Saturday Plein Air - New Galena Boat Ramp, Alum Creek

We had about 24 artists painting today at Alum Creek. The New Galena Boat Ramp is one of my favorite spots at the park. This is the area where, last fall, I watched the Monarch butterfly migration.

I worked in oils today. My painting changed many times during the morning, so I will only show you the beginning and the end!

 We had a swan visit us today. He seemed confused that we didn't have fishing poles (well, most of the fishermen were confused by our presence also!)

Saturday Plein Air - Park of Roses event

Today we painted in Clintonville at the Park of Roses annual event, Stop and Smell the Roses. There were over 40 artists painting today. Nothing like a little competition with some cash to bring out the artists!! The Rose Society was having their own competition in the shelterhouse, and they will be the judges for our art competition. Wish me luck! Last year I won a third place.

8"x16", pastel on Pastelmat

I painted in the Earth Kind garden area where they use no pesticides, etc. It is a lovely spot, less manicured than the formal gardens. The roses smelled lovely. While I was painting, a wedding party came by to take photos among the roses. Beautiful couple, but I didn't take photos of them.

My friend and co-worker, Chris has started doing plein air with me!

SOLD! Framed, delivered and a check in 24 hours!

What makes a fantastic day of plein air painting even better? Delivering the framed painting of the day to the owner of the Buxton Inn. He watched me painting in his courtyard and wanted to buy it!!! SUPER!

Saturday Plein Air - Granville

Today we painted in downtown Granville Ohio. A few of us painted in the lovely courtyards within the Buxton Inn. Much of the staff of the inn stopped by to see what we were doing.

I had a lovely conversation with the owner, Orville Orr, who said he loved my painting and wants to see it hanging in the Inn! I'll get it framed nicely, and take it back over soon!

Alan and Chris

Dave and Chris

Katie

"Babe" the neighborhood cat, kept us company.

Marianne

Betty and Katie

Experimenting with Pastel Paper

I have not been a fan of plain paper for pastels. I tried to use Canson Mi-Teintes when I first learned to use pastels and I found it difficult and messy. Most pastel teachers requests new students use this paper. I feel there are better options that are less frustrating. Recently, I watched one of my friends work on this paper, and now that I have much more experience with pastels, I thought I should give it another try so I purchased one sheet.

I also bought a new pastel paper (new to me) at Blicks. My local store carries very few pastel papers, which is disappointing for the many pastelists in my town. We keep asking them to carry more variety, but it hasn't helped yet. I was hoping to find a paper I liked locally, so I didn't have to order everything online. I had one of their 40% off coupons, and decided to use it on this paper. It is Sennelier Pastel Spiral Pad . It seemed similar to the Canson, but was a lighter weight.

I decided to use both papers in a test. I wanted to follow along with one of Richard McKinley's online lessons, so I used his composition for my experiment.

On the left is the Canson, and the Sennelier is on the right. Both papers were similar in texture (on their 'smooth' sides). On the backs, the Canson has a definite grid-like pattern and the Sennelier has numerous vertical stripes, both of which I find distracting.

Both papers were pretty dusty and lots of pastel dust filtered down. They both seemed to need the first layer pressed into the paper for the next layer to start to adhere. Hard pastels didn't work too well on either. The very soft pastels such as Terry Ludwig's and Great Americans were great on the Sennelier.  

My conclusion is that I am still not a fan of Canson. The Sennelier holds promise and I plan on using it in the future.

Saturday Plein Air - Emily Traphagen Preserve

Today, again, Mother Nature was keeping it pretty cold for Memorial Day weekend. It was 34 degrees and by the time we got to the park, it hadn't warmed up much. Luckily, there was no wind and the sun was out.

We were delayed from our normal start time, as the park rangers asked us to leave for about an hour. It seems there was a coyote that looked very ill following around visitors walking their dogs. Normally, they would stay away from humans and large dogs. So the rangers had to find it and put it down. We got started after 9am.

I had been to the park in the late winter and there are two wetlands which I had hoped were still interesting. I walked back into the park by myself to the wetlands. Both were pretty grown up but I stopped at one that had some interesting grasses. I did a quick 4x6 pastel.

Even though the ranger had taken care of the coyote, I had an uncomfortable feeling being out there by myself. I packed up and went on down to the small lake and the east overlook. I painted looking west towards the dam, where all the other painters were.

Click link for a video of the scene below:
http://youtu.be/gMd2Rb3B9aU

Both paintings are pastel done on my homemade pumice mixture on paper. That is the texture you see in the closeup.

We had a large group today. I think we had over 17.

Saturday Plein Air - Wahkeena Preserve

We painted at a wonderful place today, Wahkeena Preserve, Sugar Grove Ohio. It was a damp day with clouds and drizzle, but a comfortable temperature. But the rain didn't deter us and it ended soon after we got started. We ended up with 13 painters today.

I worked on Arches "Oil" Paper today. I like to use this occasionally. I setup looking into the woods with the  azaleas in bloom. Beautiful! Process shots to follow, but first, I want to show you the neat flower of the Tulip Tree - isn't it an exotic flower for Central Ohio?