Keepin' Up

It's the middle of 2014, and I haven't been idle.

The fairly new "Gallery 25 and Creative Arts Studio" in New Milford has been a joy and a task. This co-op gallery attracted a membership of local professional artists, and we all share the workload. About to happen,  the first "Open Show." Prospectus available to those who can hand deliver at : Gallery25OpenShow@aol.com

Spent a lovely long weekend in Maine and painted with friend and fellow artist, Suzanne Brewer. Thanks goes out to a local policeman, who reminded us "safety first" when painting out, especially along road sides, where traffic isn't expecting artists.

Also, just back from a lovely two week vacation, golf and art experience in Ireland. My husband and I drove the southwest area of Ireland, hiked, painted, photographed and golfed. We can't say enough wonderful things about Ireland, including the driving experience. More about that when I have time to review the photos and scan some art images.

Today, I about to paint en plein air for a fundraising event for the Pomperaug River Watershed Coalition. http://www.connecticutmag.com/Blog/Arts-Entertainment/May-2014/Faith-Middleton-of-Food-Schmooze-Chairs-Delicious-Woodbury-Gala-for-a-River/

Looking forward to sharing time with my art colleagues, and meeting Faith Middleton and others, who share a passion for clean water and our beautiful out-of-doors. Special thanks goes to Mill House Anitques & Gardens, who provide the venue for this fundraising event

Winter Demo for SCAN

Making a demo painting is never easy for me, but the lovely folks at SCAN are always so welcoming! (SCAN regularly provides art demos for their membership.) I thank them for their kindness and support!

   Today I joined them for an afternoon and painted my version of a winter scene using watercolor. The scene could be along any road in CT, but I made a little sketch that included some thoughts from other paintings and included taming down my palette. Someone did comment that my other paintings seem to have "all the colors"! 

   Watercolor sometimes has its own way of doing things, so my little preliminary sketch was simply a starting point. I wanted the painting to show the coolness of winter and intended to include more blues, but it went blue and mauve . . . and that's OK. I wanted the sky to have a little color action, but not take away from the foreground. I wanted to show that trees have diversity while telephone poles don't so much . . . and that's OK. On the way into Newtown I drove by a big yellowy-brown barn, a departure from the common red barn, so . . . I got that in and it helped give the painting a mood.  I wanted to explain and demo simple perspective and things I can make happen along the painting way to achieve that . . . and I did that. I wanted to talk about why it's worth spending a few extra dollars and owning a few special brushes and what they do . . . and I did that.  And, I wanted to encourage other artists to paint outside and understand some of the benefits that come from that . . . and I included that, too!

  Looking back at the painting, there's room for improvement, but it's a decent demo! 

Making the Most of "Blizzard Day"!

It's a snowy windy terribly stormy day! I am home. The birds outside are delighted that the feeders are filled, and they are providing ample entertainment. While some chili cooks on the stove, I am trying to finish up a few paintings that have sat around the house. This is version two of two paintings begun last spring. They began outside on location. My first painting of this scene helped make the plan for the second painting and both help me see the potential for another visit to this site. I can see how much tighter this version is and it possibly has a bit too much color. But, I am happy with the trees. They have some character, and I think the feeling of that beautiful spring day looks wonderful. (Remember, it is snowing outside and windy and cold)

Happy New Year 2013!

Happy New Year!!! Looking at my blog and realizing I spent a lot of time in 2012 with my sketchbook. That's a good thing, but doesn't fulfill what I thought I was doing with this blog. I went painting (oils) today in CT in the fog. It was so-o-o-o foggy. Unbelievable!! Had a great time making grays. Pink grays, ochre-grays and some zippy periwinkle-grays!! Getting ready for some foggy morning paintings in Maine!! Here in CT, this morning sky was foggy pink and the snow shadows were aquamarine! It's so great to be an artist and enjoy (visually) the wonderful things nature shows me.
    Took a little time this morning and thought about some studio work. I haven't painted a self-portrait in many years. I spent a little time learning how and where to set up my camera tripod and set the timer on my new "point and shoot" camera. The camera has some other features that will be nice to experiment with.
   This morning the camera and I focused on ways to use the foggy white/grays of the day. It turns out morning foggy light is very different than noon foggy light. While the morning sky had a lot of pink, the noontime sky went bright at the top and purplish near the ground. I painted a house that was yellow ochre with white trim and fir trees against that sky, and some vivid green grass showing through the snow, and split rail fence. While the interlocking shapes of the foreground against the sky work well (light against dark and dark against light), the composition is static. I think my brushwork is quite nice, but its not enough to convince me this painting is successful. In a day or two, I will reassess. The beauty of oil painting is an  artist can stand back and look at her painting, and then go in and make changes. 

Springing 2012

Looks like spring is finally on it's way. It was snowing last weekend when I spent a few days in Maine. But, here in CT, we are enjoying a few warm afternoons. A plein air painting friend and I found this barn along the side of the road that was having a new roof put on and an addition on the back. Several guys were carrying ladders around or climbing on the roof. While my friend (an oil painter) enjoyed painting the red barn to my right, I (a watercolorist) thoroughly enjoyed painting the white barns in front of me. As I look at the painting now, I am disappointed that the proportions of the barn in my painting are not accurate, but the subject was irresistible! When I went back the next day, the new roof was on, so I will return in a week or so when the forsythia may be in bloom.

Life Drawing

My house is being worked on today. Lots of hammering, etc. So, I was very pleased to learn a local art association was this morning offering an open studio life class. It's an event I often attended years ago. The model's poses vary in length . . . usually four different poses held for a very short time, two 20 minute poses, and a final long pose. I never know whether I'm going to draw or paint, but I always can count on the practice being well needed by me. Today was another great example of how wonderful life class can be. The four short poses gave me an opportunity to remind myself that drawing what isn't there (negative space) is as important as drawing what is there. The two twenty minute poses reminded me to be brave, experiment, let the watercolor paint do its own thing. The painting shown here is a twenty minute pose on a paper similar to hot press. And, the final long pose reminded me how easily I mess things up by overworking. Too dark, too fast. My glazes went messy and I thought too much about making the subject perfect. And lastly, after the studio class, several of us sat around and shared art talk over bagged lunches. I'm home now and looking at a painting I should finish today. The paint is lacking life and spontaneity, but the drawing has a spontaneous quality. So, I'm thinking I need to make the same painting in 20 minutes and stop myself. Lay down the paint once and let it be. Maybe try a different surface. Be brave. And put open studio on the calendar in an effort to attend at least twice a month.

It's a New Year!

My big plan for the end of 2011 was to wrap up several projects and start 2012 with a cleaner studio and fewer things on my calendar that take me away from painting. The plan fell apart when we had two bouts of unusually bad weather in CT and then, of course, the holidays which consume some time but are wonderful family events. So today I return to the plan. A week or so ago, I cleaned out a considerable number of digital photos and tossed them away, recovering about 2G of space on my computer. I could easily toss another 2G, but just yesterday I received an e-mail from someone asking me to paint a small piece from his photo (but will reference a photo or fifty that I took years ago). Computers are great! In about a half hour I was able to give him a positive reply and now have a small project to focus my attention on. Among other things accomplished at the beginning of this new year, I have cleaned and burned paintings that were never going to be completed. These watercolors were nice enough for me to keep for reference, but not nice enough that I wanted anyone to see them, and were a storage problem. I have another batch ready to go . . . almost. And, I tossed another giant bag of stuff I picked up at trade shows. Best of all, I went out in the cold twice and painted. The colors were wonderful although muted. It was difficult to settle into a subject, because the more I looked, the more became interesting! I settled on a BIG red, red barn with white trim for the center of interest, patches of green green grass, tree groups tinges with yellow ochre and russets, and periwinkly mauve distant hills. A bit cliche, but always good practice.