Playing in the Studio

 I played in the studio for a few minutes last night. I'm on a gouache kick right now and am still learning (I would learn more if I would take more time to play). The one on the right are Hosta plants in a garden..I can kinda see it.... I think gouache works well for value and color studies.

 

I've always had a problem finding a good way of storing wet paintings until they got framed (or determined to be duds and thrown away...). I have some nice wall shelves in my studio for dry/framed paintings, but the wet ones were always a problem. I generally work pretty small - 8x10 or 5x7 - so figured I could come up with something to display a number of paintings together on one of my empty walls.

 

Here is a board I came up with. This is a full sheet of foamcore and the tracks are plastic molding (made for covering the edges of paneling). The molding was about $3 for 8 foot at the home store. I used clear Gorilla glue to mount them to the foamcore. The slot width of the molding is just perfect for hardboard panels. Obviously, if the paint was really thick and juicy, the slots might mess up the very bottom of the painting. It was a fun experiment for only a few bucks. I will probably make something a little more refined, but for now it works for me!

Plein Air Exhibit - A Breath of Fresh Air

I have two paintings exhibited in the Breath of Fresh Air show at High Road Gallery. I ran over with a co-worker at lunchtime to see the exhibit before the reception and award ceremony on Sunday (it gets so packed that it is hard to see the artwork at the reception!).

I had her take a picture of me beside my paintings with my cellphone camera. It took pretty good pics!

Stop by and see the exhibit Wed-Sat, 12-4pm, until October 22.

Saturday Plein Air - Franklin Park

We painted at Franklin Park today. It was a brisk 50 degrees with a breeze and overcast. Such a comfortable refreshing change!

Conservatory View, 8 x 10, oil on board

Playing with Gouache

I've been interested in the artists online who do such neat things with gouache. I finally bought a few tubes of the good stuff and a set of the cheap stuff so I could just play. I had a bit of trouble figuring out how to move the paint around. I am so used to oils now.

I did the painting this evening on cold press watercolor paper. The subject was from a DPW Challenge back in April, - here is the link to my original painting in oil. I really liked that painting. This one is just ok for a first try with gouache. I'll figure it out soon enough. That is what playing in the studio is about.

Saturday Plein Air - Scioto Park

Today's location was Scioto Park near Dublin Ohio. It was so much cooler than last week! It was foggy and cool, and very comfortable to paint. I painted small today. After seeing a posting on the Gamblin Artists Color blog about using secondaries as primaries, I decided to experiment. I used Cadmium Orange, Sap Green and Ultramarine Violet, along with white and Chromatic Black. I think these colors suited the hazy cool weather.

Foggy Daybreak, 5 x 7, oil on gessoed mat board

Tragic Loss for Fellow Painter

I follow Carol Marine, the DPW (Daily Paintworks) webpage and participate in some of the weekly challenges. Yesterday, Carol lost her home and studio to the wildfires in Texas. The family escaped with only a few things, but they are safe.

As I was finishing up a piece for the DPW Rectangle Challenge and getting ready to submit to David - Carol's husband who manages the webpages - I read about the fire. I plan on submitting the artwork and donating any proceeds from the sale of my piece back to Carol and David. Here is the link to the Challenge:

http://www.dailypaintworks.com/Challenge/BCE72D70-B1A7-44ea-884E-5882A1B9355E

The painting is new version of the painting from Saturday. Here is the comparison of the two:

And this is the piece I will be submitting to the challenge:

Kingwood Vista, 5 x 7, oil on canvas board  

$120

Saturday Plein Air - Kingwood Gardens

It was a blazing hot day today. Right now it is 99 degrees at 6pm. There was a tough group of nine who braved the heat this morning. We painted in Mansfield at the Kingwood Gardens. I painted two 5x7s. I was more interested in taking reference photos so that I could paint in the air conditioning!