Grand Opening of my New Studio

Busy fall. I've opened a second studio at Artists Attic, at Victorian Square, 4th floor, 401 W. Main Street, Lexington, KY. Gallery Hop is tonight from 5 - 8. Come see my new space. I'll also continue to work in my home studio - knowing where my latest art supplies and reference photos are located is good practice for the brain.

Compositional challenges are also good practice for the brain. Here are 2 new pastels from Shaker Village.

The first one "Shaker Home Fall" is a more traditional composition with the point of interest in the top 1/3 of the picture plane, however the house is facing out of the picture plane. So I decided to try another approach.

My second drawing is "Shaker Home with White Fence." This composition is unusual because I allowed the fence to run diagonally through the picture plane, dividing the image but allowing the house to face into the picture. This scene is what I actually observed and decided to see if it would work as a dynamic composition. Sometimes it is necessary to break the usual compositional rules and try something that may or may not work. 


What do you think? Which image do you like better. 

Both pieces will be on view at my new studio in Artists Attic.

Come down tonight for Gallery Hop and check it out.

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.