Dogwood Creek oil painting

"Don't be an art critic, but paint, there lies salvation." Paul Cezanne

I belong to the Plein Air Painters of the Bluegrass and since it's difficult to  plein air paint in Kentucky in the wintertime, the group gathers at Artists Attic for a paint in.

A couple of years ago in the middle of a very cold winter I was tired of pastelling in the studio so I put on all the clothes I could find plus foot and hand warmer and brave the cold and snow to work for about 45 minutes on some plein air pastels. Here is the image from February 2010.

Well, I also took photographs and used one to work on this oil painting this week in the warmth of the studio at Artists Attic.

As much as I enjoy working in oil I still prefer the soft edge and color control that I have with pastels, and no drying time!

"February Freeze" 7" x 10" plein air pastel

"Dogwood Creek Winter" 11"x14" oil

Pleasant Valley steps

"The position of the artist is humble. He is essentially a channel." Piet Mondrian

I had the students in my pastel workshop at Artists Attic create two images in one day. Yes, I had them working hard. :-)

The afternoon project was "Pleasant Valley" and here are the steps for that project. I've created images of this valley before but this time I wanted to emphasize the mowing lines in the field as a compositional element that leads the viewer's eye from foreground back to the shed and house area which is the point of interest.

As in the "Water House" demo, the little dots at the top of the image a for teaching purposes and will be matted off when the piece is framed.

"Pleasant Valley Evening" 8" x 12" on LaCarte sanded paper

Waterhouse demo steps

"He who has imagination without learning has wings but no feet."  Joseph Joubert
My first winter Pastel Workshop was last Saturday and I had 14 terrific students who worked so hard and created some really terrific drawings. I'm syked about having another workshop which will be Jan. 28.
Here are the "steps" for the "Water House" demonstration. I start the class with a less complicated image so the students can concentrate on layering colors over colors, focus on using the side of the pastel, and learn much pressure will create different thicknesses of the application.
If you'd like to create your own "Water House" using my steps, go for it!
Tomorrow I'll post the steps for the landscape demo that we all drew in the afternoon.

Draw basic shapes

Add shadows with indigo and denote sunny area with yellow orange

Layer in local color but keep it dark so the next layer will have something to play against.

The last layers of color are the lightest, like drawing with sunshine

Waterhouse Shaker Village

"What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter." Henri Matisse

This quote reminds me of Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, a truly lovely place. I love drawing there - it's so peaceful. The waterhouse is one of my favorite buildings and I've drawn it many time which is why I thought it would be fun to use it for the demonstration for my pastel workshop on Saturday. I'll post the "step by step" tomorrow.

If you remember my drawing of the waterhouse from last year you'll notice that this version is stylized as more of a children's book illustration than a realistic drawing. It's fun to change subject matter and make it your own. The little colored dots at the top of the drawing are part of the instructional demo for my class but I like the dots, so maybe I'll expand the dots all the way across the top and bottom.

"Waterhouse" 12"x8" on sanded pastel paper

Winter Scene oil painting

"Sometimes imagination pounces; mostly it sleeps soundly in the corner, purring."  Terri Guillemets

I attended a wonderful oil painting workshop conducted by Dan McGrath at Artists' Attic this past Saturday.

Here's the finished 8"x10" oil from the day of work. I started another one but it's only 1/2 finished and not "ready for prime time" yet.

I"m also going to try this scene in pastels. Bet it'll be better than this -- hope so, but the class was great fun to share time with other artists and be the student instead of the teacher.

"Dogwood Creek - winter morning" 8"x10" oil

"The longer you look at an object, the more abstract it becomes, and, ironically, the more real." Lucian Freud

The three biggies for a successful painting are 1) Composition  2) Color  3) Content

Today I worked controlling a mood through color choices.

The first of "Frank's Sheds" is suppose to convey a bright sunny morning with an upbeat mood using analagous colors of blue/green/yellow/orange range.

In the second one I tried to convey a quiet, hazy, thoughtful mood by using grayed colors in a split-complement color combination of blue/purple and a gray-green and a bit of accent color pink.

"Frank's Sheds 1" 12" x 8" on LaCarte sanded paper

"Frank's Sheds 2" 12" x 8" on LaCarte sanded paper

Going Down to Mingo

"If I could say it in words there would be no reason to paint." Edward Hopper

Today I attended a "Winter Images" oil painting workshop with Dan McGrath held at Artists' Attic in Lexington, KY. Wow, that was a powerful workshop and Dan's a great teacher.

But because I was painting in oils all day, I don't have a "Pastel A Day" to post.

Instead I'll post an image of the piece I have donated to the Living Arts and Science Center's fundraiser which will be held at Big Ass Fan's home office on February 11.

"Going Down to Mingo" 16" x 24" framed pastel to be auctioned at LASC fundraiser