"The Bridge"

"Art is not what you see, but what you make others see." Edgar Degas
Another day of beautiful summer weather and plein air painting on Frogtown Road - not a very pretty name for a place.
When painting from nature I'm always conflicted by "what makes a good painting and what makes a good plein air experience?" In other words, plein air for me is observing nature, being inspired by the light, or the color or contrast, the composition, movement of shapes as they descend towards the background. And how does an artist adjust all those things to create a striking piece without strongly altering what is observed?
One way is to create the piece while observing nature and then use the piece for inspiration when back in the studio with controlled conditions and space, both physical and mental, to change what needs to be changed.
Marc Chagall said, "Great art picks up where nature ends."
Something to ponder.
Meantime here's one of my pieces from today.

"Shadwell Farm Bridge-late afternoon" 12" x 8" pastel

"Joy's Drive"

"The hurrier I go the behinder I get" Amish saying
I've moved my studio at Artists' Attic which has taken 3 days of my creative time which I should be using to get ready for Woodland Fair, but I just want the new studio to be "right" so it feels good to work in and looks nice for visitors.
Which means I didn't get to work on any pastels again today.
This is "Joy's Drive 3" from my trip to West Virginia and yes, I've drawn Joy's drive before but this is farther up the road and my point of interest is the bright area at the end of the road before it bends to the right. That can be a tricky composition because I'm putting the point of interest in brighter colors in the background which is an area that should have atmospheric lighter bluer colors to make it fade away instead of hop forward. Do you think the drawing works? 

"Joy's Drive 3" 8" x 12" plein air pastel on Wallis Belgium Mist sanded paper

Frogtown creek

"Good food, good wine, good friends and art - can't get much better than that." me
The Bluegrass Plein Air Painters met at Frogtown Road off Parker's Mill Road close to Versailles Road - in case you ever want to go there. (Oh yes, and after painting for 3 hours we met at Ramsey's for dinner--really fun evening.) The creek that runs along the road is beautiful - small, but with the cleanest water I've seen in Kentucky. The creek apparently runs through only horse farm fields because it has no mud or silt in it.
Today, we finally had a decent summer day without the horrid humidity that we've had all summer long and the sunshine was bright creating long dark bluish shadows as it set with golden light. 
This piece will probably get some touch up tomorrow after I'm away from it which always helps one see what really happens while working on it."The mountain is clearer from the plain." Kahil Gilbran

"Frogtown Road creek" 8" x 12" pastel on Wallis paper

VanMeter Road

No quote today. I had a follow up from cataract surgery laser procedure on my eye so I'm taking it a bit easy.
"VanMeter Road" was created in July as part of my prep sketching for the Run for the Bluegrass mini-marathon poster so it's technically not a "Pastel a Day".
I'll be drawing with the Plein Air Painters of the Bluegrass tomorrow night. Hopefully I'll have a piece completed that I can post.

"VanMeter Road 2" 20" x 9" pastel on textured pastel paper

Water house Shaker Village

"You are the sunshine of my life," Stevie Wonder
My daughter left today to work at the American School in Barcelona, Spain for 2 years. She's my sunshine and I'm going to miss her so much, but art is a great way to go someplace without leaving. So I go into my art and will seek the sunshine even more.
Here's the other piece that I created down at Shaker Village during the Plein Air Painters of the Bluegrass on the paint out.
I love this little water house building. It's the Shaker version of our modern water tower and inside was a large water storage tank that was supplied with fresh water from the pond below and the horses somehow by walking in a circle, hooked up to a wheel pumped the water up the hill and into the water tower. The funny little projectile coming out of the top of the building rises as the water rises. The Shakers were extremely cleaver especially for 1820.

"Water House" 8" x 12" pastel on Wallis sanded paper

Shaker Village Plein Air

"Almost heaven West Virginia" John Denver
I've been on vacation to my favorite vacation spot, Mingo, West Virginia, but today's image is from a plein air paint out that the Bluegrass Plein Air Painters had today at Shaker Village. Early in the day the sky was gray and trying to rain. I couldn't get inspired by anything because my interest is light and shadow. Finally after lunch when the sun shone, I created one piece that I liked and then another late in the afternoon. Late afternoon is really the golden hour when light and shadow produce luscious colors.
I've painted this house before but each time I try to capture the essence of afternoon light on the limestone building.

"Shaker Home August Afternoon" 8" x 12" pastel on Wallis sanded paper

July  has been busily distracting but now it's time to get back to business with Woodland Fair August 20-21 and then 3 fairs back to back in late September and early October.
Last winter I produced a "Pastel a Day" for 60 days and that was a very productive time, so I've decided to try it again starting with today's image. I'll also post some of the pieces from my trip to WVA in July. 

"Flora's Field Morning"

"Morning dawns rosy fingers...." anonymous
The Bluegrass Plain Air Painters met at Flora's farm for a Wednesday paint-out and of course I took my pastels instead of paint - they let me be a member anyway. :-)
I created a small sketch on Uart sanded paper to which I had applied a golden orange underpainting. The sketch was more horizontal and the format of the trees needed to be more square, so the next day I created a new larger version on a square format. The original little sketch is my favorite of the summer, so far, and I'm not going to sell it. I have a closet full of favorites and one of these days that closet is going to get too full......
I'll be showing this piece as well as lots of other new pieces at Francisco's Farm Art Fair, at Equus Run Vineyard, 1280 Moore's Mill Rd. Midway, KY June 25-26.

"Flora's Field Morning" 22" x 24" framed $650