Painted on the first really chilly morning after summer at the Smith Gilbert Gardens in Kennesaw. Paul Mossburg was already painting in oil. Dawn comes very late time wise in GA in the fall. This was about 8:20 on a Plein Air Paint Out sponsored by the Smith Gilbert Gardens. Beautiful place and a great venue. Had a good time, painted four different paintings. John Guernsey won first place for an excellent oil.
This painting was painted at the May 28 Paint Out in Indian Springs sponsored by the Generations Gallery right there in Flovilla. I titled this Eric No because all the time i was painting this 9 x 12 watercolor of the rocks right as you go over the bridge into the park, the tree on the left and the other one made such a wonderful picture but this man kept trying to control his son with his voice - never went near him. ( I think he was afraid of the water) and Eric was having a fine time playing in the water and around the edges.
Here we are at the pavilion in Indian Springs because it is raining and we are painting after putting in some works at the Generation Gallery (some of the works, we had just taken down from the United Bank of Jackson exhibition) p.s. by the way four works sold!! This is the critique each of us gave. it is so nice to paint plein air with other painters!! That is Preston King, Pat Burns and Bambi Rogers with their thinking caps on.
I am putting this in the artists at work blog because I really did work hard at the Chattahoochee River Paint Out in 100 degree weather this past August and all day I was working on a techical painting (a bridge overpass to the left of the pigeons) then to relax i zippedy do dahhed this lovely lovely watercolor
Preston e-mailed this morning and issued a challenge to paint from inside the house something outside. (Is this plein air if I'm not in the air) This is the result and thank you so much Preston. Definitely an artist-at-work because I know Preston was and Pat was and I was. here it is.
This studio still life, 18 x 24 is painted on rough paper and brings together favorite things, Arches paper, pochade box, pallette, brushes and custom jar for holding them, bamboo to wrap brushes in for traveling, paints and best of all a good cup of coffee and lately though not pictured a thermos of good coffee to keep me going.
This painting of Monet's house and Garden looking from the back gate along the main path was painted in July. You may be thinking this should be in the landscapes, however I didn't paint in the artists painting up by the house in front of the porch nor the ones beside me. So this is artists-at-work whenever I see the painting. We were painting with Pat Fiorello who had arranged to bring a class to France for a week painting in Monet's Garden. all day Monday and every evening. A once in a lifetime opportunity. There is a big design flaw in this painting. I painted in plein air and brought it home dissatisfied with the way it came out. brought out the acrylics to fix the flaws that were obvious to me at the time creating another one which was not obvious to me until after I had the painting professionally framed. So There.
Yes, it is my inner elvis showing again. At the Great Chattahoochee River Paint Out, I had painted the river in the mist, painted the iconic symbols of Chattahoochee, painted the urban landscape by the Chattahoochee, painted a sunfille small painting of the river's edge with the pigeons and what next??? looked over the side and painted debris.
This although a still life is still artist-at-work material. See the butcher palette??
First I sketched it in pen and ink the day we were leaving for home, then when we came back, Dorothea and I went down to paint and I started. Dawn was actually behind us and we were painting under a big old tree whose shade you can see running across the field and on the Old House at Six Blessings Farm. original watercolor and pen painted en plein air.
Here I am bringing the best of the my paintings to the Island Ford center in Sandy Springs off Roberts Rd. The paintings were done in association with the Great Chattahoochee Paint Out put on by the Roswell Tourism Center in assoc. with CNC. I had a great time. All the mud comes from hiking after we dropped off the paintings and before we went home to get ready for the reception. We were climbing over a log on the riverbank and I said to John, look there is a raccoon print and I was thinking to myself that it was pretty deep for a raccoon track and as I was saying to myself, this is too soft, myself was already stepping over the log onto the mud which WAS too soft and I fell face and chest first onto the log. full of mud. I am grateful that my reflexes were not so fast as to twist myself out of the mud because I was solidly in to my ankle. nothing broke, nothing bruised.
This is a painting very small, that sold at silent auction Sat in Madison GA at the paint out. It is actually a garage but it looks wonderful. Painted at high noon, I really like the way watercolor behaves on black gessoed paper and the last small one I did in Blue Ridge, GA paint out sold too.
I am blogging this quick picture of a blue heron when it flew in front of me in Indian Spring State Park, Flovilla GA. Plein Air GA had a paint out there Preston King and Phyllis Franklin let me know about it and I signed up through Generations Gallery right there by the entrance to the Park which by the way is the oldest in the nation. I had already finished one picture w/c on black gesso 15 x 22 and I still had time to paint another smaller one to fit the frame for the afternoon art auction. I was planning on painting an small intimate downstream picture when the heron flew in and landed on a rock far enough away (I can't see good) to not fuss with details and close enough for the gesture of the bird and rock and stream but just not long enough. A quick picture but in this enhanced version very likable. so down to Dick Blicks and buy some more paints. thanks to PAG and Generations Gallery for a great day. met 12 great painters I had met before in Madison Paint out, Pat Burns, Preston King, Matthew, Phyllis Franklin and new ones Peter and the two Bambis.
This first grade boy loves books, loves to read and has learned to make books with paper and staples and then fill the book with lovely imagination. Good going Sean
Building a store and shipping supplies which have to be made for overnight delivery??!!
Now you can see the size in comparison to the blank watercolor post card pad. I have assembled the little pochade box from the previous blog and have put it in a sandwich (?!!) size plastic bag which on site doubles as a trash bag. I can also fit the post card pad into the sandwich baggie if I want to paint larger than ATC. so very very portable.
This is my very smallest set up. it is just right for a pocket book. It holds all the necessary paint supplies. 5 small travel brushes from tiny (I never use it) to a size 6 round. I try to pick them up from various sales. small kneaded eraser - ATC cards to paint on, small golf pencil to sketch - small regular sponge to use to blot a too wet brush. a very small palette and a package (actually half a package) of kleenex to use in place of paper towels. the paints are small pans, mainly windsor newton - alizarin crimson - winsor lemon - an orange - cad red - two blues - ultramarine a warm blue and cobalt blue. black, burnt umber and burnt sienna and yellow ochre with two greens, one cool and one warm. a very small package that gets the job done.
Here is the picture I have sent to Cathy Ehrler, an artist-at-work here in GA. I am one of her facebook friends and she has set a project for herself to paint what her fb friends send her and she will have a showing at Studio Z in Atlanta in the fall. Great artists = great ideas = great art. go cathy
Judy Morris was the juror and workshop teacher at the GWS National show 2010. Here at the Demo she is showing us her salt technique on a very flat surface and when everything is dry she aggressivly attacks the salt crystals with a palette knife to make sure all the salt is gone and then lightly wets the paper to get the salt dust completely off also so there is no more salt to attract moisture to the painting. Very detail oriented. yea Judy
Here is Jane Springfield receiving her award of Signature Member of GWS from Judy Morris who was the judge of the show - she had something personal to say to each of the members who received an award and all those who received signature membership. She hung a great show and the fact that her personal remarks were about the particular painting each painted showed her enormous personal interest. I am sorry I missed her workshop - I missed out.
, paints and of course, Arches block of watercolor paper. Keep going and inspiration will come - don't wait for it.
Here is my very first artist at work painted on a farm in Illinois with a storm coming up. I had no fear - I was painting out of the back on my Mazda MPV (my painting vehicle) during a plein air class with Tom Trauch who by giving plein air class around north suburbs of chicago taught me how to enjoy painting despite distractions and how to pare down equipment to enjoy the process
