No April Fool's

I got out and did the first real plein air of the season yesteday with a small 8 x 10 oil on canvas panel of a clump of daffodils I planted as a lark last fall. I found a bag of bulbs in the garage purchased Zeus only knows and got them in the ground before the frost. Up they came so looking for a motif their it was. Not bad but I am not happy with the grass. I need more practice with grass. Must do more daffodils while they are around.

10-11: Plein air artists

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009910119990 This is a story from the Toledo Blade Sunday Oct. 11, 2009 about local plein air artists and the joy of plein air painting. The Ohio Plein Air Society is mentioned and I am interviewed. It is all part of spreading the word to the world. I am but a voice that cries out from the wilderness!

Teaching Plein Air

I started teaching a small plein air class at the Dairy Barn Art center in Athens last Saturday and ever Saturday till November 7. Just 3 students so far and all are artists who want to get more pratice in plein air. Teaching is the best way for me to learn new things. I lectured about equipment, surfaces, paints and brushes, and we than went we and painted outside for an hour in the beautiful weather.

Time to Solo

Last Friday I had the opening and reception for my solo exhibition at Studio 4 in Nelsonville, Ohio. From 6 PM to 9:30PM about 60 people came through and 2 painting sold. I am pleased. I have 24 works: oil on canvas in frames and oil on water color paper in mats. Prices range from $1000 to $100.

The title of the show is Red Sun Blue Snow after the title of the largest painting, a 30 x 40, which is visible on the right side of the picture above. It sold as did a painting of a Italian stone cottage door at night. Everyone seemed to have a good time and the wine and cheese was consumed rapidly. A few of my friends came to offer there moral support which was very welcomed. The show goes on to October 24 so please come.

Columbus Museum of Art and OPAS Show

Last night was the opening of the Ohio Plein Air Society's juried group exhibition in the lobby of the Columbus Museum of Art. The theme was to document the Russell Page sculpture garden before it is destroyed by a new expansion project for the museum. About 40 to 50 of our artists submitted works and 18 works were chosen from 13 artists. A art auction will be held next Friday and part of it will go to the museum fund.
The opening went very well and I am sure many of the patrons of the museum were impressed by the quality and skill of our artists. I am very proud of this society.

30 Painting in 30 Days

On Sept 1st I decided to do 30 painting in 30 days to get myself motivated and to make up for lost time in August. Well 2 down and 28 to go. I don't want to just do 30 painting but to do 30 painting that use what I have learned this summer in Italy in the correct manner. Old habits are hard to break especially if they are bad habits. For example just jumping in and throw paint on the foreground, than back ground, back to foreground and oh yes some middle ground work. In other words have a plan and a method of get down a design, determine the values and where the darks and lights go, start from the back and get in down and move forward. Painting is a discipline, a Zen and sometimes excitement or impatience's can get in the way. I study a copy of American Artist Workshop, Spring 2008, article of Maddine Insalaco, one of my instructors in Italy and how she put down the overall design, blocks in with dark colors the major forms, puts in the light values, redefines the design, works the details with values and moves step by step to a completed work. Painting is the act of defining the problem (the subject) and arriving at a solution.

I have a painting now in the High Road Gallery in Worthington, Ohio as part of a group show of the Ohio Plein Air Society. Its a juried show. The painting was done shortly after I came back from Italy using the palette and techniques I learned there. I like it.

Columbus Museum of Art Exhibition

The CMA is hosting a plein air exhibition and art auction for the Ohio Plein Air Society beginning Sept 10 - 18th. Members of OPAS, myself included, have made plein air painting of the Russell Page garden which will be destroyed to make way for a new museum expansion. We have submitted our painting to a judge who will decide who will be in the exhibition in the museum. I submitted one which took about 3 hours last Thursday. First real painting since I became ill.

It looks it too :). I call it Garden as Teacher for there is a lot to be learned in plein air by painting this garden with its shape angles, solid geometry, sculptures, and foliage. Not at all like the gentle feminine landscape features of Italy or Ohio

Paintouts and things

The Ohio Plein Air Society has 2 paintouts this month and it looks like I will miss the one on the 8th since I have something like flu in my lungs. I was working on a studio painting of water lilies on a small pond near yesterday and began feeling bad with cold symptoms which lead to chest congestion and so on. Its time for the doctor and a wonderful health care "system". The lilies are, of course, inspired by Monet but its been an idea that has been nagging me for a while. I want to do some still life foliage works of pitcher plants. Since the pitcher is not a flower you can't call them "floral". They are growing in my bog garden so why not take advantage of them. Robert Mapplethorpe took pictures of pitcher plants but labeled them incorrectly as "jack in the pulpits". I should contact the Mapplethorpe foundation about this some day. Pitcher plants are phallic looking, especially Sarracenia purperia and Sarracenia alata, and carnivorous as well and very beautiful. As you can see in this photo the plants are kept in by an electric fence to protect the local dogs and cats.

Presidental duties and other things

I have been wearing my OPAS president hat alot lately since so many OPAS events are coming up in September. The Annual plein air competition at Lakeside/Marblehead, Ohio this year, the High Road Gallery exhibition and the Columbus Museum of Art Russell Page Gardent exhibition are all in mid September and lots of little details to work on. Emails flying and phone calls to get clear communication between organizers and artists established. And trying to paint. I was in painting at the Inniswood Metro park on the 19th of July and did two small works while a large annual tour was taking place. I was part of the park and the show. A live artist painting in the part was my exhibit, I was the art and making art.

This is a bed of flowers at Inniswood

I did a another of roses Crimson Bouquet

I am trying to use what I learned in Italy. Darks, grays, a feeling of distance.

The Trail to the Mountain

I pushed the darks to almost pure UM blue and grayed greens to push the trail back in to the forest. It worked.

Catching Up

I have been back from Italy for 2 weeks and am still getting my act together. I have been very negligent with my blog. I have been out painting trying to put to use the lessons learned in the Italian country side. Many of the exercises I did in Italy are just that: exercises to learn new techniques and concepts but a some have come out well. One already sold. A couple of other I hope to hang in a gallery in Columbus, Ohio. I could go on at length about how well the workshops were conducted by Maddine Insalaco and Joe Vinson of Buonconvento and how much I learned but that will have to wait till later. It was time well spent. The picture above is myself under a tent on the only day it rain on us located on a vineard near Montalcino. I am apply oil to acid free water color paper in the tradition of Valenciennes and the original landscape painter of the 18th century. It was very intense: up at 7 am, breakfast at 8, out the door to paint by 8:30 paint till 1pm, lunch in style till 2, paint till 6, critique at 7, lecture than dinner, bed by 10 and do the same again. It works.





This monochromatic study of the cottage of La Ripolina, Buonconvento was done with knife only and a mixture of burnt umber and zinc white. Values are everything. The sun is on the right and close to the horizon, shadows are deep and long, the sky reflected and scattered light. It was a challenge but fun.






This painting was done in a small stream near Montalcino in the morning with the sun on the left lighting up the right side of the stream bank and the tops of the trees. The greens contains chrome green which give a mint tone, a softer color.














This paint is the same scene but afternoon and the sun has move over to the right and now the left side is illuminated. It works well.

Two in one day and other things

Well i did two 9 x12's today of the same subject from the same vantage point. It a crabapple tree that is leafing out with small red flowers. I did the first one at 10 am and the second at 4:40 pm and what a difference the light made on the leaves. I will post a picture later. Experiments in brush strokes and colors.

The big one Red Sun: Blue Snow is will hang in the gift shop at Acenet in Athens, Ohio till June. It is also for sale on the Art of Ohio web site http://www.artofohio.com/home.php?cat=310 along with two others: Jeff's World (shown here) and New Philli Sunrise.

Prepairing for the Italian adventure. Packing and stuffing and reducing weight.

Red Sun Blue Snow

The big painting is finished as far as I am concerned. The ultramarine shadows and cad red spot of a Sun plus a little cad yellow pale mixed with white on the left hand hill set it off. I added a glaze of pale yellow/white with liquin to make a fog mist effect half way up the trees. Had to wait for the paining to dry first.

Trip to Italy

I am planning to attend a couple of workshops in Italy run by Maddine Insalaco and Joe Vinson of Etruscan Places. Its in Tuscany near Siena: Buonconvento and Montalcino. They are a week each but I will be there a month. I want to visit Florence and paint around and bring back some good work. I will be there from May 7 to June 8, 2009. I may Internet and blog from an Internet cafe or coffee house. My computer is staying home. Traveling light and I will disposes of whatever is unnecessary to bring home to save space and weight for paintings clothing included. More info at www.landscapepaintings.com

Rapids on the Hocking

I did this painting 11 x 14 on canvas panel late summer 2008 while holding a conversation with a gentleman who was waiting for the American Legion bar to open across the street. It is a good example of the left brain not knowing what the right brain is doing. The bar opened just as I finished.

big work

I have been working on a 30 x 40 inch canvas of a sun rise in fog. Its winter, ice, snow, haze, fog. More difficult than I thought it would be. The picture is the first layout with out detail. More to come.

The Dairy Barn Show: Athens Voices 2009

The show opened on Friday the 9th at 5 pm and by 6 pm about 150 people had arrived to see about 70 works of which 3 were mine. Many of my friends came and I received many favorable comments and some amazment from those who did not know I painted. The local newspaper, the Saturday Athens Messenger, Jan, 10, 2009, had a front page story with art photo (not mine) and my name was mentioned. It was fun .

A New Year:2009

Its a new year. A new year to paint much and paint well. A new year to experiment and learn and too apply what I learn on canvas. 200 new paints of all sizes is one of my goals, to sell is another, to attend workshops as often as possible with at least one in Italy. To make art my life for the rest of my life however long t

hat may be. To have a passion that does not burn out but continues to feed on oil, canvas, and work. A new year to live.

My Elysium Fields, oil on canvas, 9 x 12, 2008

I have 3 paintings in a show this January, the Athens Voices, 2009 art exhibition at the Dairy Barn in Athens, Ohio, Jan 9 - Feb 22, 2009.

The Road to the Old Barn, oil on canvas, 9 x 12, 2008

The Crabapple Tree, oil on canvas, 8 x 10, 2008

My Painting in Exhibition

Three of my oil plein air painting have been accepted for the Dairy Barn Arts Center Athens Voices, 2009 Exhibition, Jan. 9 - Feb. 22, 2009 in Athens, Ohio. This is a judged exhibition as well.

The Crabapple Tree