Saturday Plein Air - Stop and Smell the Roses Event

Today was the annual "Stop and Smell the Roses" event at the Whetstone Park of Roses. The Rose Society holds their flower competition, has live music in the gardens, sale of perennials, and our painting group paints!

We have a little competition for the best paintings with cash prizes. The Rose Society and park personnel, along with the participating artists, get to see the photos of the paintings from the day and vote on their favorite - results in a few days or so. Several of our artists sold their paintings off the easel! I had inquiries about both my paintings and handed out many of my business cards.

It's always tough getting just the right color pink for roses. For my first painting, I setup over by a pine tree with these pink roses in front.

Below are some process shots:

 

After I got home, I made a few slight adjustments.  It was hard getting a photo which really captures the color and texture of this painting:

"Carefree Delight", 8x10, oil on prepared board

 I'd worked fairly quickly on this one and with the sun was beating down I got pretty warm, so I retreated to the perennial gardens  where I could sit on a bench and be in the shade. I decided to paint the white flowers and the yellow daylilies - process shots below:

 Here are both paintings before I packed to head home:

 I adjusted this one a tiny bit at home also:

"Perennials", 8x10, oil on canvas wrapped board

It was a fun day! I can't believe we have had such good luck the last few weeks with the fantastic Saturday weather!

More Tinker Time! Folding Hanging Painting Palette

I enjoy the process much more than the result sometimes. This goes for both my painting time and tinkering around the studio with projects. I get a lot of 'painting gear' envy when I see what other artists are building/using online. I am always trying to build something similar cheaper. If the design works for me, then I may buy the real thing.

I own several different styles of oil painting palettes or pochades. Most have the panel holder directly attached to the paint mixing area. I find that a bit confining and wanted to try out the style that has these separate such as the Coulter Art Box and Panel http://artboxandpanel.com/ or the Joshua Been Prolific Painter http://www.joshuabeen.com/prolific-easel/prolific-easel-painters but my budget doesn't allow me to purchase these well made products. I would prefer to put my money into the paint.

I've been thinking about building my own for some time, so finally did it! My version cost me about $40 in materials. Most of that was hardware - hinges, screws, etc. and for the rest I used a luan plywood panel, 3/4" square dowels, and some odds and ends from the junk drawer. I worked on the design for the hanging hook for a long time, going through at least 5 different designs. It took alot of trial and error, and fitting it to my particular tripod. If I had the right tools, such as a band saw, I could make it exactly like the online versions, but I am limited in my wood working tools. And I only own a chop saw - no table saw - so I cut my luan to size with a utility knife!

 Unfortunately, Home Depot did not have enough of the lighter color dowels that were straight and true, so had to buy one that was a darker color wood. I'm not too concerned with that as I know it will soon be messy with my oil paints.

Mine is not as pretty as the online versions, but for the BIG price difference, I'll use this for awhile. If I really enjoy this style, I may eventually buy one ready made.

Saturday Plein Air - Dawes Arboretum

Another beautiful Saturday for painting! We had a nice size group of painters today at Dawes Arboretum in Newark Ohio. I took many reference photos of scenes, but not many of the other painters because we were spread out all over 1,800 acres.

I decided to work on my pastels today and wanted to keep things loose and colorful. I had a couple of failed pastel paintings on UArt sanded paper that I wanted to reuse. Last night, I brushed off most of the pigment and then used a wash of mineral spirits to dissolve the rest back into the grit.

I feel I had a very successful day. Below are process shots of my first pastel of the day:

"Tall Trees", 6"x9", pastel on 320 grit UArt

Then I moved about 150 yards to the east and painted the barn in the distance:

"Farm Lane", 8"x10", pastel on 400 grit UArt sanded paper

Saturday Plein Air - Olentangy Park

It was a glorious day for plein air! We finally had a nice morning - sunshine and 70's. We painted at Olentangy Park. I did a 6x6 casein painting on Multi-media board and a small pastel on Multi-media board for pastels.

Please Visit my New Web Page!

With some pushing from my artist friends, I finally have a web page! Please check it out!

http://www.nancyvance.com/

Saturday Plein Air - Red Bank Marina

Another cold and rainy Saturday. We just can't seem to get a break - of course, I will be complaining once it gets too hot! A handful of us showed up at Red Bank Marina and luckily there is a covered picnic shelter.

I got started and got to the point where I was 'noodling' too much.

 I wasn't happy with the way this was going, so I took a paper towel and wiped off the right side of the painting and softened the left hand tree.

 Much better! I will use that trick again! Then it was much easier to get to a finish I was happy with:

Red Bank Point, 8x10, oil

Painting Retreat 2014

Just back from my COPA painting retreat that I have been organizing this year. We had a great time and everyone seemed to enjoy it! I was a bit distracted being in a new place, making my painters comfortable, and then trying to find a spot to paint! So I only painted 3 paintings.... and one of those was inside using a still life setup since it was a bit rainy.

 Forgive the pink photos, I was having a hard time seeing the scene on my camera screen and changed to a different setting.