Saturday Plein Air - Battelle Darby Creek metro park

I've been painting each Saturday, but posted on my Facebook Artist page instead of here. Sorry!

This week, we were at Battelle Darby Creek metro park near the nature center. It was way too hot to hike to find the buffalo, so most of us stayed in the shade at the nature center. I was looking through this opening to paint the couple of sycamore trees along the trail:

It has been a few weeks since I worked in pastels, so brought them today. I was using a piece of Pastelmat paper which was previously toned with gouache in a golden color.

It came together pretty quickly. I like it!

Saturday Plein Air - Velvet Ice Cream Olde Mill

We painted in Utica at the Velvet Ice cream factory, Ye Olde Mill. I worked in pastel on a Pastelbord, and although I shy away from architecture, I gave it a shot. Not too bad, but it needs more work. Not sure I will finish it though, as it is not a subject I will frame.

But we had really nice weather, a nice size group, and we had lunch/ice cream inside the mill. I stopped on the way home at Branstool orchards for Coral Star peaches which are huge! Never had this variety before. Can't wait until the one on the counter is ready to eat!

Friday Studio Play

I took today off work to wait for the delivery guys with a new clothes washer, and also the dryer vent cleaners. The dryer vent guys got here early - yeah! But the delivery service gave the dreaded "4 hour delivery window". In between, I watched a couple painting videos and then got into the studio.

I've been using black/white paint for working on my brush work in oils. Last week, I painted the scene below using 9 steps of values:

I commented on my Facebook page that I felt I could probably use fewer steps, so today I tried five steps:

 Yeah, that was hard. But then again, the value changes in my subject of peaches was more difficult to decipher.

Not great, but a good exercise!

Saturday Plein Air - Franklin Park

We were back at Franklin Park today. While most of the group was painting along the Grand Mallway, a handful of us girls were painting in the community garden. I setup in the shade overlooking this pot:

I worked in oils on a 6x6 Gessobord. Process shots below:

I'd planned on putting in the brick pillar to the left, but it made no sense to me in the painting and took it out.

Pot of Poseys, 6x6, oil on Gessbord

Saturday Plein Air - Stratford Ecological Center

We always enjoy painting at the center. But today was a scorcher! We were wore out by noon.

I setup in the shade of the pear tree and painted the view of the blue wheelbarrow near the sunflowers. I was working on a tiny 5x7 Pastelbord which was a wipe-off from a past painting. It had some nice ghost colors when I started. That helped to get over the usual "dreaded white panel" when starting a painting.

"Blue Wheelbarrow", 5x7, pastel on Pastelbord

Art Books and Magazines, and the Elusive Muse

It's rare for me to buy/keep art books or magazines. Over the years, I would hoard magazines expecting to get them out when I needed inspiration. I'd buy art technique books hoping each would make me a better artist. But I rarely READ them, mostly looking at the photos and then dumping them on a shelf. After moving a couple times, I realized I never go back to look in these, so stopped buying them and gave most away. I now live in a city that has two fantastic library systems available to me, where I can search online and ask to have my selections delivered to a convenient nearby branch.

Although I've always loved art, I never really got to study or learn about most of the big name painters. The internet and Facebook really has opened my eyes to some wonderful art and artists (both living and dead)! I click on many Facebook artists' pages and "Like" them so I can see what they produce.

Beautiful stuff, but makes me realize how lacking my skills are! I've had a bit of a dry spell in my own art growth for over six months. I am used to having a couple bi-annual periods where I can't get excited about my art, but this six month spell is really bothering me. In particular, I really want to improve my oil painting technique. I know it takes hard work and time spent working to improve. But it is very hard to do when working full time outside the studio. I need to jump start my ambition to learn!


Last fall, my friend Marianne had shown me a book by UK painter David Curtis, Capturing the Moment in Oils. What a great book. I liked it so much, I ordered it.

He has several other titles too. Although I really enjoy his work, again, I ended up just looking at the photos and not studying. I found he didn't have enough visual descriptions of technique and progress shots, so the book sat.

Recently, I decided I needed to look for a different painting approach (for me) and did a fairly wide library search for oil painting techniques. So many books out there! I narrowed it done to half a dozen or so, ordered them to my library branch, and gave the pile a look. Many of them had the same old format with the gear, the paint, the brushes, the composition, etc. That part I have down pretty good already. I was looking for a book which showed me works in progress to see how the artist went about working.

JACKPOT! Found someone who really excited me - another UK artist, Peter Wileman and his book Painting Light in Oils.

Enough progress shots to get me going. I Googled him and found a few short videos with him promoting his DVDs (there are two; one matching the above book available in US viewing format, but the other, "Inspirational Oil Landscapes", is not US viewing format).

Loved watching him work and how he holds the brush and applies the paint. That's what I need to work on - how to actually apply the paints! So hard to learn without watching someone. I did end up ordering the book so that I can put in sticky notes and highlight things, but I am torn as to whether the DVD would help more. I'll probably order it soon!  ;-)

Saturday Plein Air - Homestead Metro Park

BEAUTIFUL day today for plein air! We met at Homestead Metro Park in Hilliard. This is a really nice park. This was our first visit and everyone said it was perfect for plein air, with lots of interesting water views, buildings, and interesting terrain. The park ranger is arranging for us to have an exhibit this fall in their nature center.

I was using my new Strada Mini easel for the first time. I had the original larger size Strada, but found it was too big and heavy for me, so sold it and ordered the new size smaller. Perfect!

I worked for awhile and had to scrape off part of my painting. I decided to turn to a view to my right and that scene worked much better for me.

"Shallows Shadows", oil on board, 8x10"

The Trouble with Painting Architecture!

I try and try, but I just can't seem to paint architecture! I haven't given up, but it's frustrating and I need to find a different way to work. I tried working on two scenes with buildings this weekend in oil, and both were fails.

Today, I got out the pastels and zoomed in on one of the scenes to exclude the building and just show the hanging laundry.

"Laundry Day", 8x8, pastel on UArt 500

Artwork from Scotland Trip

I haven't posted what I painted while in Scotland! Because I took pastels and it was rainy most of the trip, I didn't get much painting done. 

This one was a larger piece (7x10"), with a house and barn to the right side, but it was really poor, so I cut it off. That's a plus for pastels - you can edit after you have painted!

 This was a pencil sketch from Loch Earn at St. Fillans of a cottage on the hillside.

 This was also St. Fillans. Pen with bit of watercolor pencils.

 This was just across the road from our cottage. Hills and lots of sheep (although I only painted 3)!

 This was painted off the deck at our cottage on the last full day, and the only day without rain! This is the largest piece at 8x10.

 This was the first day we painted, along a small waterfall. This was a cool place!

New Travel Post!

Check out my latest travel adventure on my travel blog!!
SCOTLAND!! 
http://nartizttravels.blogspot.com/

Saturday Plein Air - Park of Roses

Another beautiful but hot day. We painted at the Park of Roses and had over 25 painters today.

I've tried to paint the roses many times. I always get lost in the petals, so today I chose to paint a gnarly pine tree (my favorite tree to paint). The problem was that I had to paint way across the flower beds so I could be in the shade. The circle is around the tree I wanted to paint.

Wasn't really a problem for me. Here's a zoomed view:

Distant Pine, 6x6, pastel on dark grey Pastelmat

Finally a Nice Day for Plein Air

We've been having rotten weather on Saturdays for plein air. Finally the weather has shifted. I took today off work to make it a 4 day weekend, so I asked my friend Donna if she wanted to paint this morning.

We headed to Inniswood Metro park but never made it out of the parking lot! This view caught our eye:

Donna was smart, and setup in the shade under the trees in the middle of the parking lot. I decided to work out of the back of my car much closer. I didn't think the sun would be THAT hot.... ha. Here's a few process shots. I was test driving a new little tinkering project for a lightweight pastel painting surface:

I got this far and finally had to retreat to the shade with Donna.

We both got to the point where we were going to noodle around too much with details, so we decided to head out for lunch. Here's a shot of both our setups. It's an odd angle, so mine is not as tiny as it looks here.... My tinkering project needed tweaked so I modified it this afternoon and will give the new model a spin tomorrow.

 Here's how my painting turned out. I was just using NuPastels today as an experiment which led to the bold colors. A bit out of my normal palette.