WEstcliffe views- continued

After our morning of music with the Governor we broke for a quick lunch. Those who wished could gather at the Third Street Gallery. Curt Gillespie would lead us caravan style out to the Grape creek area on the east side of town toward the Wet Mountains. WE met around 1:00. The site to which we were going was on private propery. Let me say the SAG, Sangres Art Guild, gave us a map when we arrived with sites designated and named where local people would allow us to paint on their property.

The creek area had  a variety of scenery to choose from. It had streams, trees, shade, rocks, vistas with mountains and blue skies. So we wandered around searching out good spots. I found a place on a rock put up my easel, chair, and pastel boxes. I have a Heileman box as my main box, filled with mainly Terry Ludwigs, Schminke's and Senneliers  (all the wonderfully soft pastels). I also have boxes of nupastels and my prize Roches all divided into various value and hue groupings. Had to struggle to get my umbrella slanted just so to provide the shade I wanted. I wanted both my pastel surface -Wallis board. and my pastel box to be shaded. Finally, this did not go smoothly and took some time.

I began blocking in with nupastels, using primarily the complements of the hues which I saw. If I saw green I would use a variation of red. I blocked in 3 values primarily the deepest value, medium value and the lightest. Just as I was getting into the rhythm a gust of wind came up and turned my large box of pastels upside down on the ground. I now had many broken pieces of pastel with which to work and had to quickly reorganize my box and get myself set up. A plein air painter races the changing light and must just go with whatever the environment throws at them. I raced time and finally resolved some issues and finished. I had perhaps 2 hours of painting this view with my wrestling with my equipment.

Thus ended Friday. We were to select 3 of our  best pieces, frame them and bring them to the Third Street Gallery Saturday morning to be judged by Mark Daily. Saturday late afternoon awards were to be announced.
We finished our day as we began it- being serenaded by our singing cowboy as we ate dinner.

More Plein Aire Arty Adventures

Continuing on in this past summer's plein air adventures.__ Working plein air is so important for my craft. Solving visual problems in a 2 or 3 hour sign is invigorating. It forces me to  make rapid decisions, because the light is changing, and I learn  to trust my artistic judgement about color and line.
Last year Henry Meininger offered his ranch to the painters enrolled in the Colorado Plein air event. I was unable to take advantage of his offer because I was out of town. I heard it was a good event and looked forward to being able to participate this year.

Henry Meininger and his store Meininger's is well known in Denver. His store is the primary art supply store in Denver. Henry donates and supports the artistic community in many ways. One way is to offer his families cabin for a day of painting. The land which surrounds the cabin offers so many interesting views.

Artist's Painting a view

There are rock walls,(nature formed), rushing icy water, meadows and forest views. We artists wandered around locating where we would like to plant ourselves for a 3 hour stint.

Some artists found the color they wanted near the parking area. 

I found my view across the lane from Henry's and through the trees. I can't wait for next year and I would love to tackle those stones and water. Unfortunately for us gray clouds , wind and sprinkles halted our afternoon plans. All in all a glorious day in the life of a sometimes(fair weather) plein aire painter.

http://www.meininger.com/

http://gtmd.org/colorado-plein-air/

The True Size of Things

"The Goldenrod near the Garden Chair" 14 1/2" x 8"

This clear soft air of autumn has given me time to ruminate about this and that. One of those, thises or that's is how technology has made the relative size of stuff equal and has that affected our judgement or not. I thought of this when I reproduced this rather small plein aire painting I did of my friend's August garden. On the computer screen it suddenly had a larger presence. Then last week while I was visiting Fredricksburg, Texas I got to see Scott L. Christensens painting "Winter Light". It is 70" x 70" but when you look at it on the site of Insight Galleryhttp://www.insightgallery.com/searchresults.php?exhibitionId=18&start=10  it appears to be one painting among many. You cannot begin to be as amazed as I was at the sheer weight of the accomplishment of painting such a lush and fresh painting so large. The joy of that painting was certainly in the real seeing as opposed to the virtual seeing. You can see it again on Scott Christensen's web site http://www.christensenstudio.com/3/artist.asp?ArtistID=15825&Akey=TVKNT9F5 If you hit on Galleries it opens with "Winter Light" alone on the page. It is a treat to see.
I don't know quite where I am with this ruminating but perhaps a small orchestral crescendo should be played with paintings like "Winter Light". Or perhaps going to galleries and museums have real solid value and understanding toward accomplishment. I encourage you to get out and see real art whether small or large!

One Day Off but still celebrating!

"Pommes vertes" c 1873, Musee d'Orsay

The 19th of January was the official day of  the artist Paul Cezanne's birthday. He was a master of making form solid. He did not use optical devices to create the illusion of form but rather attempted to create form by exaining all sides. This is an early painting of his that shows his love of form.
In a book entitled "A guide to Impressionist Landscapes" by Patty Lurie, a book designed to be used on a self designed walking tour, (Tours of sights artists painted long ago), I found sites Cezanne painted early in his career. When Cezanne was turning away from the use of black in his early Spanish influenced paintings he trailed around with Pisarro absorbing the use of lighter colors and painting out of the studio. He rented a place in Auvers, near Dr. Gatchet. Yes the Dr. Gatchet who later was to unsucessfully treat Van Gogh. Gatchet's house for 40years was a gathering place for artists; according to Ms. Lurie.

Ms. Lurie also points out the brighter colors Cezanne is allowing himself with which to paint and the fact that he is more interested in the forms of the structures rather than any wandering farmer or peasant the might be in the vicinity.

This painting was included in the first Impressionist Exhibit of 1874. To catch up on more of Cezannes' life and influence I include these 2 links. Enjoy and Celebrate! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Cézanne http://voices.washingtonpost.com/blog-post/2011/01/paul_cezannes_birthday_celebra.html

What Plein Aire artists do in the Winter

They put on warm stuff and go outside. Check out Stapleton  Kearns blog, which I have been following as he bravely pushes into the coooooold elements. http://stapletonkearns.blogspot.com/.

Here in Denver until this past week we had luxuriously warm winter weather. So with some fellow artists, instead of staying inside painting a model, we went outside. One of our fellow artists discovered Belmar Lake and we put on our heavy boots and bundled up a little ( eat your heart out Stapleton!).

Heather and Shelby are setting up and looking around. Shelby was the artist who clued me into this site. I love it because we are in the city but it feels like we are

much more isolated. Geese of course were everywhere.  Horses could be seen being ridden on the other side of the lake, walkers were out and stopped by to note our progress.

Now that warm January day is but a memory. I am heading to a much more southern beach this coming weekend. Puerto Vallarta here I come! More beach pictures to come in the future!       

http://stapletonkearns.blogspot.com/

   

Artists Summer Play Fun

I remember those long summer days as a kid when my Mom would look at me and say , " Go  play with your friends today". I am still taking her words to heart and since summer days are here I am trying to play as much as I can. A couple of friends emailed and said they had 2 good models, good photo ops, time for painting and a picnic opportunity. So off to a Denver park we went, took photos, painted and noshed on good food.

We had a great time under the tall cool trees. Artists came with their grandchildren, who also painted, we were invigorated and we decided the following weekend would also be good.
 This past weekend was verr-ry warm here in the city. Luckily we went into the foothills which was 20 degrees cooler. I arrived in time to be told about a quite large bear that had lumbered into view of the paparazi-like arty photogs only to think better of it and move on out of there. We continued on painting and photographing a beautiful model, both inside and outside the mountain studio of one of our fellow artists.

 My colors were charcoal black and white as I forgot my Wallis paper, but the day was still lovely and we will be repeating the format again as it seems to be a winning one.  Where in the Denver  area ?---  but I will make certain to check and recheck my supplies - easel, Pastel paper, Pastels, tracing paper (for safely transporting a completed painting), tape, board for taping pastel paper to - what else? Sketching paper and charcoal in case all else fails. What are your most important items you bring when painting alla prima or plein aire? The most important ingredient is artists who enjoy working out doors and have a spirit of adventure. Hurrah for summer!