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

"Woodford County Purple Barn"

"When I grow old, I'll wear a purple hat." or was it "I'll wear a red hat and purple shoes."

Whichever, I love purple and many of my customers ask, "Was that barn really purple?" Well, no, but it feels purple and beside black barns are boring.

I'll have this barn at Summerfair along with 2 other purple barns all lined up on the same wall. Hoping to get some attention. :-)

If the posting of this info and image isn't looking correct when it gets to my website I may have to start using ArtSpan's blogging site. Oh goody, something new to learn.
Between learning my new iphone and The Square which is a merchant credit card processor that hooks into the iphone (and yes, it's really something else!) my poor little brain is about fried on learning new things.
Back to the best part of my job, creating new pastels for my next show.
 I'll have 2 more shows in June. June 17-19, I'll be at Nashville's Centennial Park with the American Artisans Art Fair and June 25-26 I'll be back in my home territory at Francisco's Farm Art Fair at it's new location of Equus Run Vineyard in Midway. Wine to enhance your art experience - now that kind of change I can go with.

"Woodford County Barn" 16" x 20" framed on textured sanded paper

Tuscany images

"Good things come in small packages"

o.k this site isn't working quite right. I don't know what happened to my previous posts. So I'm going to add another post to see if it links ok. yep, I love changes.

At my art fairs I like to have a good range of sizes and prices. These are little framed 10" x 10" images from my trip to Italy last fall.

"Dogwood Creek Morning"

"When morning glides the sky, my heart awakening cries" hymn

It's been awhile since my last blog partly because something has changed with eblogger from Google and I had trouble finding it and signing in. Love changes.

So I'm off to Summerfair in Cincinnati at Coney Island off I-275 and Kellogg Ave. Booth 29K. The breeze will be blowing cool off the river and I have 2 great little fans that run on 18 volt rechargeable batteries from Home Depot.

This creek runs through our park which I run/walk through in the early morning and on this morning it was so beautiful that I had to walk back home, sweating all the way, and grab my camera and sketch book. Later in the week at my studio in Artists Attic using these two references I created "Dogwood Creek Morning." 

I'm still in a quandary about the best approach - pure plein air-creating the piece entirely on site or using reference photos and black and white sketches to help me capture the essence of the scene. I'll continue to battle with plein air to get that interpretation of the scene instead of just reporting what I'm viewing. On this piece I used an oil wash for the initial underpainting which is another goal - to be able to create an underpainting that is satisfying in it's own right, so I don't end up covering up all the underpainting with pastel.

"Dogwood Creek Morning" oil wash and pastel, framed 24" x 30"  $850

Red River Gorge Rocks

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes, Art is knowing which ones to keep." Scott Adams
My daughter climbs rock, very tall rocks, just for the fun and challenge of it. I don't get it but this quote reminds me of her recreation and there are no mistakes in rock climbing.
These 2 drawings are for a friend who is developing a product and needs drawings of Red River Gorge rocks. 

"Red River Gorge Rocks" 10" x 6"

So what do you think, Baesha and Kathy? Like either one???

"Climbing the Gorge" 10" x 6"