Lokrum Springtime

All of the Plein air work that I produced in my final weeks in Croatia was done on Lokrum Island.

It was truly a spectacular place. I did notice that my palette started to get much more vibrant as the weather warmed up. This was not a conscious effort, it just happened. In the top piece I have depicted a natural salt pond, complete with a cave that led to the sea. This was the most popular spot on the island for swimming and sunbathing. The second piece was completed from the vast rocky beach on the south side of Lokrum, looking back to the forested hill on the island. Mt. Srd can be seen behind that on the mainland. The routine of painting on location several times a week really paid off as I was getting quite comfortable with this gouache technique. It never felt easy but it was always a pleasant and rewarding experience.

Windy Pines

Here is another painting that was completed on location in my final weeks in Croatia. I was fascinated by the form of the pine trees on the edge of the Adriatic Sea. They are hardy and majestic as they stand with and against the sun, wind and salt of the sea. Their form is nothing like the pines we see in the US. I saw them as dominant graphic shapes in the landscape. They all seemed to be leaning dramatically...pushed by the wind since early growth. This gouache was painted in the mid afternoon facing south near a shady path on Lokrum Island

Ancient Olive Grove

This is a small gouache painting that I completed on location in the final weeks of my stay in Dubrovnik. It is from an ancient olive grove on Lokrum Island that has dozens of these sculptural, twisted olive trees. Peacocks and hens were everywhere in the grove and they will make appearances in future paintings that I create in the studio based on this site.

The Swirling Sea

I mentioned in my last post that I was moving on from within the walls of Old Town Dubrovnik by mid-April since it was getting so crowded. My last month of painting in Dubrovnik was spent mostly on the island of Lokrum; just a short ferry boat ride from the mainland. The variety of scenery was stunning and one of my favorite things to paint there was the rocky beaches the day after a nighttime rain storm. The color was saturated. The sunshine was bright and clean, and yet the sea was still swirling around wildly from the earlier storm. Here are a few small gouache paintings from those sessions.

Old Town in April

This was the last painting that I completed on location in Old Town, Dubrovnik. I could paint there endlessly but at this point (mid-April), the town was being taken over by cruise ships full of tourists. It became difficult to find an area to paint in peace. I must admit though that even that experience was interesting. People were constantly walking past and taking pictures of me painting or more often, leaning over my shoulder and taking a picture of my painting in progress!

Sometimes they would say something to me, occasionally speaking English...most often not. The thing that I enjoy most about Plein Air painting is how all of your senses come into play as you paint. Sights, smells and sounds are locked into my brain from each session.With this piece, I sat in a cool shadow on a low stone step and heard singing coming from a nearby elementary school. All of the children speak primarily Croatian, but they were singing a popular Adele song in English. It sounded beautiful!

Warm & Cool "Street" Light

Here is a small gouache painting that was completed from a high stepped "street" on the extreme west side of Old Town, Dubrovnik. We would probably call these streets... walkways or alleys, but they were designed centuries ago to create maximum shade to provide cool, relief from the extreme heat of Adriatic summers. This creates interesting lighting situations everywhere you look in Old Town. The cool reflected light of the shadows contrasted dramatically with the warm light or hot spots of intense sunlight.

Hilltop Pine

This 5 x 7 gouache painting was done at the top of the hill on Lokrum Island, near Fort Royal. The fort was a gun position left by the Napoleonic French. I sat on a low rock, facing east as I painted this hilltop pine. I started to loosen up a bit here and have some fun with the washes and specks of subtle color. Lokrum is just a short twelve minute boat ride from the Old Town port. It is heavily wooded with rocky beaches and dramatic seas. It became my favorite place to paint while in Dubrovnik and I think that I visited the island about seven or eight times.