the room, it may well be the bright colors that have attracted your attention.

But I believe once you walk over and take a good look, it’s a solid composition that will keep your attention.

A composition is more than a line drawing, it’s about shapes, how they fit together, and their values (how dark and light they are).

Delivering the Catch - 9"x12" oil on canvas panel

What does composition do for the painting? A good composition will let your eyes move around in the painting, discovering more as you go. It neither pulls your eye outside the painting or lets it get stuck anywhere inside the painting.

What makes  a composition interesting? Asymmetry! It turns out that our brains like asymmetry. That’s why you see design pundits recommending an odd number of objects in a still life, and an uneven spacing of objects as well. The rule of thirds in landscape painting comes from this (more about that later).

Summer Marsh - 8"x10" oil, knife, on panel
see below for photo cropping options

How does the painter create a solid composition? When composing, whether from life or from a photo, we pay attention to a few guidelines like those above, and when we break them, we do it consciously and make up for it in some other way. For example, in general, placing an object smack dab in the middle of a painting isn’t a great idea. But if the area around the object can have lots of asymmetry, all is still well. Shadows in still life paintings are great for this.

Pears in Blue - 6"x6" oil on canvas panel
the asymmetry of the shadows make up for the two objects placed in the center

What a focal points? That’s a term we hear a lot. A focal point occurs when there is a sharp (not blended) edge that has a strong contrast of light and dark on either side. The truth is, there will almost always be at least one focal point in any photograph or painting, and likely more than one. The trick is to place them where you want them and not let them be stoppers for the eye.

Two crops of the same image showing the horizon 1/3 from the top and 1/3 from the bottom - applying the rule of thirds

What tools do artists use to create a good composition? For a still life, we can arrange the objects and the point of view (whether looking straight at the objects, or down or up at them) as we like. We are composing in the creation of the set up. For landscapes, the rule of thirds, which recommends placing the horizon and focal points a third of the way from the edges of the painting, is helpful. Cropping, whether painting outside or from a photo is key. I recommend not doing it with your camera, because you limit your options later when actually in front of the canvas.

Simple perspective applied to the exterior and interior of a house

Perspective is also part of composition, it’s what lets us place a three dimensional scene onto a two dimensional surface like paper or canvas. Basic perspective isn’t hard to understand, and will take you a long way.

Thumbnail composition options for a poinsettia painting

The most useful tool when composing is the thumbnail sketch. That approach with a pencil or markers, and three or four values, lets you try out your design quickly, before committing in paint. It’s a good idea to try two or three options for any painting. And it's an idea that I don’t always follow, leading to many lessons learned!

A Clean Glass - 6"x6" oil on panel

We’ve all probably made some New Year’s resolutions over the years. My favorite is to learn more about wine, and I make that resolution every year. But beyond that one, I prefer to focus on opportunities rather than resolutions.

Marsh From the Bridge - 8"x10" oil on panel
Final Assignment in my Beginner Oil Painting Class

I’m almost always up for opportunities to learn something new. And there are so many ways to learn these days. We can take in-person classes or live Zoom classes in everything from fitness to painting to playing a musical instrument. There are also self-paced online classes and YouTube videos. Teaching with Zoom has been a great addition to my practice. It means that people who don't live nearby can join my classes. I've made some wonderful new friends with this expanded audience.

Demo of rocks from  one of my live zoom classes in 2023

There are so many learning opportunities available to each of us. From hobbies to personal growth, fitness, sports, and jobs, I can't count them all. And they are more accessible than ever. Perhaps we have pandemic ingenuity to thank for that.

I teach painting both online and in person. Online, I have self-paced  classes in addition to live Zoom classes. I restrict those to 6 students at a time, so that everyone gets personal attention. And I also teach plein air workshops in person. My students have particularly enjoyed those in Yarmouth, Monhegan Island, and Provence.