Yearly Art Adventure

"Mansard at Dawn" 

by Tim Horn

I am off on my yearly "art adventure" tomorrow.

A three day plein air workshop with Tim Horn in Greenport NY.

Taking my jeep on the Cross Sound Ferry from CT to Long Island.

So excited. 

Meanwhile,

I have to share these two images I took last weekend.

An interesting way to fish. 

Or a really boring date?  

I've seen these T shirts in catalogues, but never thought 

I'd ever see some one actually wearing one.

Happy summer everyone! 

It's Official. Summer is here.

And the subject matter has arrived!  

Busy Beach Day 

8 x 10 

The challenge here was choosing what to use 

and what to leave out. 

Happy Summer to everyone!

Life Saver

Yesterday I had my class over for our Tuesday gathering. 

I was kind of "out of sync" working on this, 

again sitting down at a table. 

Meet and Greet

8 x 10 

Then one of the gals 

brought over a a new chair that she'd had in her basement. 

It solves everything! 

It's a hair dressers chair!

Who knew?  

It goes up and down and has wheels! 

And I can put my foot up on the easel! 

I love having such wonderful

people in my life! 

Thanks Wendy! 

You are a life saver!  

Plein Air Maiden Voyage

 I've been dying to get outside to do some plein air painting 

before I head to Long Island next week 

for a Tim Horn workshop.  

Sunday, I got out my Open Box M 

and didn't have to go very far to find a subject.   

My garden is an explosion of 

purple and orange right now! 

As always, I was challenged by chasing the light. 

This needs a few tweaks,

but it's not bad for the maiden voyage!?

Needs more flowers!   

Painting Sitting Down

I've been having foot problems so 

my podiatrist told me to "stay off of them". 

Yea right. With a puppy?

I did manage to set myself up to  

paint sitting down

thanks to my cool Karin Jurick table top easel. 

"Laboratory Conditions"

8 x 10 

Sitting tends to make me tighten up,

so to avoid that, 

I used lots of paint and big brushes. 

And sat as far away from it as I could. 

Now my neck hurts. 

Time to get outside.

Channelling Charles Sovek

I've been channeling Charles Sovek lately. 

He was one of the biggest influences on my work 

and I will never forget him. 

Re-reading his book before I gave the figure workshop 

last week re-inspired me.  

Today I did this from an image I took of the model 

we used for a class. 

"Have A Seat"

6 x 8 

It reminded me of this study I did 

in a Charles' workshop in 2006!  

RIP dear friend and mentor. 

Bring on Summer!

"Bring on Summer"

6 x 8 

This month our GJWP challenge is 

"tools of the trade". 

I couldn't resist this icon of summer cooking! 

Speaking of GJWP! 

Come join us at out opening reception this Saturday.

Over 60 small paintings by 10 wonderful artists.  

Hope to see you there! 

Workshop Discoveries

I am very excited about all the 

discoveries that were made in 

The Figure workshop on Saturday! 

Mine included! 

First I did a demo from a photo, using the 

same "One Hour" approach I use with still life. 

Then I gave each of them one of my photos of

"figures in the sunlight" to use as a reference.

These are just two samples of some of the starts.

In the afternoon we started with 10 minute 

"two value" studies using a model

Then we all painted 20 minute poses with the model seated. 

My first 20 minute.

It's hard to get the proportions correct when working that fast. 

It's a real challenge, but such fun!   

The model was fantastic! 

A great big thank you to all the gals who attended, 

especially the two that drove down from the North Shore!  

Using a Model

We hired a model for our Tuesday gathering at  

Salty Dog Studio this week!  

I wanted to explore painting the figure, 

using the same method I teach in my 

One Hour Painting workshops.  

The idea is to focus on just the big shapes of light and shadow. 

And never go back over a brush stroke! 

Darcy was a terrific model! 

 Here are a few samples from our twenty minute studies. 

Pretty cool! 

We all agreed that getting the right proportion is key 

when painting like this. 

Once you get that down, you can just have fun! 

Lampshade Inspiration

Every May, my friend Sally and I get together
to paint an "object" to sell at the
North River Arts Society Festival.

This year it's lampshades.

For inspiration, we googled Aboriginal Art and found these
wonderful patterns using lots of circles and dots!

Then we just went with it....

It was so much fun to let go and just play.

Sally's was still a "work in progress" when she left. 

I'm sure she will be posting her final result here! 

Here is my finished product. 

My nod to the 

"Aboriginal Art Movement".

 Hopefully it will end up in someone's cool house. 

  

Painting with acrylics is so liberating.  

You can layer and cut in and just "let things happen!"    

Wedding Shower Demo

My good friends Bill and Phyllis Wenzel 

of Image Resolutions 

hosted their daughter's wedding shower at the 

South Shore Art Center yesterday.

They asked me to do a painting demo.

  

Gerber's 

9 x 12 

It was so fun to be surrounded by all that art 

and all those cute young woman! 

Best wishes Katherine! 

Figure in the Sunlight Workshop

Gearing up for my  

"Figure in the Sunlight" Workshop

coming up on Saturday May 12 at the 

South Shore Art Center. 

"Dad and Son" 

6 x 6 

I did this during our Tuesday gathering this week. 

We all painted figures from photos. 

One of the gals brought this image of her husband and son,

 and I just had to paint it! 

Those colors!   

BTW! I had the date listed on my website as May 22 by mistake 

and I apologize! 

There is ONE spot left!