GVPAP Show (2011) and End of Year Thoughts

These are the 5 paintings I submitted to this years sixth annual Genesee Valley Plein Air Painters show. I'm happy to report that 4 were accepted , only the smaller one in the upper left was rejected. I believe all of these have been posted on this blog previously, except for the one in the upper right called "Windbreak". I forgot to get a good close-up of that but will do so at the show reception, which takes place on Saturday, January 8, from 4 - 6 pm. Hope to see you there! The show runs through the 27th of January and is located at the Barnes and Noble in Pittsford.


It's been an eventful and productive year for me. I received several best of show awards, including the one at the Artist Row festival in September which I'm particularly happy about. Perhaps the biggest event was having my work accepted by the West End Gallery in Corning. They've already sold one painting ("January Thaw" which was previously posted) and are using one of my images on their postcard for their upcoming "Little Gems" show. I'll have a bunch of small (6x8 and under) paintings at that show, so stop by if you're in the Corning area.

I'm not typically one for new years resolutions, but I do have several art-related goals for the upcoming year. A major one is to become more focused and serious about my painting. I'm going to concentrate mainly on studio work for the next couple of (winter) months, and try to develop some larger paintings based on the many plein air studies I've accumulated. I'm also planning to participate in at least one plein air festival this summer, and attempt to get some work into a national show, probably through OPA. I'm looking forward to these challenges and will report on progress along the way.

Finally, I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year and all the best for 2011. I truly appreciate all of the supportive comments I've received, and hope to have many more paintings to share this upcoming year.

Winter Solstice 2010

Our local plein air painting group has an annual holiday tradition - painting on the day of the winter solstice (December 21). This year we were fortunate to have deep snowcover, a rarity at this time of year (this is actually the first year since we moved up here in 2003 that we're having a real "White Christmas"). The sun actually was out, another rarity, and the moderate temperatures (upper 20s) and light winds made for a very pleasant winter painting experience. I set up at Northampton Park in Spencerport and painted a field of wild dogwoods. These plants have the most amazing red-colored stems and twigs and they absolutely glow in the sunlight. This plein air study is 9x12, oil on canvas. I'm thinking it will probably be used to develop a larger painting in the studio this winter. Note there is some glare on the lower left of the image, I'll have to see if I can re-shoot and eliminate that.

Merry Christmas to all, and best wishes for a wonderful new year.

"Finger Lakes Morning" and West End Gallery

As the snow is falling, I'm thinking about warmer times...like the day depicted in this painting, called "Finger Lakes Morning". This 10x12 oil painting was completed en plein air late this summer at Vitale Park at the north end of Conesus Lake. Beautiful cloud formations created an almost "reverse sunset" experience which I tried to capture. Most of this painting was actually done after the clouds had cleared away, but the vivid colors left quite an impression as you can tell! This may be used as the basis for a larger studio painting this winter.

In other news - my work was accepted by the West End Gallery in Corning, NY! I've got several pieces hanging in their annual holiday show which continues through the end of December. Even better, they've sold one - "Altostratus" which was posted a while back. I'm very happy to have my work in this excellent gallery - stop in if you're in Corning to visit the glass museum (less than a mile) or the Rockwell Museum of Western Art.

Summer on the Farm

Been busy lately and haven't had time to upload some recent paintings, so here's one from late summer. This 9x12 oil was started on site, but required considerable re-painting in the studio. A day of beautiful clouds, so I chose the low horizon to accentuate the sky. This was painted at Burger Park in Greece, one of my favorite locations. This actual scene does not exist at that location, but most of the elements are there. I just had to move and piece them together to make the foreground more interesting. Getting better at that!

Ignore the vertical join mark on the right side, I had to join two smaller scans. However, I've just obtained a new digital camera, so hopefully I can go back to using pictures rather than scans.

Purple Haze

A tough one to get a good scan of...this 9x12 pastel done in late August at a friend's farm. One of those magical late summer mornings with haze/mist in the air which gave the distant trees a strong blue/violet appearance - which was enhanced by the contrast provided by sunlight glowing through patches of early fall foliage. OK, I may have gone a little overboard with the violets here, but it was fun and captured my impression of the morning.

Passing Storm

This is an 8x12 oil painting that was completed en plein air (with only very minor studio touch-ups) in early September. We were set up in a field and I wasn't feeling overly inspired...it was a typical late summer field, with clumps of trees here and there and an empty blue sky. As I was setting up I noticed clouds building up in the distance...they rapidly grew and created a beautiful backdrop for all those greens and golds. I knew what I wanted to paint...but the clouds passed very quickly. I was able to get enough blocked in to finish the painting. Ironically, during most of the painting time, the sky was completely clear.

Dave's Hay Field

A couple of paintings from late August/early September, both plein air. Same location, but the first one was painted just after the hay had been cut, the second after it had been baled. View toward the west in the first, toward the east in the second.

"Dave's Hay Field", oil on canvas, 10x8:


"Curtis Road Haybales", oil on canvas, 6x8.

Artist Row - Best of Show!

Finally getting my act together after 2 weeks of hectic preparation for the Artist Row festival. It all paid off, as I was fortunate to receive the best of show award! Not for an individual painting but for my body of work. I was able to sell some paintings as well. Thanks to everyone who came out to the festival, and especially to those who purchased paintings! I look forward to participating next year, and also am thinking about participating in the Clothesline Festival. Stay tuned. I'll post some pictures of my setup when I get them off my wife's camera...

In the meantime, here is one of the paintings from the show. It's a 12x9 oil on canvas called "LeRoy Shadows". This was painted about 3 weeks ago en plein air, with just a minimal amount of studio touch-up. Interesting story...I was with my Saturday morning painting group, and when we set-up the light was actually behind this building, so it was all in shadow. Several others started painting the building right away but I decided to wait until the sun came around, and worked on another painting for a couple of hours. But the whole time I was thinking about this painting, and how good the building would look in the sun. So of course the first painting didn't turn out well, but then once the sun came around - I painted this one in about 20 - 30 minutes. It essentially painted itself, I guess because I had been thinking about it for 2 hours! Meanwhile my painting partners were unable to make their paintings of the building work, I think because the light was so dull when they were painting.


Here are a couple of pictures of my booth...click to enlarge!

Streamside

"Streamside", 6x8 oil on canvas. This one was completed en plein air earlier this year. I don't even remember where we were painting, but it was an overcast, cool morning threatening rain (and it eventually did rain a bit)...most of the views in the area didn't inspire me, but I kept coming back to this particular section of the stream. Lots of interesting, subtle color in the dark tree mass, and a nice contrast with the rocks along the edge of the stream. This one seemed to paint itself, and I really like the result (there's probably a lesson there). This one might be used as the basis for a larger studio painting this winter.

There was some drama during this painting session as just after setting up, one of my fellow painters dropped about a dozen brushes...tips down (of course)...into the muck. We were set up on a high enough platform that the brushes were just out of reach. They were eventually retrieved but it required considerable effort.

Sunset Studies

We had some really good sunsets this summer, and I managed to get out a few times to attempt to paint some studies. They are such a challenge, as things change very rapidly during the last half hour of the day. The drill pretty much is: look up at scene, decide what to do on the painting, look down to mix paint, apply paint to canvas, look up and realize all colors and values (and cloud shapes) in the scene have changed! Repeat until dark, or until the painting is ruined! What I've learned is that you must either be extremely fast and efficient, or you must memorize the scene at a particular point in time and ignore whatever changes appear. This is difficult since the colors tend to become better and better until the sun actually sets or goes behind the clouds. Another approach is to sketch in the composition based on the cloud shapes about a half hour before sunset, then slam in the colors at the right time. Of course, the problem is that the cloud shapes change and often look better.

Then there is the whole matter of how to paint the sun itself, making it look both bright and colorful at the same time...using lots of white is NOT the solution! I'm still working on this.

These two studies are both 6x8 oil on canvas boards. In the first one, it was the dramatic cloud formations that caught my eye. I like the resulting study, and feel like I captured the gesture of the dark clouds and also the "controlled chaos" of the sky above the sun. Unfortunately I do see the appearance of some kind of animal head in the dark clouds (with the sun being the eye). The second painting was more about the overall color harmony of the scene, everything was bathed in an amazing peach/yellow light.



These were extremely difficult to scan and get good jpegs - I had to do a lot of color adjusting and they still don't look as good as the originals. But hopefully you can get the idea! I plan on working on some studio paintings of sunsets this winter.

Cloud Study

Quick little cloud study (6x8 oil) done a few weeks ago. Trying to apply some of the things learned at the recent workshop. Some of it worked, some of it didn't. The scan of this painting hasn't reproduced the colors or transitions (edges) in the sky for some reason. Clouds are so beautiful and everyday is different, yielding endless painting possibilities. While I feel like I'm getting better at painting clouds, I haven't yet figured out how to make cloud shadows (on the land) work. Always something else to work on!

Otherwise...starting to get ready for the Artist Row festival, which takes place on Sunday, September 19. I'll post my booth number as soon as I get it. I have a lot of paintings to work on, many things that are "close" to being showable but still need a little work...so I'll be in the studio a lot. Will post things as they are finished.

Still-life mini-studies

Some indoor still life studies from earlier in the year. These are the kinds of things I like to work on during the winter, as a change of pace from landscape work. The first is a head of garlic with one clove removed. The area where the clove was removed had many interesting shadows and color transitions and was the most fun to paint. Size is 6x8 inches, oil on canvas:

Study of a half-peeled tangerine. Experimenting with fading the shaded side into the dark background. This is a 5x7 oil painted on a new surface for me - a baltic birch panel primed only with shellac. I have seen this surface used by other artists and wanted to give it a try. The jury is still out...I have to try more of these.

Another tangerine, viewed from above and set on a folded piece of white fabric. I haven't painted fabric very much, so this was another experiment. It's not easy! Note that the scan has over-emphasized the reflected colors from the orange for some reason...

Gouache Studies 3

Catching up on some posting, there are a set of small (4x5 inch) gouache studies I did in May. I was recovering from what I think was H1N1, and didn't feel up to standing outside in the cool, windy spring weather - so I painted these in my car. It's kind of cramped, but I can see doing more of these in the future. Each one took about an hour. I've tuned these jpegs to look closest to reality on my laptop screen, so the colors are a little over-saturated (garish) on my older CRT monitor. Some of these may serve as inspiration for studio paintings this winter.

First one at Adams Basin (on the Erie Canal), about 4-5 pm on May 9. This was the second one I did that day, but I prefer it to the first (see below).

This was actually the first one I did, also at Adams Basin, from 3 - 4 pm. Felt quite rusty and wasn't thinking too much about the composition, just wanted to get the "gouache feeling" back.
Last one from May 9, from about 5 - 6 pm. My favorite of the day, unfortunately the subtle colors in all the spring greens don't come through really well here. This one in particular could become a studio painting, I think. Springdale Farm area.

May 12, noon - 1 pm. Braddock Marina. Not much to say about this one...

Kenn Backhaus workshop

In late June I participated in a 3 day plein air painting workshop in Rochester with Kenn Backhaus. First I'll say to any artists reading this - Kenn is a fantastic instructor. I'd heard this from others but can now say it from experience. His demos were excellent and instructive, his "at easel" suggestions helpful, and his final critiques were insightful. Overall it was an excellent experience. If anyone has any more detailed questions about the workshop, let me know and I'll do my best to answer.

These are a couple of study pieces I painted during the workshop. The first, an 8x10 oil from day 2, was inspired by Kenn's demo and completed in about an hour. I did learn some things about painting clouds and am looking forward to employing them in the future. The cloud shadows on the water and distant headlands were a very exciting aspect of this day/scene. The second study, an 8x6 oil, is from day 3 and was also completed in about an hour. The eyecatching aspect of this scene was the bright white tent canopy and the strong violet shadow on it. I followed Kenn's approach for this one (see below) and even though it's somewhat rough and unfinished, I feel it is successful as a study.

Day 1: We met at an estate south of Rochester with open farmland, interesting buildings, a pond, statues...Kenn lectured for a while, discussing the importance of design and contrast in paintings. He discussed his palette (titanium white, cad lemon, cad yellow, permanent rose, permanent alizarin, raw sienna, ultramarine blue, ivory black) and demonstrated color mixing. He also showed some of his previously completed studies to reinforce some of the ideas presented. He then discussed the approach he wanted us to follow: (1) do at least 3 thumbnail sketches to work out the composition, (2) do quick studies (45 minutes or so) using a "puzzle piece" approach. The idea is to first block in the main masses of color and value first, resulting in a posterized effect, then go in and adjust edges, colors and values to refine the painting.

Kenn demonstrated this approach. He started with the area that would be considered the focal point, the area with the strongest value contrast...this was actually a lit field in the distance between trees. Once he had the big shapes in that area, he worked out to the rest of the painting. Here is his demo piece near the end:


Day 2: We met at a private residence overlooking Lake Ontario. It was a day with beautiful, rapidly changing skies that were featured in many of our studies. We painted in the morning using the same approach as on day 1. After lunch, Kenn did two quick demonstrations. The first was an amazing cloud study that took barely 20 minutes. A couple of participants tried to "paint along" but had a hard time keeping up! I don't have a close-up of the finished piece, but here is Kenn working on it at some point along the way:


Kenn then did another quick demo using an even more limited palette consisting of white, black, cad lemon and permanent rose. This demonstrated the importance of value, and how careful juxtaposition of colors can give the illusion of another color...i.e., no blue paint was used but the sky and water, painted mainly with white and black, still appeared blue:

Day 3: We met in Pittsford and painted either farmland or canal scenes in the morning. After lunch, Kenn did a great demo of an interior woods scene with dappled light. Many of us were wondering about his choice early on when he sketched in that huge foreground tree, but he pulled it off very well. The scene really came alive when he added the touches of sunlight to the forest floor and tree trunk:

We finished out the workshop with a critique of the work done during the workshop, followed by a group dinner. I think everyone had a great experience and came away inspired. I wish we had a couple more days...

Palenville Morning

This little gouache painting (4x5 inches) was done Friday morning (July 16) in Palenville, New York. On my way to Long Island for the weekend, I stopped to see my friend Jamie, who has a home on the edge of the Catskill Mountains. We didn't have much time for painting, but were able to get out for about an hour and a half. I had only brought along gouache, so I did this little study. Haven't used the gouache in a couple of months so it took some getting used to...the result is OK but I had trouble getting the mountain color correct. The views in the area are beautiful and I would have liked to stay and paint all day...it was amazing how quickly the mountains changed in appearance as the morning progressed.

Jamie did a larger oil painting which can be seen on her blog.

As a side note, I've been very busy lately with the Kenn Backhaus workshop (I'll be posting about this shortly), some art club business, and the trip to Long Island. However, that stuff is all done and I should be painting a lot from now on, so check back for updates!

Suburban Rochester Art Group Show

My painting "Ramshackle", pictured below, received the "Best of Show" award at this years Suburban Rochester Art Group (SRAG) Summer Show. This is an 8x10 oil painting that was started on site (plein air) and finished in the studio. I also received a "Third Place" award in the oil/landscape category for "January Thaw", a 9x12 oil painting also pictured below. A third painting received an honorable mention, but I forgot to take a picture of that one before delivering it to the show.

The show runs until July 29th at the Pittsford Barnes and Noble.

Ramshackle

Well, it has been a while since my last post! I've been busy with a number of things...had lots of spring yard work to catch up on (was way behind due to my illness in early May), been organizing a workshop with Kenn Backhaus (next week), working on a studio painting that has been giving me fits. As a result, I don't have many completed works to show right now, but there are a number of smaller, mostly plein air paintings that need a little tweaking. Things should calm down after mid July, so I hope to be getting to those eventually.

This 8x10 plein air oil painting was done earlier in the spring, on one of the first really warm, sunny days (I even picked up a little sunburn). A collection of run-down old buildings nestled in the trees. I wound up painting them much "nicer" than they appeared in real life, not sure why! Just the way the painting evolved. I don't know how well it comes across on your monitor, but in person this one has a very nice warm color harmony and is one of my better recent paintings. The door shadow, and the mysterious dark passageways (door and partially hidden windows) were the main factors that caught my eye.

Something a little different...castaway!

It's been a while since I've posted anything...haven't been painting much due to a number of issues - mainly lots of spring yard work followed by a nasty bout of the flu. I haven't painted very well the few times I've been able to get out. I'm hoping that will all change in the near future.

Anyway, now that I'm devoting myself to art full time, I decided that I needed to work on some basic skills - especially drawing. So I joined a local atelier program. It's really an "accelerated" atelier program which will last 2 years and progress from cast drawing through figure drawing, followed by monochrome painting and finally full color. I didn't attend art school and thus have never really studied the basics in an organized, logical way.

Since I don't have any paintings to post, here are some cast drawings (in pencil) from the first few weeks of the class. The nose was drawn first, and I found it very difficult because there really weren't many well-defined features. The hand was done second, and the head last. The idea with these wasn't to be "perfect", but to focus on the steps of the drawing process: (1) get used to the idea of starting with the big envelope shape, and gradually work down to the details, and (2) break down the drawing into the shadow and lit areas before working on the detailed halftones.

I'm enjoying the process, and have developed a new level of respect for those who do figure work in pencil. I never realized how difficult it was to get nice, consistent shading with pencil!

Sunset Snow

Probably the last plein air snow painting until November (hopefully! though you're never safe until May around here!). I did this one on March 8 or 9. The location is a farm field across from my house. I've looked at this scene for 7 years and thought there were painting possibilities, but my previous attempts generally haven't turned out too well. Then, one evening near sunset my wife and I were walking through the field and I was captivated by the color contrasts as the warm evening light lit up the trees and snow. It was too late to paint that day, so I had to hope for similar conditions before all the snow melted. Fortunately, the next day was clear and as the evening approached I knew I'd get similar light conditions. So off I went.

The only problem was wind...a weather front was approaching and the winds were gusting over 30 mph. Almost blew my easel over a few times, and the wind chill was pretty nasty despite temperatures in the low 40s. Of course, the previous evening had been completely calm! Anyway, I was going to finish the painting no matter what! I thought it looked pretty good on site, but wasn't sure because there was so much orange light out there. When I got inside I was pretty happy with it. The subtle colors didn't reproduce very well in the scan, so it doesn't look as good as the actual painting. I'm quite satisfied and am thinking about working up a larger studio painting from this one, which is 6x12 oil on canvas board.

Ice Painting

This is the second of my "sunny snow" paintings, completed on site on March 6...a clear sunny day with no wind and temperatures in the 40s. I had an idea in mind before heading out - for a painting with a lot of sky and the land concentrated near the bottom. Found my subject at the beach at Braddock Marina...the near shore waters of Lake Ontario (out a hundred feet or so) were frozen and snow covered, so I hiked out a bit and found this nice view to the west (thus the title...ice painting as opposed to ice fishing). Beautiful subtle colors in the distant headland contrasted with the sunlit willow trees glowing on the left. An added feature of interest was the area of partially melted snow and fissures in the ice in the fore and middle ground. I feel I captured the true colors of the day, though I'm not sure I'm satisfied with the sky...it's very thinly painted without a lot of variation. I think it offsets the interest in the land pretty well, though.

10x12 oil on canvas panel. If you look too closely you'll see a vertical line where I had to join the 2 scanned images of this painting. It's not there in real life...

Salmon Creek in the Snow

After a winter of cloudy skies and wind, we finally got a few days of warmer weather, sun and deep snow cover in early March. I was able to get out to do some painting during these rare, beautiful conditions. This is the first of 3 paintings I was able to finish outdoors. It is an 8x12 oil on canvas, and was painted at Salmon Creek Country Club, which adjoins our property. After tumbling through some "mini-gorges", the Creek passes through some flatter land where it makes some beautiful, long S-curves. It was that S-pattern that attracted me, along with the contrast of the dark blue water against the snow. The resulting composition may be a little symmetrical, but I kind of like the result.

Despite the sun, it was still on the cold side this day (mid-upper 30s). After an exhausting trek through a foot of soft snow, I realized that I probably need to invest in some snowshoes, something I've been thinking about since moving up here 7 years ago.

Despite the deep snow cover, I was not alone out there...in addition to the birds, the ground was covered by some kind of small insect. They were all over the snow, just crawling around. I remember seeing them in past years, and always find it interesting that they are out in the snow. If anyone can identify this bug, let me know: (edited to add: this appears to be a type of stonefly, which emerges from cold streams in early spring, and are often seen crawling on snow)

January Thaw

This 9x12 oil painting was done during our "January Thaw" this year. It was started en plein air, but I had trouble with the foreground and had to essentially re-paint that entire section at home...still not sure I've got the perspective of the furrows right, but it'll do for now. We had a lot of snow in early January, then a mild period with rain...so the air had a fair bit of moisture in it, giving those background trees an interesting, warmish glow in the sunlight. It was a very beautiful mid-winter day.

The main attractions to me were the way the cluster of buildings sat in the landscape, and the "rivers" and puddles of water in the foreground. On the jpeg, the whites have translated a little too bright and cold, especially in the buildings...and the blue tones in the puddles aren't quite right. But you get the idea.

Radishes

These are some radish paintings I did a while back. They are all oil paintings, size 6x8. The first and third are on canvas, and the middle on is on board. I can't remember what order I painted these...but the duplicate composition in the first two is intentional...I liked the arrangement and just wanted to try two different surfaces. I prefer canvas but for small paintings like these, the weave pattern is often too strong (that's why I tried the smoother board). I think I need to find a finer canvas for the small stuff.

One thing I've learned from painting vegetable - any leaves wilt really quickly under the spotlights! Gotta remember to get those greens indicated before that happens. Also, creating interesting compositions is difficult...my main purpose here is to improve painting/rendering skills, so the composition is of secondary importance but it cannot be completely ignored.

North Road Sentry (Krenzers Barn)

Another painting from a few months ago...this is the first decent sized acrylic that I have painted outdoors. It is 12x16 or 14x18 (can't find my notes and the painting is currently on exhibit). It required 2 visits to the site and a little work in the studio between those visits.

The first time I drove past this barn I knew I wanted to paint it. I love the way it sits alone in the landscape, both imposing and lonely at the same time. And in the afternoon sun it just glows, especially against a typical brooding Rochester sky. I tried to capture those feelings in the painting, and thought I had succeeded...but this was the one painting of mine that was rejected from our recent show. Anyway, it was an interesting experiment in the use of acrylics...I'd like to develop a level of comfort with them so that I can use acrylics when traveling, to avoid having to deal with wet oil paintings. We'll see how that goes.

The owners are talking about taking it down. Another piece of history soon to be gone! Admittedly, it is in bad shape - the roof was heavily damaged by fire (not evident in the painting, but you can see through large areas of the roof), and the entire structure leans severly downwind - it's hard to believe, but look at this photo showing the end-on view!

Otherwise...I have been painting almost every day (not Sunday, for the most part). Doing a lot of small "studies" of objects (roses, fruit, that kind of thing). Also doing figure painting one day a week. Also working on the occasional plein air painting. I am about to start a couple of larger studio paintings, and will be posting them as they develop.

Summer Memories

On this frigid snow-covered morning I've decided to go back in time to a summer plein air painting. This is one that I worked on for 2 or 3 sessions - after the first outing I wasn't happy with the lower part of the composition, so I adjusted that at home - then went back to finish the painting on site. It was done early in the morning, the atmosphere was humid and I was looking toward the east...so everything had that beautiful morning glow, with the wonderful subtle blue/violet in the distant tree line and a nice rosey glow to the lower part of the sky. The sparkles on the water in and amongst the vegetation were also an attraction.

I like the overall mood in the piece (which probably doesn't convey well in the jpeg - it looks a little harsh on my monitor compared to the subtlety in the painting, especially the lower part of the sky). I'm thinking I might try to create a larger studio painting based on this, but will have to modify the composition and figure out how to vary the greens some more. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.

Oil on canvas board, 8x12.


Also, I recently found an artist whose work I really like, and wanted to post a link to his blog. His name is Qiang Huang. He primarily paints still life's, often very simple ones with only a couple of objects - but I love his use of contrast and color, and his descriptive brushwork. Check out his work!

Gouache studies 2

Had a frustrating day in the studio today, trying to paint a bunch of carrots. Nothing to show for several hours work, but hopefully learned something! Will be back at it tomorrow.

Took a 1-day gouache workshop on Monday with Rochester artist Valerie Larsen. To prepare, I broke out my gouache pack and did some painting in the car Friday and Saturday. These are all 4x6 studies on matboard. I'm still trying to figure out which medium I like best for "quick studies" in the car when the weather doesn't allow outdoor painting. I've also got some casein paint (don't like the smell, though) and there's always watercolor.

Anyway, out of these I like the first two...think I successfully captured the essence of the scenes. The first was just before sunset on Friday when some beautiful cloud formations appeared in the western sky. The other two were from Saturday...top one mid-afternoon (roughly 2-3 pm), the bottom one from around noon. Not happy with that one, a very busy scene that I got lost in but some of the light effects aren't bad.

GVPAP Show, part 2

I'm happy to report that my painting "Quiet Evening Outside of Le Roy" (pictured in the previous post) received a Judges Award at the current GVPAP show. The judge was Rochester artist Val Larsen. Unfortunately, I did not make it to the reception; it was snowing heavily and the roads on my side of town were very bad. The show is still up until the 28th of January, so check it out if you get the chance.

Otherwise...my long-awaited transition to doing art "full time" has arrived! I made the resolution that I would be painting/drawing every day starting on Jan 1...well, really Jan 4 because of the weekend (procrastination, anyone?) :) Anyway, what I realized on the 4th was that my studio was a mess, really disorganized...so I thought it would be smart to spend a few days getting that taken care of. But I have been doing some drawing, and today finally put brush to canvas. During the winter I'll mostly be indoors, working on still lifes and developing some larger paintings from plein air studies - something I've never done before, so it should be challenging. I don't know how many of these paintings/drawings will get shown here - we'll see how that goes. So check back!

I'm also trying to think up a new name for this blog, since not all of my work will be from life, and I'll also probably be posting some drawings. If anyone has any clever suggestions, let me know!

GVPAP Annual Plein Air Show, 2010

I had 4 paintings accepted for the annual Genesee Valley Plein Air Painters show. This painting is the only new one (not posted here before). I called it "Quiet Evening Near Le Roy". It's a pastel over watercolor on watercolor paper, size 9x12. Painted on a beautiful fall day south of Le Roy...I had painted a watercolor earlier in the day that turned out OK...this one was also intended to be a watercolor but it didn't work out so well so I broke out the pastels and was able to save it. I actually really like using pastel and watercolor together this way, it can result in some lovely broken color effects. One of my favorite artists, Ray Balkwill, does this a lot. Check out his work, it's fantastic. The sky didn't photograph too well - it looks too unsaturated on my laptop screen and overly saturated on my standard monitor. Also, the line down the middle is an artifact...I had to scan this in two sections and piece them together. Not sure why I got a line though!

The other paintings accepted were posted before, but I'll put them here for reference:

Salmon Creek Spring (oil)

Cloud Patterns (oil)

Braddock Marsh, Autumn (oil)