Whats up for 2009

I've   never really expected to be blogging about events more than the painting process as I originally put this blog up to remind me what I have learned in my artistic journey.  But the events that I have been fortunate to be a part of has been so much fun and I do learn a lot too from other artists that I meet and from the experience itself.  Lets take Plein Air Easton for example,    this is the very first plein air event that I joined three years ago.   Last year was my third year to be juried into this event and every year I always seem to learn something new and add to  my overall artistic growth.    Just seeing the quality art hanging at the Academy Art Museum  by other competing artists , seeing how they paint the same subject you have seen and maybe painted too and their choices in design and composition is a worthwhile learning experience in itself.    

Last year's  Plein air Easton was  special for me because the Academy Art Museum had purchased one of my paintings for their permanent collection.

           Oxford Moonrise    11 x 14   oil 

Permanent Collection Academy Art Museum

 I also won an honorable mention for another painting "Oxford Boatyard"  .    At the end of the event I had sold a total of five paintings so I was very happy and greatful.    

The people that make Plein Air Easton a success are really the big number of volunteers  that work so hard for the Artists and the show itself.   Many thanks go out to them, and also to our hosts who  graciously open their homes to us.      

Another Event that I had participated in last year is Paint Annapolis  hosted by Mapapa ( the Mid Atlantic Plein Air Painters.)  Again, another good event to meet great people and good artists.     I stayed with my hosts who again were very nice and hospitable people.     

Hopefully I get into good shows again this year,  so far I have just come back from the  2009 CM Russell Auction ,  the first time for me and it was great. I will write about the CM Russell Auction on my next post.  I have to get ready for my 2nd paint North Carolina Plein Air event coming up next week.     Then my painting  "Silent Rush" will be in San Antonio Texas for the 2009 Salon International in the Greenhouse Gallery.  

Silent Rush 20 x 30 oil 

 I hope to write about the events when I  return.          

Scott Christensen 10 day intensive workshop


Oh my, I had not realized it had been 3 months since I last put an entry in my Blog. September and October had been really busy for me as I had a ton of paintings to do for my Three person show I had at one of my galleries, then I had to prepare for the Scott Powers workshop I had set up at the Guild of Creative Art. I'll write about that workshop after I have done catching up on writing about the busy summer schedule I had.
I want to write something about my experience with Scott Christensen's 10 day intensive workshop I took last June. I have to say I really did learn a lot. The way he taught was really very organized , where he would begin with three full days of lectures , really breaking down the basic information needed to really understand what he has learned in his years of painting and serious study of the landscape and what it takes to paint it successfully. He then does a demo which takes a whole day due to the fact that he did a 40 by 48 inch piece! He takes the demo piece to an almost finished state, letting us know that in a couple of days he would show us how to rework it.

You can view the finished piece here
Then  he put that piece away to be finished  on a later date, and  he did another painting that was bit smaller .


















After that he let us out painting in designated spots where he divided the 40 person class into two groups, and meeting everyone at a certain time to work on each persons painting problems with everyone watching, which was very good because everyone got to see different problems and how he would fix them.
At the end of the workshop he did a group critique and again worked out problems on a collective basis. In terms of one on one time, although we were 40, it somehow did not feel that way.
I'd say overall it was really great . If there was only one workshop that you could take in a year, take this. If you really are serious about your work and really want to know how to get better at painting the landscape, Scott's workshop will give you the tools you will need.

During the last day of the workshop After all the critiquing was done, Scott and Kristie surprised me by wanting to purchase one of my paintings I had done during the workshop .

I still don't remember the exact words I was saying to them when they told me that , but I bet I acted like a babbling fool. So I think I did forget everything I learned because of that shocker. :) Now I don't think anything can top that workshop experience for me.

" Before Sunset" 11 x 14 , oil . Collection of the Artist Scott L. Christensen and Kristie Grigg

Before I end this I have to say that Charlie and Kristie really worked hard at taking care of the little things that really made a difference to one's workshop experience.

Variations on a Theme

Silent Moonrise 24 x 36 Oil 

I have not posted in quite some time  due to the events that I have been involved in but I will try to keep up and post more as the summer season is coming to a close.  I still have to write about my workshop experience with Scott Christensen and my Plein Air Easton 2008  experience but before that I want to say something about a painting I had done before I went to these events and to touch on the process and source for this painting.    

This painting had been brewing in my head for two years. !! I saw this scene in Easton Md , two years ago during the first Plein Air Easton event that I had been involved with.  I was driving down to Oxford if I remember right,   just after the welcome reception , before it actually got dark, and along the road I saw a row of pines and behind it was the moon ,   a color of pinkish orange that was only describable thru paints.    After snapping a ton of photos and doing several studies,  I finally did this 24 x 36 peice.    I did this on gessoboard primed with Gamblin Oil Ground.   I tried to paint the sky thinly so as to let some of the white ground add to the luminosity of the sky and put more texture  thru scumbling layers of paint on the foreground .   Below are two studies that I did , both  8 x 10 Oil on linen.      

Wayne Plein Air

Crum Creek Reflections 11 x 14 oil 

   My Painting "Crum Creek Reflections"  was awarded 2nd Place at the Wayne Plein Air Juried Festival by the   Juror, Roger Dale Brown  OPA .  I was surprised by the event , the gallery where all 30 artists exhibited their paintings done during the 3 days was very elegant.   The  way the organizers presented the Show was very well done.   Sales were very good,  according to the recent news  55 paintings were sold the first few days.  For an event only on its second year ,  I'd say they did a great Job. 

     

    As far as My experience ,   as someone from another state,   I spent a lot of time driving to look for places to paint,  and usually due to lack of time or fear that you might run out of time,  you just paint whatever the area you went to  gives you.   Although  I did find a lot of good subject matter ,  the town was very nice and especially with Valley Forge National Park just 10 minutes away.  The Painting "Crum Creek Reflections "  was the second to the last  painting  I did for the competition.   I was able to do five,  plus one after the deadline to submit for the Jury,  which was to be hung outside in the lobby.     The scene was on the creek where there was a red covered bridge ,  on Goshen road.    Although the covered bridge was a very good subject in itself,  I was in awe of the dappled light hitting the water and rocks and especially the reflection the red bridge had on the water.    I set up sitting down and painted it for almost 4 1/2 hours.   I know the light had changed a lot but It took me this long because the clouds were causing the dappled light to come and go.  I was forced to wait and observe most of the time.  

The night of the Gala I walked in seeing the painting already had sold.  I was  pleased with the results I had on the painting  that  I was almost not going to submit it because I wanted to do a big studio painting of the scene.   I am happy and grateful that it sold ,  I just wanted to do another one first before I let it go,  for my own use.  I guess now I understand why some of the   great western painters  do not sell their field works,   It is like their journal and source of information for the major paintings they do. 

               

  

Evening Showers   8 x 10   Oil on Linen

Another  painting I did was of the Wayne Train Station.    I started around  6:30 in the evening and it was raining most of the day.  I did this on an 8 x 10   C13 linen panel.  I wanted to capture the wet pavement and the reflections of the light on the scene.     It was a grey wet evening and I was forced to paint a little thicker than usual due to my easel getting wet . I was standing across from the station under an awning that I thought would keep me dry.   I was constantly cleaning my easel and drying it with my paper towels.   It got dark around 8:30 as I finished and called it a day.   

Paint North Carolina 2008

It's been a while since my last post and I have a lot to catch up on in terms of my blogging, web updates etc, . It just takes so much time to format my photos that when I start working on the computer to update stuff, it takes away from my painting time and I don't like that. I know there is an easier way to do things but still have not figured this all out. OK, so I was just in North Carolina two weeks ago as part of The Germanton Gallery's Annual Invitational Plein Air Event. It was my first time to actually be in the show , as last year I just showed up for the Quick Draw. I had so much Fun meeting and talking to other artists . I Also Met Scott Burdick and Sue Lyon who are two of the countries top artists and two of my favorites, and got a chance to visit Scott's studio.

They were very nice and gracious to invite me and some of the other artists that were also present that Saturday to their home and studio the afternoon after the quick draw . The Photos above were taken during the quick draw and are photos of Scott and the group painting the model,  Scott did a charcoal sketch as you can see from the second photo on the right, and the finished sketch below that.

         Scott drawing during the quick draw

                                

  

I was also surprised to receive one of seven awards for my painting Buckhorn Colors . I painted this near the Buckhorn Reservoir around a 30 to 40 minute drive from Clayton .

"Buckhorn Colors" 9 x 12 Oil

I had travelled south from Jersey to Virginia Beach VA, where I stayed with my Aunt, who brought me to Knott's Island NC, just below the Virginia Border. I painted one painting there during the sunset hours , then I spent the next day travelling further south to Clayton, NC where my Uncle lives (my Aunt's sister). They were kind enough to drive me to wonderful areas of old barns, lakes and even a strawberry field where I saw the farmers picking strawberries . I also visited historic Pittsboro, where I painted Pasture Heat.

"Pasture Heat" 12 x 16 Oil

Then I said goodbye to my Uncle and Aunt in Clayton and headed to Germanton. This was a Thursday where we were supposed to submit four framed paintings later that afternoon. I scouted the area around the Gallery and David (gallery owner) told me to go to either Scott's House where most of the other artists were meeting but were going to paint around a barn nearby or paint wherever I want along the way.

Sure enough the views were so pretty that I had to stop at friendship road to paint the mountain view. Although i made one attempt to locate the group but was really getting tired of driving and running out of time that I just stopped by a roadside and painted.

"Friendship Road View" 8 x 10 Oil

Final Painting

Niagara River Morning . 30 x 40 . Oil on Linen

Here is after a whole day of modifications, lightening the far land forms, creating more mists in the water at the land form on the upper right, modifying the pines, adding more pines, and lightening the foreground shadows at the right a bit . Notice I also added rocks to the shaded areas which I did because I wanted to add more pinks and orange . I also added a small pale yellow tree in front of the tall one because I noticed the contrast between the top of the rock and the shadow areas of the tree attracted too much attention. By putting the yellowish shade of the tree beside the yellowish top part of the rocks it eliminated most of the contrast. I also put some highlights on the extreme right of the canvas to show the direction of the light .

Almost done just needs a few highlights here and there. Now it is time to put this away


Here is the finished shadow areas. I also tried to do some modifications on the tall pines on the upper right.

finished up the rocks then started working the yellow trees in the lighted areas. I also started working on the shaded foliage on the bottom right .

Then I block in the water and put a dark wash on the foreground foliage, also starting on the tree forms.






Here I work on the back islands trying to finish it as much as possible working from dark to light.




I usually work from back to front so I finish up the sky to point of finish that I am happy with. I also block in the darks of the foreground trees.