Saturday Plein Air - Painting Powell

We were invited to paint in downtown Powell Ohio by Deb Heimlich of Serendip Gallery. We will have a reception for the artwork painted today, on Sept. 15, 1-3pm, then the artwork will hang in her gallery until Sept. 28th. If you are in the area, please come to the reception or stop by the gallery during the exhibit period.

I checked out Powell scenes several weeks ago, and was interested in this huge 'snow ball' bush at Ellen Sea Art & Antiques & Gifts:

I had hoped to work in pastels today, but because of the forecast for scattered storms, I brought my oils. When I started, the sky was heavily overcast. As the morning progressed, the sun finally peeked through. Below are process shots and the finished painting. I am happy how this one turned out. I think some of the lessons learned at Kim's workshop this week helped me with this painting.

"Ellen's Hydrangea", 8x10, oil on canvas wrapped panel.

Kim Casebeer Workshop Day 3

We worked in the studio to finish our  paintings today. I worked on my large painting until about 1:30pm, then got out a 6x8 panel to do a quick painting before the end of the workshop.

6x8, Oil, studio

in process

12x16 oil, studio

6x8 oil, plein air

It was a nice workshop. Kim was a very pleasant teacher. I really enjoyed watching her demos and she did a really good job in explaining brushwork, directional strokes, and how to 'model' the shapes.

Kim Casebeer Workshop, Day 2

Another good day at the Kim Casebeer workshop, but I tried working on a much larger painting and succumbed to the dreaded "lollipop tree" syndrome. Hopefully tomorrow I can recover and finish a nice painting.

Here's my setup before I got started.... won't show you how I left it this afternoon!

Kim Casebeer Workshop, Day 1

I took this week off work and am attending a workshop by artist Kim Casebeer hosted by the Friends of the Columbus Cultural Arts Center. Kim works in both oils and pastels, but I decided to work in oils this week to improve my skills.

I painted a scene across the river, while ignoring the railroad trestle. Back at the art center's studio, I am preparing to work from this small study, along with my photo on the iPad, to make a larger, more complex painting.

I hadn't been downtown along the riverfront in several years. They've really improved the area, and it was very pleasant.

By the way, if you use Facebook, I now have a fan "Page" where I will be highlighting my artwork and art activities. Please visit and "Like" my Page so that you will receive updates directly on your News Feed.

 http://www.facebook.com/NancyLVanceArtist 

Saturday Plein Air - Creekside Park

We painted in Gahanna today at Creekside Park. Generally, this is a nice quiet family creekside park, but this morning there were women running in tutus! There was some kind of 5k fundraiser. Some of us had trouble finding parking, but that event didn't last too long and it was back to a nice quiet place - other than the ducks and geese quacking and the waterfall flowing. (read father below about the swan!) This is also one of those scenic parks where the photographers show up with their gear to photograph the babies, graduates or newly engaged couples.All three varieties were there today! We had about 15 painters today.

babies in boxes on bridges!

I decided to try my hand at the man-made waterfall. I liked how the morning sun was peeking through the trees. I worked on Arches Oil Paper today, toned with burnt sienna. I have mixed reviews of this paper. The pros are that you can cut the paper to any shape, then frame the finished piece many different ways (mounted to board, varnished and framed like any other oil, or matted and framed under glass). The cons are that I feel like I need to get a good cover of paint before I get the brush strokes right, because the paper is very thirsty and dry feeling.

I am very pleased how this turned out. I kept things loose and like the effect of the waterfall.
Here are some other shots of the area:

 We seem to paint in many places where there are swans. Beautiful birds. This guy was out to show his dominance and was busy running off the geese!

Post yART

We had a lovely day for the yART art fair on Saturday. We had a nice crowd, but I felt it was less than last year. I did sell some pastels, so it made my effort worthwhile. Here are pics of my setup.

yART at the MAC

This coming Saturday is the annual yART at the MAC. This is a nice little casual art festival with lots of local artists. I will be there, so please stop by and check out all the great art!

I will be selling matted and bagged pastels and a few small oil paintings at affordable prices, ready for you to pop into your standard size frames!

Saturday Plein Air - Hartman Aviary

We had a lovely painting day at the Hartman Aviary near Sunbury. They have over 250 parrots! They have some tortoises also, but they were much quieter than the parrots! I am not sure how old the tortoises are, but some of the parrots were over 40 years old!

He is 'grooming' her

 But back to painting! They have a lovely setting in the country with several ponds. I was intrigued by the 300 yr old oak tree across the pond.

I setup looking across the pond at the little waterfall which was actually to the west of the waterfall shown in the photo above. I wasn't able to catch the waterfall in my painting, but I like my overall composition:

Hartman Pond, 6x8, pastel on 240 grit UArt