Plein Air Season is Underway

 Sachuest Point is a special place to paint- a National Wildlife Refuge that has grasslands and overlooks both Sachuest Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. Trails and beaches, so many places to paint!Here’s my pick.

It was so windy I didn’t even set up my tripod, but braced my paintbox between some rocks and tried to capture the essence of the scene. 8x10 oil on a linen panel. It felt great to be painting outside! When it’s framed-heading to Spring Bull Gallery in Newport, RI.

No Boundaries

 

As you can see, the colors don’t quite match. If I were more of a techie- I could correct that but here I am- standing in front of my painting No Boundaries, which was sold at the Little Compton Summer Art Show! The photo below was taken outside on the north side of the house. I’ve painted this farmhouse and barns many times, this time exploring the foreground to really lead the viewer back to the buildings.

 

The Snowy Road

I don’t usually paint winter scenes, but the colors in the sky just spoke to me. I love too, the starkness of the trees without their foliage. This 5x5 oil painted on a cradled wood panel, can be found at my gallery on DailyPaintworks for $95, which includes free shipping in the US. Stay warm -friends! Update!!! Sold!!! A big thank you!!!

 

Westport Tree

 A sweet landscape that speaks of long summer days. Painted plein air on a 6x6 cradled panel. 

Deck View

I’m taking an online class with Scott Conary which has me stretched me out of my comfort zone. Isn’t that the main reason that we take classes? Maybe uncomfortable, but one way to grow as a painter, and that’s what it’s all about for me.

I attended a workshop with him last summer at The Providence Art Club and enjoy his teaching style as well as his art. Please check out the link to his website for paintings rich with color and sensitivity in paint handling. Wait til you see how he paints an egg, as well as the intimate back story.

The lower painting is my first-then I went back in to deconstruct by massing shapes and turning the narrative of the cup into a simple rectangle of color. Lots of comments from the private FB group made me feel like the group critique of a class.

Can’t wait to get back to the easel- have a great weekend everyone!

Working out an idea

 This post is about my process; an idea that I started with in my last post. I did my block- in with cadmium red and a light pink, then wondered if I could keep it to just two values as I went along through the painting process. This is layer four, which gives you an idea of how challenging this has been.

Here's a grey-scale of the painting to show that my two value plan hasn't been entirely achieved. So now to decide if I need to lighten my darkest dark to come more to a mid-range or the other way around. In any event, I'm traveling and this painting is on my easel at home til I return. People use an i-Pad to work out these questions but....call me Old School. Time will tell.

Less is More

I am going to try something new with this painting. It's a beginning, a cadmium red toned canvas with the lights painted in pale pink. I posted it on Instagram and one friend, a painter, said; "It's finished!" That gave me an idea. How can I add more paint, lots of layers of paint, but retain the image that I started with- which is a Notan? Notan is a Japanese word that means "light-dark balance,"and can be achieved by value masses of light and dark within a composition. Instead of five or even three values, we reduce the values to two. Light and dark. What could be more simple?

Plein Air to Studio

 A street in Newport that I drive by all the time. The storefronts are very attractive, but I'm attracted to the light in the alley as well as the shadows on the back wall.

Here's the block in. It took a while, as I wanted to get the focal point in the right position . The canvas was toned with cadmium red light which served as my middle ground. I added the darks, then the lights.

Back in the studio, I went bold with yellow for the light. I began to add a pink sky, by then it was time to call it a night.

I wasn't in love with the yellow, so I changed it all to pink. I know I could have played with color in Photoshop, but I liked the layering aspect of working a little slower and having time to look and get my gut reaction before taking the next step.

I saw that the pink was overpowering, also that the building on the right had too much emphasis. I balanced it by adding a lot of neutrals to the right side and also finding more middle values on the left side. I want my viewer to go down that alley!
I'm not sure this is done, so I will let it sit for a while. I've already started a larger painting based on the left side of this one. I will show you more in my next post.

$Highest bid for a good cause$

Here in Newport, RI we all look forward to Wet Paint at the The Newport Art Museum. It's a big fundraising event which culminates in a live auction and brings artists and the community together in the best possible way. This year was its' 25th anniversary and we remembered the wonderful man who started the whole thing off, Richard Grosvenor.
There was a heavy downpour Saturday morning as I drove over to the museum to check-in  and and get my panel stamped with the  official Wet Paint stamp. I was trying to figure out where I would paint, knowing that I wanted to be under some kind of cover.
Keep it simple- I said to myself.
I chose a spot on the museum grounds looking towards Bellevue Ave. The wide avenue where so many of the Newport Mansions are located. I had put a layer of cadmium red on the 12x24" panel, which would serve as my middle value, and help expedite my composition layout. 

Not the most inspiring day as of and on showers made their appearance.

The artist at work. And loving every moment of it.

Here's the finished painting. My dog Cooper was home alone, and I wanted to get back to him. Home by noon.

Thrilled to learn the next day that my painted was headed "under the tent" for the live auction. #9 out of only 20 chosen from over 500 works of art.

The auction was really exciting,led by Rupert Nesbitt and auctioneer Robbie Gordy from Christie's NYC, as my painting was the high bid of the day going for $3800. The arts are alive and well in Newport, RI.

                                 See ya next year, Wet Paint!

Virgin River

Hot, sunny and peaceful. Standing beside the Virgin River which ran behind our campsite at the Zion River Resort, I stole away for a couple of hours to paint. I'm painting small and putting them on my DailyPaintworks gallery. This little river scene is 6x6, oil on panel.

Cody

I felt especially challenged as the wind picked up and the temperature continued to drop into the high 30's. I hadn't bargained for this but as I was determined to paint,  I took to my car.
Easel balanced on my knees, medium in the cup holder, an old apron draped over the dash, I tried to get this one done quickly. Heavy mist blotting out full view of the mountains, I still wanted their presence to dominate in the painting. A lone horse grazing gave it a quintessential Wyoming feeling.
I really enjoyed two visits to Buffalo Bill Center of the West, which is really 5 museums in one. The Whitney Western Art Museum has a staggering collection of big names and I especially enjoyed the reconstructed Frederic Remington Studio.

Mesquite Tree

I had to fiddle with this a bit as the mountains first had too much chroma, then the value wasn't right. I wish I could have painted this as a true plein air, but my eye wasn't buying it! I did a little research and found out that this is a mesquite tree; they are everywhere in this part of southern Arizona.

 

Zero In

I always seem to be drawn back to a closer focus, to cropping my compositions to make the space feel more intimate. I need to find out what kind of trees these are; they are abundant in this area and have the most fascinating branches and shapes. They are leafless this time of year; that only adds to their appeal to me!

It was an easier painting than the previous post- goes to show it really does help to become very familiar with your subject. Find something that can hold your interest while you learn more each painting session.

This one is 6x6 on linen.

Arizona or Bust

Last winter we traveled as far west as Big Bend National Park, in southwest Texas before heading back to Rhode Island in February. Now you know coming home in February was not part of the plan; we were headed to Arizona when we decided to come home after talking with Ted's Dad. He was 96, feeling lonely and that's all we really had to hear. He'd had another fall, another trip to the ER and he just wanted us to come home. There wasn't even a conversation; we stayed a couple of days longer then began the long haul home in our motorhome.

Murray died a few weeks after his 97th birthday in July, and we never regretted for a moment coming home. The last few months we spent a lot of time together and knew we'd done the right thing.

So now this winter we breathed a sigh of relief when we made it to Arizona! First stop, about 50 miles south of Tuscon,  Kartchner Caverns State Park. I love the state parks as there is always an abundance of natural beauty and space. 

Happy to set up to paint, although the weather has not gotten even to 50 degrees. And when the sun goes behind the mountains, it gets cold so fast.

My best effort, 6x12 on linen, a challenge to get the colors!

Intentions and Goals with a burst of color

As the new year begins, I once again set my goals and my intentions. I actually set intentions on a daily basis, as a tool to live in the present. The difference between  an intention and a goal? An intention seems to me to be more spiritually centered, where I can detach from the outcome, surrender the process to the universe, and focus on the present moment. My truest intentions will always come from my heart. Intentions are about our inner selves.

A goal will outline the steps I will take to reach a desired outcome. Goal setting is based on reasoning, analyzing and planning. For an artist, it's left brain activity and some of us need help to plan those specific steps that will result in an external achievement at some future point.

And now- on to the painting!

There  is usually one things that attracts me first, the thing or feeling that makes me want to paint. In this case it was the intense burst of color from that tree against the backdrop of the bluest sky. 

I also like how the structural shadow shape from the building counterbalances the organic shape of the tree.

It was a magic moment for me; the goal of completing the painting using design principles, paint application and brushwork. I also set an intention to have the painting give the same feeling to the viewer as I had when I came upon the scene.

Art review mention in the Providence Journal

I was thrilled to find out that my painting Lost in Time was accepted into the national juried show Color at the Providence Art Club. There were 750 entries and only 65 were chosen, so you know that made me feel amazing. Even more excited for a positive mention in the review of that show in the Providence Journal. 24x48. 

A Different View

How can I depict the very ordinary view out my window to the parking lot below in an interesting and abstracted way? Here's what I came up with.

12x12 cradled panel

Strategic Position

We're camping at Gulf State Park in Alabama and our campsite is by the dumpsters. My first thought was, "This is awful, we've got to move." But the site is actually big with shade trees and otherwise lovely so I thought, if I can paint this and make a good painting out of an unlikely subject, then I will be pleased. Plein air on Arches oil paper with palette knife.

Here it is: beach chair with its' back to the dumpsters!

They aren't really THAT close!
Happy Birthday to me and a reminder not to take life too seriously!

A Quiet Place

Working with abstract shapes, layering paint and losing sight of the plan has me oddly exhilarated. 16x20

Under the Mt Hope Bridge

This spot under the Mt Hope Bridge is one I've wanted to paint before, and now here we are. Struggled with this until I took a few suggestions from my painting bud Judy Chaves about value. Things seem to be so much lighter than I see them to be at first, then when I make the correction, ahah, it reads correctly. Thank you!