Edisto Series

All The Quiet Places

mixed water media on paper

10.5 x 14 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

available

My Edisto series is now completed and available for purchase in my Etsy shop. You can see the entire collection in my shop by clicking here.

Ending Where It Began

mixed water media on paper

10 x 10 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

available

I loved this exercise of sticking with the theme of the beauty of Edisto all the while keeping my color palette and method of painting and mark making consistent.

That Alone Will Do

mixed water media on paper

10 x 10 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

available

There is so much beauty to be found on this island, a beauty that requires our strict attention in order to protect and preserve this coastal environment.

To Lose One's Self

mixed water media on paper

10.5 x 14 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

available

And it is a home and a second home to many who find comfort in being by the sea in a small, strong community, away from the commercial trappings found in most coastal areas.

Beckon

mixed water media on paper

6.5 x 10 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

available

I also enjoyed the challenge of abstracting this theme just a bit. 

Haven

mixed water media on paper

6.5 x 10 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

available

I used my feeling for the place as a starting point and allowed the paintings to develop through the common thread of beach, water, palms, and the light.

Return

mixed water media on paper

6.5 x 10 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

available

This is a method that I plan to explore more deeply in future works.

Rhythm

mixed water media on paper

6.5 x 10 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

available

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me),

It's always our self we find in the sea.

~e.e. cummings~

Edisto series

Edisto I

mixed water media on paper

10 x 10 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

Since my last post I have been busy creating works based on Edisto Island, South Carolina. The painting above is inspired by the many marsh views there, this one comes from Botany Bay on Edisto.

After my sketchbook explorations, I made a suite of small images wothout working directly from a photo reference. Instead, with my photos nearby purely for inspiration, I relied more on memory and pulled some of the graphic elements to create imagined compositions based on my feeling for Edisto. These were done on 1/8 sized watercolor paper. I used some watercolor washes along with watercolor crayons, water soluble graphite, Inktense blocks and gesso.

I am finding that I do like using gesso with watercolor. I discovered this gesso and similar to a watercolor ground, it can be applied thin or thick. I like using it not only to reclaim white areas but also to push the intensity of color back a bit when applied more thinly. It also provides an absorbant surface to then layer with a wash or accept watercolor pencil.

And here is a detail showing the watercolor pencil marks on top of a thin layer of watercolor gesso. Even though I had intended to keep these strictly watercolor paintings, I am so enjoying responding to the image with mark making and the added element of layering the surface. And all of this is causing me to reconsider those acrylics that I tried a while back.

only what matters

Behind Pompano

watercolor

6 x 8 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

This painting is inspired by a view of a small canal that runs behind Pompano Street on Edisto Beach, SC. It is a scene that I have attempted to paint several times yet was never satisfied with the result. I was trying to say too much with too many details. The heavy stillness of that lowcountry air with the quiet water that rises with the tide eluded all of my previous attempts. Now finally, by simplifying the elements in the scene, I have a painting that captures what I was after and by now it is a scene that I know very well!

Coneflowers

watercolor

6 x 8 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

By contrast, this painting was one that came about rather quickly and effortlessly. Although I have painted the coneflowers from our garden in the past, I usually fussed about with them looking for a different, more literal result. Here I went straight in with paint with no preliminary sketching. I have found I am usually more successful getting what I am after painting flowers this way as I am better able to express the freshness that is flowers.

With both paintings it was the stripping down the subject to just the essentials that provided me with the best success. Yes, there is a lesson to be learned here.

breezy

By The Sea

watercolor

8 x 10 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

This painting is intended as a study for a larger work. The image comes from the Golden Asters that grow right up near the beach. The painting was an experiemnt in creating a method for communicating the tangled mess that is these flowers all the while keeping that breezy beach feeling.

Water Sky

Water Sky I

watercolor

8 x 10 inches

©Ann Thompson Nemcosky

available

There is a spot on Edisto Island, SC, called Steamboat Landing. Situated on Steamboat Creek, a fishing pier juts out over a wide expanse of water. The views of the surrounding marsh, water, and sky are stunning. When choosing this composition to paint I liked that distant thin strip of land separating the water from the sky and they way it created a nearly abstract composition.

This is the beginning of a second series that focuses on water as a theme. I usually do have more than one series going at a time with my work as I enjoy the variety and interaction between them. I have explored water as theme before, and as with most things that I choose to paint, subjects have a way of cycling around again and again. Water is returning as a central theme of focus for me and I have more ideas for exploring this subject in ways that take it beyond my past explorations.