Monday, May 30, 2011

May's Full Flower Moon - Pam Johnson Brickell


On the eve of May's full moon, Rob and I were walking the dogs along holes 17 and 18 of the neighborhood golf course when the moon rose above the tree line.  It was so lovely with the reflection on the small pond that runs between the 17th fairway and 18th tee. I decided this is where I wanted to  paint the full moon.

Now, I know the moon rises later each night but somehow didn't think it would be pitch black when it did!  We arrived around 8 pm. I sketched the glow from the sunset.  We waited and waited. I took the golf cart back to the house to get my flashlight. Still no moon.  Finally we saw it peeking from behind the trees. In my boredom I had started to paint the foreground, but in reality when the moon came up the only brightness in the landscape was the reflection on the water, the sky and the clouds around the moon.



Rob was able to capture me painting while holding the flash light.  I'm always amazed at my little camera and what it can pull off :)

Here's what I got done before the bugs got too hungry.

I'm working with watercolor paper that I've cut down to 7.5 x 11 inches and folded these sheets in half. One of these days I need to bind the pages together.

The sunset sketch is on Fabriano HP and the full moon is on Fabriano soft press.  I like lettering on the HP surface the best so I kept that side free for the moon's name.

All of our spring flowers have long since bloomed but I thought the traditional full moon name was appropriate with the Southern Magnolias blooming in all their glory.  I finished off the pages yesterday, adding the magnolia blossom and lettering.

5 comments:

  1. Beautiful work under challenging circumstances! I love the deep blues you create when you paint the moons. the things we go through for our art, right?!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I so love that you did this! I took a group of students out at sunset one summer evening and we painted the sun setting over the ocean--it was awesome. Everyone had to paint really fast and then paint another and another all really fast because it was changing so fast--it was so much fun. Your painting reminds me to try this again--great job! and the picture of you with the little flashlight is priceless!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks, Elizabeth! I'm addicted to moon painting now. I just have to remember that my shirt must tuck into my pants...lots of bites on my back!

    Thanks, Mary! I agree, I so love painting the sunsets (especially around water) and the moon rise. You get a good feeling of how time flies by :) It's grand to seize the moment!

    ReplyDelete
  4. ...beautiful! I love how you staked out your spot and then persevered through the darkness as the moon rose! Glad you included the flashlight photo!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks, Kelly :) I think I'm going to start painting full moon eves also. Lots more to see then!

    ReplyDelete

We'd love to hear from you, your questions, comments, observations! Please feel free to comment, feedback is important to us.