Georgia Mountain Farm

Afternoon at Stower's Farm 11 x 14

Last night at pastel class Marsha did a demo with watercolor underpainting. I wanted to do one too but I didn't have white paper...so maybe today I will. We had free choice of subject matter and I couldn't decide between this one and two caribbean scenes! I figured I should do this farm scene while it is still very fresh in my mind. This was from a photo I took at the farm we painted at during the Albert Handell workshop. I finished it today...though I'll bring it back to class for critique....feedback I mean!

A Busy Day of Painting

It was nice to have an extra day off so I could paint! Today I did these two using the watercolor underpainting. Yes, I ended up covering it all up! But it toned the white paper nicely! I really like working with my new Heilman box. I just have to share this funny story. I took my box into the art store yesterday and the cashier and a customer at the counter went nuts over it. My daughter thought it was so funny how we can get so excited over a box of art stuff! I wish you could see these in real life...they are much brighter and lighter than the paintings I have done on the belgium mist paper.

Mysterious Moss

'Mysterious Moss' 12 x 18

I am on a roll today! I started this painting weeks ago but never felt like finishing it. Today it called to me. This was from a photo I took on our painting trip to Providence Canyon. When we arrived at our cabin it was late afternoon and the light was perfect. We wandered down to the lake and I was captivated by theses moss covered trees. You would think it would seem ominous...but it was just the opposite. It was very quiet and peaceful.

MY PAINTING GOALS AFTER THE ALBERT HANDELL WORKSHOP

I've had some time to reflect on my workshop experience and what Albert & Anita said to me during the farewell critique. I've come up with some things I want to work on in my paintings. They felt that my strength was in intimate landscapes. They especially liked the plein air paintings I had done. They said I should stay away from ducks & shells! I won't do that though since I really enjoy painting birds. I will work on my landscapes though. I want my paintings to be subtle and have some mystery...not to be developed all over. I want the viewer to fill in the blanks. I want my colors to sing more...I will use more neutrals and try white paper more often. I want to be sensitive to my subject and try to have a delicate, sensitive touch with my strokes and my colors. I want to stay away from 'sweet' paintings....well, I can do those just for fun! I want to draw more and develop my drawing skills so that good drawing is evident in my work. That should be enough to work on for awhile!

After the Workshop

'A Promise of Spring' 11 x 14

I couldn't wait to paint something today! Yesterday I went to Dick Blicks and bought about 15 Schminke pastels...mostly greens...that Albert Handell said I was lacking. So today I tried a watercolor underpainting using a photo I took on our spring trip to Providence Canyon. This is at the Eufala National Wildlife Refuge. The trees were just beginning to leaf out at the time.

Painting the Deep Dark Woods!

'In the Woods' 9 x 12

On Day Four of the workshop we had the afternoon free to paint on our own. We were excited about returning to the river to paint the falls. So Marsha, Virginia, Jeannie, Randy, Bob and I headed out to the river with our gear. Unfortunately the weather wasn't looking very good. I decided to stick close to the car and set up near the picnic table with Virginia. After awhile the sun came out and I was able to do this painting...just in time though...another storm rolled in and we all quickly had to throw our gear into the car before the sky opened up....plein air excitement at it's finest! For this painting I used white wallis paper as Albert suggested. He felt it would make my colors 'sing' better. Today I went to our local art store and bought 15 schminke pastels....the greens he said I was lacking. Tomorrow I really want to try a watercolor underpainting so stay tuned for more!

Back from the Albert Handell Workshop

It's been quite a week! We started early each day and finished late. I didn't get to post to the blog every day so I will have to do a recap. Tomorrow I plan on reviewing my notes and taking pictures of the paintings I did at the workshop. I will be posting more over the weekend. Here's a picture of some of us painting at the Amicalola River on our free paint afternoon. We didn't want to wander far from the cars since it was thundering and threatening rain...although Marsha did brave it and went down to the little falls. We did get rained out but not before we each did one painting. Here is Virginia Dauth, Jeanie Crosby and my easel on the right. I will post my finished painting tomorrow.

Handell Workshop Day 3

It's been another long day! These workshops are hard work! This morning Albert did a demo with a watercolor underpainting and pastels. The top photo shows the pastels he used for this 'picture' as he calls paintings. notice all the purples (which he calls grey) Again I took notes and will share more when I get home and recover! Tomorrow we have a demo in oils and then the afternoon free to paint. In the evening we start our in depth critiques which will be interesting!

Albert Handell Workshop Report Day 2

It was a long day and a late night so I am posting this update this morning before I head out. Yesterday Anita and Albert did a demo and I took lots of notes and pictures. Here is a picture of Albert signing his painting. The top one is my effort. For critiques...Albert said I was on the right track...he took issues with my greens though. He thought I didn't have enough intense greens. So today he wants me to paint on white paper to make the clors 'sing' better. So we'll see what happens!

Albert Handell Workshop Report Day 1

I am reporting from Dawsonville, Georgia where I am attending a 5 day workshop with Albert Handell and Anita Louise West. It was a full day of learning and painting. Where do I even begin! I took notes and took lots of pictures and it will take some time to absorb and process everything! This morning Albert and Anita talked about how to organize your pastel palette and used a Heilman box. I loved their system...of course they had the Heilman boxes for sale and yes... I bought the backpack size! Wait until you see it! It is so small and light! This afternoon we painted on a wonderful farm...full of buildings and fields and horses. I could paint there all week. I did two paintings today... Above is a picture of Albert Handell critiquing my painting. He said it had a lot of nice things going on and he really like the way I did the tree. It was a successful day. Tomorrow we are painting in the woods all day...stay tuned for more!

Another Gesture Drawing...with color!

Jayne just knew I was chomping at the bit to color these gesture drawings in...so even though I have a million other things I need to do today I had to do another one! I don't have the reference photo so I did the best I could. Plus it is on canson paper which I haven't worked on in months. Canson is really not that bad! I'm not sure if I will be posting anything else this weekend. I am headed to the Albert Handell workshop in Dawsonville on Sunday and I will be gone a week! That's a long workshop! But I am going to soak up all the information I can and I think it should be a great experience. I am bringing my laptop so if the hi speed internet connection works I will be posting updates on the workshop.

More Palm Trees

Here's one more version of the palm trees I drew in class last night. I made the sky a coral pink and the palm leaves in shades of blue-green. They make an interesting pair. I really had fun with this and would love to do more! I liked doing the quick gesture drawing and then I tried to keep the same feeling and looseness when I added the color. It would be a good practice for me to try using colors I never use....and since these are on canson paper, I don't feel like I am wasting paper on experimenting.

Palm Trees in Color

That was fun! If you've read my previous post you will see that I decided to add color to my black gesture drawing of the palm trees. I had no reference photo so the colors are from my imagination. I can't wait to do the other one....what colors should I use???? I'll have to think about that!

Gesture Drawing

Last night at pastel class we did gesture drawings. Our teacher, Marsha, had a stack of photos to choose from and we had to quickly sketch our chosen photo. She wanted us to be quick and loose and no erasing was allowed. We were supposed to get just the essence of the scene down on the paper. At first we could only use a dark pastel, then we could add light and finally an intense color....but it all had to be line work...no coloring in! We will be able to use this idea for the gesture drawings when doing our thumbnails. It will be especially useful for getting a plein air painting started. If I have time today, I'd like to add color to these palm trees to see what happens.

Great Blue Heron

'On the Dock' 9 x 12

It was time to paint another bird! I fell in love with this photo of a Great Blue Heron on a dock. (wet canvas reference image library) If you've ever seen a Great Blue in person you know what a magnificent bird it is. I once saw one on the beach in Sanibel that was about as tall as I am! He looked me right in the eye before flying off. I did get a great photo of him which I will have to paint someday. This painting is small, only 9 x 12 on Art Spectrum paper. I might do it on a larger piece of paper.....A big bird needs big paper!

Finding Time to Paint

'Sunset Dunes' 9 x 12

It's been a busy weekend and I just couldn't find time to paint! I was busy getting ready for the Albert Handell workshop next week and making sure everything is in order for Corey's Graduation from high school. He graduates on May 26th and I will just be getting back from the week long workshop that afternoon. I did finally get a chance to paint today and I decided to try a sunset scene. I just finished reading in Carlson's landscape book how difficult it is to paint the colors of the sunset and make it look believable. I'm not sure I was successful but I did enjoy using these colors! Now I am warmed up so I will try to paint some more!

Tropical Breeze

Today I am just painting for fun...warming up to work on a larger painting I started last week. So what do I paint when I just want to have fun? A beach scene of course! I also painted a smaller version of my plein air irises to give to my mother in law for Mother's Day. I framed it in a nice gold frame and I actually like it better than my original. Hmmmm, maybe I'll have to keep it and do another one! I will try to post a work-in-progress shot of my big painting later. It is a night scene which is quite a challenge. I was inspired by the evening paintings of Doug Dawson and had to give it a try. Stay tuned!

Painting Moving Water

'On The Rocks' 11 x 14

At class last night we were working on painting moving water. I chose to paint from a photo I took of the Toccoa River during my recent Terry Ludwig workshop. The funny thing is that yesterday Jayne and Holly got together to paint and both chose the same scene! Keep in mind we all must have taken hundreds of river photos yet we all chose very similar photos to paint from! I love when stuff like that happens! So for this painting, I blocked it in with nupastels and then Marsha asked me where my focal point was...and told me to imagine I ony had 10 minutes to finish and to develop my focal point first....then when she came around again she had me work on the 2nd most important feature. I left the trees until last and really didn't do much more to them from my initial block-in. I really like this thought process for developing a painting and I will try it again!

Cedar Key Salt Marsh

I don't think I'll ever tire of painting salt marshes. They are just so peaceful and beautiful. I tried an experiment today that didn't really work. One of the things that Terry Ludwig told my teacher Marsha, was to make sure I don't get too formulatic with my colors. So to shake things up a bit I started this painting with a lot of orange(which I rarely use) It's still there but I ended up covering most of it and using my same favorite colors. Oh well...next time I'll try harder!

Another Plein Air on the Farm

I haven't painted anything new since Friday which is strange for me. I had internet issues then was laptop shopping....so time has gotten away from me. I thought I'd share another painting I did in Blue Ridge at Mrs. Parks' farm. It's fun to see my painting and the actual scene in the same photo. The light was so perfect when we arrived at this spot and I ran around taking lots of photos. So I am sure I will be doing many more scenes from here. This afternoon I will try to get dusty again and of course I am off to class tonight...so I should be posting again soon.

Painting Irises en Plein Air

One of the benefits of painting with artists with experience is learning from them. Take these Irises for example. I decided to paint this clump of Irises that were out in the yard of Marsha's cabin. My intention was to make the flowers stand out and blur the background. Well I painted the background a yellowy green...because that is how I saw it. The flowers just seemed to fade away though. Then one of the other artists painted another clump of Irises and she made the background yellow. Her flowers just popped right off the canvas! Why didn't I think of that!!! I forgot that I am the artist and I can change things to make the painting work. I guess that's part of the learning process. So when I came home, I took some yellow pastels and changed my background just to see if it would work...and I think it looks much better. So thanks to Ginny for reminding me that I do have artistic license!

Georgia Outdoor Painters...Go Paint!

'Three Bales' 9 x 12

I was offered the wonderful opportunity to join a new plein air painting group, Georgia Outdoor Painters. We just had our first painting trip to Blue Ridge, Georgia and it was a great success. Nine of us met at Marsha Savage's cabin right on the Toccoa River. The food, the company and the painting was excellent!! Most of the group members are professional artists with much more experience than I have...but it was wonderful to be among a group of people who love to paint all day like I do! I did four paintings even though we dodged rain showers. At the end of the day, we all spread out our paintings and it was amazing! We must have had 50 paintings between us...and they were all fantastic! The painting above was done on a local farm. I loved how the morning light was hitting these three bales of hay. I tried to remember what I just learned at Terry Ludwig's workshop about focal points and thumbnails. It was a great experience.

Painting Trees

You will learn to paint trees only by understanding them, their growth, their nature, their movement – and realizing that they are conscious living things. A tree seldom if ever encroaches upon the liberty of another tree. It never wastes its growth in unnecessary twistings. (John F. Carlson)

I feel like concentrating on trees this week. I started by painting this one yesterday. It is a big pine tree I saw on our St. George Island trip. Marsha gave me good tips to make it look more like a pine tree. I just need to practice so look for more trees soon!

Two more from the Workshop

I thought I'd share a couple more paintings I did at the Terry Ludwig workshop in Blue Ridge, Georgia. The top one was painted at the Toccoa River and the second one was at the city park. Now I have to gear up for the Albert Handell workshop in three weeks. Whew! This is a busy month!

Workshop Plein Air Painting

'Morning Shadows' 9 x 12

On the first day of the Terry Ludwig workshop, we met in the city park in Blue Ridge Georgia. Terry did a demonstration painting and then we were set loose to paint. I was intrigued by the shadow patterns from the Dogwood and rhododendron bushes. I used the technique that Terry showed us which is very different from the way I usually start a painting. He doesn't use hard pastels first....he gets right into it and lays out his colors using his own soft pastels. Then he takes a piece of foam pipe insulation and blends the pastel making an underpainting. I enjoyed painting this way and will try it again! Critique he gave on this painting: Good color in the shadows, strong painting...he gave me a gold star and that felt very nice!