Plein Air Painting - Don't Fence Me In

Been pretty quite here. Well - in my art world. The rest of my life hasn't been quiet at all. I always swear I am not going to get too busy and let my calendar get too full, but its out of my control a lot of time. Since school started, its been one thing after another and this month is going to be nuts.

Starting off the month though, its me time! I'm heading back to Kerrville, Texas for their second annual paint out event. Last year, much to my own amazement, I won the grand prize for the painting below (still available!)

Don't Fence Me In
11x14 oil on panel

I'm excited to go back again and have access to some beautiful private ranches and spend time in the scenic hill country of central Texas with lots of other like minded people.

I haven't picked up a brush in a week or more. Hope I remember what to do when faced with the great outdoors and miles of options!

Foggy Top

11x14 oil on panel
$500 unframed
Available from my studio

This was such a beautiful setting. I saw it driving in and out of Bushwhack Road in Kerrville and wanted to paint it. The morning I did so was very foggy. The fog would move in and out over the hillside and I wanted to capture that haze, the muted tones and the lost edges of the hillside. The little metal roof sometimes would just glow too. Now, tonal paintings are not my forte' but I often like to try a higher "key" painting and this was a good exercise. I had a couple of fun ladies pull over where I painted along the roadside who were thrilled that I had chosen this subject. They'd often thought it needed painting. Another person pulled over to see if I had car trouble. Nice people out there in Kerrville.

Mike's Tractor

11x14 oil on panel
sold

This was my second painting of the weekend paint out. My first is really not worth showing - or keeping. But this tractor and old gnarled oak just intrigued me. It was a challenging scene to paint. I was sure I wasn't going to be able to do it. AND my new friend Mike wanted to watch me work! After a rocky start, I settled down and figured out how to paint the tree and the background and then began to make some marks on the tractor until it began to look like a tractor! Its loose and colorful. Sometimes its a lot of fun to leave things in the sketchy phase and don't retouch those bold color "test" marks. 

I'm about to head out to another type of farmland - Indiana - to celebrate my inlaws 50th wedding anniversary. Will be mixing a little business in there and plan to meet a collector about a commission of her favorite restaurant. What a cool job I have! :-)

Road Block

10x10 oil on panel  
$425 framed
Available at the Kerrville Arts & Culture Center

Another painting from my weekend in Kerrville. This one also hangs in the show at the KACC until Nov. 3. Just like my figurative works, I prefer closer views to vistas when painting outdoors. This sunny ranch road and gate looked so welcoming hugged by all the bright greens of the surrounding trees. 

Don't Fence Me In

11x14 oil on panel
$700
Available at the Kerrville Arts & Culture Center

What a weekend! My painting above won first place in the plein air painting event judged by Albert Handell. I am "gobsmacked" - to borrow a fun word from the Brits. Its a good word. I am still so amazed. There was a lot of talent out there - some 70 artists attended I think - and some really lovely paintings were created during the event. I am thrilled for the KACC for putting together such a good event. I hope they continue and I will definitely go back. We had access to some amazingly beautiful hill country properties. 

Above is the painting in progress along with a cute couple of goats that roamed around keeping us company. I just loved the ramshackle scene and the old gnarled oaks. I was more comfortable than ever working outdoors and didn't get lost or forget how to paint. I was able to apply what I normally in the studio quite naturally. BUT I stopped before I thought I should. LOL
That might be the key. I loved the looseness of this scene. I didn't want to go too far. 

Albert Handell (in the cap above) was the judge and he is leading a workshop in the area this week. I left three paintings at the KACC and if there are sales a percentage goes to support the excellent art community and arts center in Kerrville.

I've put a photo album of the event on my Facebook page - check it out!

Weather Beaten

14x18 oil on linen

This is an oldie but goodie. I don't know why it hasn't found a home, except that its been in my studio for almost 2 years. I personally love it and am proud of it. Anyway - today I submitted it to the Oil Painters of America and maybe they will accept it in their 20th annual national exhibition. The audience in Coeur d'Alene, ID should be right for it.

Moses Botkin Monthly Challenge

Our challenge this month was to paint anything we liked, but on a 6x8 support and only with a half-inch brush! Diabolical! Actually, I paint every painting with just one brush, but use a smaller one - a 6 instead of an 8. I think I am just lazy. The artists I paint the model with on Mondays were surprised to learn that. They were aghast when they heard that I don't clean my brushes either. I use OMS (Gamsol) and just swish my brushes in there until they look good and lay them down and walk away. I don't use expensive brushes and they get a lot of abuse I suppose. Using one at a time until it flays out finally or the ferule loosens. I like a synthetic too actually, with a crisp edge.

Now, on to my painting. This horse was turned out one morning during our visit to the dude ranch two years ago this fall. The background was very Texas hill country. Dry scrub. And when I was flying in this past weekend and looked out the window, I was momentarily surprised because the ground looked almost like snow. The colors were so pale and muted. Lovely in their way.. and I wanted to try to capture that in my background here.


Facing the Morning Sun
6x8 oil on panel
©2010 Robin Cheers




Onion
6x8 oil on panel
©2010 Aaron Cordell




Bright Bales
6x8 oil on hardboard
©2010 Diana Moses Botkin




Bling Pouch
6x6 oil on canvas
©2010 Suzanne Berry




Still Life
8x6 oil on canvas
©2010 Vicki Ross

Salado Ranch

Today I went to a private ranch out near Salado which is north of Austin. I tagged along with V....Vaughan - my job was opening gates and such. Gorgeous place. I have to say that I don't think I've ever seen as many varieties of wildflowers as we have blooming now in central Texas. After such a brutally hot summer and a long drought, its a real relief. Its still relatively cool too, though I did get a bit of a sunburn.

Pretty pleased with my little ranch studies. And being surrounded by the munching angus, longhorns AND horses was quite peaceful.

I painted two scenes almost simultaneously actually. I had a 12x9 panel but wanted to paint smaller. I also liked two views so I just divided my panel in half worked back and forth between them.

Anyway - see below. I'm a little too distracted this evening. I found a tick on me and even after a shower I feel like my skin is crawling.








Ready for his close up! Handsome isn't he? :-)

Artists Retreat

We had a wonderful painting weekend in the Texas Hill Country. I joined about 20 other artists at a really cool little "camp" - Roddy Tree Ranch - on the Guadalupe River. I painted and sketched all around the area, some on the river and some of the cottages on the "ranch" site. There were some beautiful views... as well as horses, donkeys, old tractors and cars, and colorful characters.

It was so nice to just wake up and have nothing to do but get my breakfast and walk out to paint. I worked on site for awhile, then we headed out to explore more of Ingram and Hunt, and eventually drove further out FM 1340 which has to be the prettiest drive in central Texas. It was just lovely.

I won't blog everything, but for those who can get on Facebook, I posted lots of photos of the area and some of the fun things we saw on the way.

I have to say, I am rusty when it comes to landscape painting. And everything was such bright colors... sometimes I felt like a kid with a box of crayolas. And part of Saturday was so windy! Wow... luckily that died down and we really couldn't have asked for better weather.

Below are my paintings/sketches. I learned on the last two to stop fiddling and leave it loose and incomplete.


First painting of the weekend... one of the cottages prettily lit up with morning sun. Not exactly how I captured it though. The sun is so very bright, that judging value is hard.


I set up to paint the horses/pony/donkeys - whichever was going to pose well... but some other artists joined me then and the animals got curious and continually milled about keeping an eye on us and begging for treats and scratches. So I did this quickie of the pony with a halo of sun around him.



Trucked our things into a narrow, wet path alongside the Guadalupe river to get a view of these falls. Dropped my brush in the edge of the water at one point. No other major mishaps though! You could tell it had flooded recently... a canoe was stuck with a bunch of debris halfway up a tree.



Ok - I was wearing out here maybe. I had such great views of the other artists at work here, but the green was so bright, the water so blue, etc. that things ended up looking very childish. I almost scraped it off, but actually, it probably has some merit with another hour of work. I realized here that I quit too soon.... give up too easily.



Took ONE more stab at it Saturday evening. I saw this view Friday when we'd arrived. 24 hours later I went back to this site knowing the shadows would be long with the sun getting lower in the sky (6:30 ish) . I suppose I had thought about it long enough that I had it in my head and my hand knew better what to do. I was pretty pleased with my results here. Also decided to not define everything, but to just focus on my center of interest. I worry too much about filling in the canvas/board.



Sunday morning, we went back to "my view" and I painted a house on top of the hill this time! This hill is above the river, which flows pretty much west to east here... so we were in a great spot to paint long shadows on the ranch.

I am so glad I went - what a great group we have in Austin - now over 100 members! They have paint outs weekly in some very interesting areas around Austin - lots of great ideas and companionship come out of it. I'm going to keep my plein air set up packed and ready and get out more regularly. Its good to get out of the studio and talk to people in real life some!

Brotherhood

12x12 oil on canvas

Available at Dutch Art Gallery Oct. 17th - Nov. 30th as part of the Daily Painters of Texas group show.

This is one I am really excited about. Very colorful. I loved the light I caught. Just one of those "ahhh" moments!

Rider Approaching

12x12 oil on panel

Continuing my theme here with riders and cowboys. I wonder if one of my galleries will want any of these? Ah well... I'm enjoying myself.

I thought I'd update you about my husband's health. We did finally get a diagnosis - CIDP, though we don't know if the (C) is for sure (chronic) until it happens again. What it is is an autoimmune disease where the myelin sheath that protects your nerves are being attacked. The treatment, which he begins tomorrow, is IViG (immunoglobin) which hopefully turns off, or gets rid of the bad antibodies. Its all a bit more complicated than this, but this isn't the time/place for lengthy medical analysis. We are hopeful that the infusions will help and he will soon feel better. He has two in a row this week, and then we wait and do another session in two weeks, and so on. Thank you to all who have expressed your concerns!

Weather Beaten

14x18 oil on linen

I really wanted to capture the effects of our Texas sun here. Not just in the glare of the barn yard, but in the worn and weathered look of the woodwork, the baked earth and the cowboy's features. I had a lot of fun with this painting. I think that painting something I would not normally pick was a good excuse to push myself and to take some risks. I put in heavy thick strokes of pure white, left the intense blue in the shadow and had it bouncing in other areas and I put my focal point rather far left in the painting. I like it.

Trail Boss

30x36 oil on canvas

I really have no idea what came over me today. I painted two small paintings of dogs then began to look through my photos for more. I came across some ranch dogs. And the ranch horses. And the next thing I knew I wanted to paint a large horse. Talk about something completely different. I have always loved horses and spent most of my youth doing anything I could to be around them. I had a nice looking chestnut quarter horse like this. Actually, Tasha was bigger and less elegant looking. Horse and rider are on the trails out in Bandera on a crisp March morning.

Bull Creek Study

8x8 oil on panel

This is a painting I did last week at Bull Creek when I did the one below. This was a very quick study as I decided I'd try to just block in the big shapes and worry about details later. Something Kevin Macpherson demonstrates in his first book.
The sky was a truly beautiful solid cerulean blue which is pretty typical of Texas. Big, blue, cloudless skies that stretch from horizon to horizon practically. We have "scrub" here and I've gotten so used to it that I feel rather claustrophobic in heavily wooded areas with big trees.

I was supposed to paint out today with Plein Air Austin again, but the weather (32 NOW!) and my daughter(sick again) kept me home.

December Morning

8x10 oil on panel - sold

Another plein air piece. It was COLD this morning too! I wiped off several starts and then finally decided on trying to stay in the same color family and block in large shapes and not muck about with color changes between bare trees, cedars and fall colors. I've sort of forgotten all my plein air painting techniques. I used to paint landscapes on site a lot, but its been many years and its not like riding a bike. I have to start from square one again.

Cedars

8x10 oil on panel - sold

This was done on site. And boy did I struggle. I have not painted outdoors, or landscapes, in a very long time. I moved several times and wiped off a couple of starts and was eventually inspired to do the cedars by Qiang Huang who was also out with the Plein Air Austin group on Saturday morning. These trees are quintessential Hill Country. And soon will be producing the pollen that cause most of Austin to have Cedar Fever.

Its rather an abstract little painting, but not as bad as I expected it to be when I got home. If you are interested in purchasing, send me an email.

Deer sketch

This morning on my walk with Macy, I saw several deer resting under the oaks. Since Macy can't see now, she doesn't get all excited and disturb them. We live in the 'burbs, but we have a lot of wildlife all around. There is still a lot of undeveloped land, canyon land and hills, so there is a habitat for the deer. They are pretty used to people too so they didn't mind at all when I lingered with my pencil and scrap paper. It was a fun exercise to then try to paint what I remembered.

My teacher here in Austin, Elizabeth Locke, once told me of her professor who set up a still life on one floor of the art building and made the students set up their easels on another floor. They had to go up and down stairs to see their subject in order to paint. That made them work very hard to commit what they saw to memory and be very sure about every stroke. I can think of a whole lot of reasons that would be exhausting.