May Exhibitions

I am in three exhibits during the month of May!


Two of my watercolor paintings are shown in the exhibit:

April 29th to May 23rd
USING OUR FACULTIES: A SHOW OF TEACHERS & THEIR STUDENTS
The High Road Gallery at 12 E. Stafford Avenue in Worthington Ohio

ARTISTS' RECEPTION on SUNDAY, May 3rd, from 2-4 PM.

Chaired by Charles Rowland, the show will include several works by a variety of art teachers and works of their students chosen by the teachers.

http://www.highroadgallery.com/


Two of my pastels are in the exhibit:

May 3rd to May 30th

Worthington Area Art League 2009 Anthem Show
'Captured Memories'

ARTISTS' RECEPTION on SUNDAY, May 3rd, from 2-4 PM.
(yes, both receptions at the same time/day!)

Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, 6740 North High Street, Worthington Ohio

http://www.artinview.com/spring_anthem_exhibit_09.htm


One acrylic and several pastels will be in the exhibit:

Saturday May 2nd
Ohio Plein Air Art Event

I will be with my Ohio Plein Air group at Infirmary Mound Park, south of Granville Ohio.

I've been asked to do a pastel painting demo using my pochade box setup. I will have a few things for sale and be present for the evening reception.

http://www.ohiopleinair.com/announcements.htm

Plein Air Saturday - Tanner Farm

Today my plein air group met a the home of one of the members. He had a lovely place with many many great vistas to paint. He'd lived there for 25 years and he still finds new scenes every time he walks out the door.

Here is my setup when I arrived at 9. Lots of nice shadows.

I had to work quickly today, because I had to leave at 11 to deliver some artwork for an exhibit. Here is my setup with the final painting. I was attempting to put more colors into my work instead of just a monochrome of greens.

'Rail Fence in the Pines' 5 x 7 pastel on suede mat board

Pastel - Blue Limestone Quarry

'Blue Limestone Quarry' 5" x 7" Pastel on white Wallis paper

I recently picked up some Wallis sanded pastel paper. I haven't been a fan of sanded paper but so many people seem to love the Wallis brand. Well, I gave it a shot, but I'm still not a fan. Seemed like it grabbed too much pastel too fast and filled the tooth. Perhaps I need to do an underpainting in a wash first.

Below shows the photograph on the top and the final painting below it.

Acrylic Painting - 'Dry Dock'

'Dry Dock' 6" x 8" Acrylic on canvas wrapped board

After seeing what the other plein air painters do with oils, I've been itching to give it a try, but didn't want to mess with oil paints and thinners... In the past, I have used acrylics, but never was happy with the results. Recently I bought a few new tubes of paint and thought I'd give it a try. Today was the day! I had a small 6x8 canvas wrapped board which I gessoed and decided to start small by recreating the 'Dry Storage' pastel from yesterday.

The paint really dried quickly on the palette and I didn't like the texture of the canvas, but I continued on. It finally started to come together and I am really pleased with this. It was a little hard to photograph, as its pretty cloudy today.

I plan on painting with acrylics again on masonite gessoed boards and see if I like the texture better.

P.S. Later today, I went to buy a frame for this and realized they rarely sell 6" x 8" frames. So why do they sell that size canvas board?? I was lucky enough to find a frame in clearance that had a 5x7 wooden insert. I was able to remove the insert and then it was a 6x8 frame. Chalk that up to experience - don't paint anymore 6x8 paintings!

P.S.S. I replaced the image with a scan of the painting, which is more correct in color and values.

Plein Air Saturday - Red Bank Marina

Today, I met the plein air group at Hoover Reservoir, Red Bank Marina area. It was a really nice day. I arrived about 8:30 and it was a very comfortable 45 degrees.

Below is my lucky pear tree. This is the tree that gave me the pear last fall during another plein air painting outing. I painted this pear in pastels in two views framed together and it won an honorable mention at an exhibit.

How lucky was I today to see it in spring bloom against the bright blue spring sky? The leaves were a lovely chartreuse green that might not be too apparent in the photo and the white blooms were just partway open.

Here is my first painting of the day. I am still deciding which mat to use. Not sure if the yellow or black liner gives it more pop? I am leaning towards the black. The outer mat is white, which didn't photograph well.

'Spring Willows' 5" x 7" Pastel on suede matboard

Here is a closeup photograph of the scene.
This shows my setup, along with the scene.
This was my second painting of the day. I simplified the scene a bit. I am trying to be a bit more abstract and not try to fiddle with the details too much. I used my artistic license to remove some items and to angle the masts to give it interest.

'Dry Storage' 5" x 7" Pastel on suede matboard.

A photograph of the scene.
My setup with the scene.

Different Stroke Painting of the Week - Diana

Ummm. Looks like Diana's friend gained a few pounds over the holiday!

This is my entry into Karin's 'Diana' challenge on the Different Stokes blog. This is pastel pencils on Canson Mi-Teintes paper. I started on her head, and by the time I got down to the dog and her feet, I was tired of working on her!

Plein Air Saturday - Creekside Gahanna

Technical difficulties.... I took probably 35 really nice photos this morning, and then this afternoon when I was attempting to download them, they became corrupted. Darn it!! So, can't show you anything else but the puny little sketch/painting I did in about 15 minutes.

Because it was 31 degrees at 8am today, I took my time meeting the group in Gahanna. I arrived about 9:45 and it was still pretty nippy, even though the sun was shining brightly. They were all pretty frozen, so they only planned on painting another 45 minutes or so, so I just walked around taking photos and finally sat down with a Sharpie and a waterpen with some watercolors and did this in one of my travel sketchpads. Sorry I can't show you a picture of the scene!

Plein Air Saturday - High Banks Metro Park

I spend the morning at High Banks Metro Park, just north of Worthington Ohio with my plein air group. This was the first outing of the year. It was a beautiful morning, but at 8am, was in the high 30's when we started out. BRrrrrrrrrr. My shoulders and hands got really cold for awhile. There were about 15 painters out today. The mediums were oil, pastels and watercolors. We met later at 11:30 for a group critique. A few pics of the group's work are shown following my work, and there is a link at the bottom to a slideshow put together by the group's organizer.

There isn't much color in the Ohio landscape yet. Keep in mind that I used my artistic license to recreate the scene in front of me. Didn't necessarily end up looking that much like reality. But that's what's fun about art. I don't claim to be a realistic painter.

Below is actually my second piece of the day. I finished it at home. It needed a second rock to the bottom right, as for some reason, I planted that one right in the middle and it threw the composition off. A photograph of the scene follows the artwork.

High Banks #2, 5" x 7", pastels on suede mat board

Below is the one I like the best of the two. In the beginning of the session, I was having trouble viewing the easel and the pastel pieces, as the sun was coming from my left and blinding me. I forgot to bring a hat and couldn't work in sunglasses. As the sun rose, it became easier. I always forget to stand back a ways and check my work in progress. Later, as I viewed this one from 10 feet back, I really liked what I saw. I like the sense of depth and the direction your eyes follow around the piece.

It needed a fourth rock to the bottom left, as again, I planted the major group of three rocks right in the middle and again threw the composition off. A photograph of the scene follows the artwork.

High Banks #1, 5" x 7", pastels on suede mat board
SOLD - Dec 2012

Here are some shots of the other painter's work.

Mine are shown in the middle with the arrows.



Here's a link to photos that the group organizer compiled: Bill

I had alot of fun. Next week we are meeting at Creekside in Gahanna Ohio.