What's the Common Denominator?

"Adam's Barn"    pastel    16" x 20"    $575

These two images at first glance may not seem to have much in common and yes, sometimes I think my images are very divergent, but what do they have in common? Color. I love color and try to push the color farther than what my eyes see. My favorite artist in Lexington is Carolyn Hisel and Carolyn taught me in a Lexington Art League workshop to choose colors with my heart not my eyes.

"Monteccheillo, Italy"   pastel   14"x11"   $245

Both of these pastels will be shown at my final art fair of the season - KYMarket:Spotlight Lexington at Triangle Park. The show is in conjunction with the World Equestrian Games that are being held for 17 days at the Kentucky Horse Park. Downtown Lexington is having numerous cultural offerings including art, music and drama during the 17 days of the WEG. Come on down and see my newest pieces and the celebration of color at Triangle Park Oct. 7-10 10 am - 6 pm each day.

Italian Vacation and St. James Art Fair

"Tuscany Abbey Spinota" pastel 16"x12"

What does my vacation to Italy have to do with the St. James Art Fair? I'll be showing some of my newest drawings from my trip to Florence and Tuscany at the fair this weekend. Come see me in booth #912 on 3rd Street.  Sorry for the very blatant promotion but I'm off to set up for the fair in about 1/2 hour and don't have time for the needed narrative to tell you all about the wonderful places I saw and food, oh the food. Not to mention the wine.I observed so many things in Tuscany while working on my plein air drawings. For instance, can you see the plow lines in the hillside in the orange/tan field. Yes, the lines are going straight up the hill which a farmer in America would never do, but in Tuscany the land is very, very heavy clay and apparently it doesn't erode ( or already has eroded away all the top soil) and they plow with bulldozers. Yep, bulldozers! I saw one. So up the hillside they go. In the springtime this hill would probably be planted in wheat to make their wonderful pasta, of which I ate twice a day.

"Tuscany Farmland" pastel 20" x 40"

Olympic National Park

"Hiking Among Giants"   12"x8"   pastel

"Hiking Among Giants" is my studio drawing of my husband hiking while on our vacation at Olympic National Park. This piece is 12" x 8" but needs to be very large to help convey the size of these enormous and beautiful trees.


I think sometimes it just takes a photograph to convey the details but I plan on trying this one again. The next time I draw this image the hiker will be even smaller and contrast of light and darks stronger. A good reference photo can be used more than once and offer multiple possibilities for new drawings. I could focus on just a section of the image, or change the composition to a horizontal instead of vertical. The artist needs to keep in mind what was the inspiration for taking the photograph in the first place. 

"Glenn on Pony Bridge Trail, Lake Quinault, WA

Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill Again

Yes, I really love this place and the atmosphere is one of quiet contemplation where everyone is friendly and I feel completely safe when out hiking and drawing alone. Some of my pieces during the latest trip were quick studies of the clouds especially with the sound of thunder in the distance I knew I may have to make a run for the car.

My en plein air trip lasted from 9:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. and I started to run out of sanded paper. I've always told my students not to use just plain white paper but the 20 minute hike back to the car to get more paper was not appealing especially in 90 degree heat. 
Well, why not try the white sketchbook paper. It won't be a big loss if it doesn't work and I was pleasantly surprised.

In last month's blog I told you about taking photos of the completed pieces while I was still out in the field to show my customers. Yes, the customers were interested and the first 2 pieces I sold were from the Shakertown trip with the photos of the completed pieces along with the scenes.

Next week I'll have some photographs of Olympic National Park with the most glorious trees I've ever seen. 

En Plein Air Images

While trying to explain to a friend what en plein air means, Lynn said, "Oh, I get it. It means dragging all your s_ _ t outside with you." Yep, that just about explains it. And when I go drawing in the woods my day pack is filled with pastels, board, paper, pencils, sketch book, paper towels, baby wipes, rubbing alcohol, a paint brush, camera, drinking water, my lunch and  camera. I also take a stool and easel. whew! I recently met Bill Fletcher who told me he uses a real backpack which makes the load seem so much lighter and has lots of room for various items.
I also take bug spray. The woods are full of mosquitoes, flies, ticks and chiggers. Unfortunately, the bug spray doesn't work on chiggers. If anyone out there reading this blog has a great way to keep the chiggers at bay, please let me know. I'm chewed to pieces and am determined that those nasty bugs will not keep me from the woods.
But I digress from the reason for this evenings musings.
As I draw on location I've started taking photographs of my completed piece on location so the actual location is visible along with my drawing. I'm printing this image and attaching it to the framed piece of art work to show my customers the landscape that inspired the piece they find interesting.

I'll be showing 3 new drawings from my Shakertown series with the attached photos at the Crescent Hill Art Fair this weekend. I'll let you know next week what reaction I get from my customers. I hope they love the idea and the story.

Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill

Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill is also known as Shakertown, on Rt. 68 twenty-four miles from Lexington. These 40 miles of gorgeous hiking, biking and horseback riding trails will be my summer destination for plein air painting.
To help support wildlife the Kentucky Department of Natural Resources and Nature Conservancy are transforming into wildflower habitat some of the acres of fields which were farmed by the Shaker community in the late 1880's. 

This June has been the 6th hottest June on record in Lexington and very humid. I've stayed in my studio preparing new work for the 3 art fairs that I participated in but finally a wonderful Canadian high swoop down through Kentucky and brought cooler fresher air. 
Off I went to Shakertown and what a surprise to see the wonderful wildflower field full of black-eyed Susans, pink coneflowers and little white daisies.
"Wildflower Field 1" is from Tuesday morning and "Wildflower Field 4" was created on Wednesday morning by my alter-ego the one that loves abstracts.
I guess that goes back to my Pisces nature of 2 fish and two (or more) different approaches. The first piece was created on Kitty Wallis sanded paper Belgium Mist color and the second one was created on Uart sanded paper 400 grit with an orange acrylic wash.

I'm off to another art fair, Crescent Hill Art Fair in Louisville at 301 Peterson Ave. which is off Grindstead Drive. Come see some of my new plein air pieces.

On Location and Studio Work

If you have been reading my blog you'll know that I've been working recently in on location/plein air which means I drag all my pastels, paper, easel and lunch out on location to actively observe the natural world.

In May my husband and I visited a quiet state park in northeast Kentucky, Greenbo State Park. I loved the pristine environment, the lively all-day bird calls in the forest that surrounds the lake and the amphibians swimming across the lake - yep, snakes! We rented a little runabout boat the first day and I did some sketching from the boat as my husband fished.


The next morning I took my pastels to the lake to watch the sunrise and record the changing light and atmosphere. These sketches are small because the light and foggy atmosphere were changing so quickly.


When I returned to my studio I looked at the plein air work from my trip and realized that yes, this is what I saw at the time. It's a fairly accurate depiction of the scene but was it what I was feeling as I sat on the bank of the lake and watched the lovely sunrise, felt the mixture of early morning coolness and the warmth of the rising sun.


I decided to make a series of pastels based on the plein air experience but with more interpretation of how it felt to be there and not necessarily how it looked.

This piece is called "Greenbo Sunrise" matted and framed 12"x16". I feel like it says more about the experience.


Now my conflict continues, which is quite natural for a Pisces.  Do I continue to stuggle with capturing that moment in time and focus on plein air pieces or do I use my plein air/on location pieces as a record of that moment and reference for more interpretive studio pieces? This is where I'd like to clone myself so I could be at both places. For now the struggle will continue, I'll do both as the weather permits and enjoy the challenge.


I'll be showing "Greenbo Sunrise" at Francisco's Farm Art Fair in Midway, KY this weekend, June 26 & 27. If you're in the area drop by booth #24 and say hi.