Plein Air Thursday

Yeah!!!!! The weather has finally improved!  And the art society that I belong to has been going out plein air painting.  They have a full schedule of sites for us to go to each Thursday from 9:30am - 12:30pm.   

I went out the last two Thursdays with my friend Sherida who is also part of the art society.  The first Thursday was a bust.  We went to Knox Park in East Aurora, NY.  It was sunny and 50 degrees when we started but by the time we were set up to paint it was 45 degrees, windy and cloudy.  You can call us fair weather painters because it was not fun being out there in the cold, so we packed it in and went to Sherida's house for lunch:)  We did take a little walk behind her house where Casa Novia Creek runs and I found the best photo reference for a tree house.  It was actually a deer stand, but to me it looked like a tree house to me, so I made it into one!  I decided to do a little study of it.  You never know when that little study might come in handy for a picture book!

The next week was much better!  It was 60 degrees and sunny the whole time.  We went to the same spot and this time it was beautiful.  It was full of life with bees buzzing around, birds singing, and dogs coming through with their owners, their tongues flapping out of their mouths in happiness.  So many wonderful things to paint!  Usually plein-air paintings are of landscapes or tree portraits, but there was just too much life around me to paint those things.  So I did a few little paintings of the animals I saw that day!  

There is another plain-air trip today!  Can't wait to see what I will discover!  Enjoy your Thursday, I know I am going to enjoy mine painting:)

  

Portrait Group

It has been said that there is no better exercise than to paint from life.  It teaches you to observe and analyze your subject and make decisions on the spot.  I learned this in graduate school and I would agree, it's one of the best ways to improve yourself as a painter.  The problem is.... how do you find a way to do it regularly? 

Well, I am lucky enough to have a portrait group in my area that is run by the East Aurora Art Society, of which I am a member.  Despite my busy schedule this winter I have been able to make it to a couple of the Friday sessions and have been so inspired by the experience I wanted to share it with you all!  Above you can see one of my paintings and a little bit of my process.  I blocked in the shadow shapes first to try and capture likeness.  I was working with a limited pallet of colors and I did not have violet, or anything to make the violet color of her scarf, so I had to borrow a dab from a friend.  I love the triadic color scheme it created.  When I was done with this painting I thought I could use this study to create a "mom" character for one of my picture books.  She looks young and fresh and very French with her scarf on her head.     

    

At portrait group there is usually about 5-8 of us and a model in the basement of this quaint church in East Aurora, New York.  

It's a rather simple setting of a yellow cinder block Sunday school room, but once we begin and are focused on our subject I find more than enough inspiration in the model who is sitting right in front of us!  I paint in oils on canvas paper because I only consider these to be studies and I am experimenting with a limited pallet to see what I can produce.  The sessions go about 2 hours with a little break in the middle for the model to grab a drink and for us artists to gab a bit.  I can't decide what I like more, the painting or the conversation between the artist, all of whom are there to improve themselves.   

 

Here are a few more my studies here for you to see.  To me each one represents a little bit of learning that is turning me into a better painter:)

Enjoy

Tschuss!