Friday, July 30, 2010

Art on the Rocks


Summer is in full swing! This weekend I'll be displaying my work at Art on the Rocks in Marquette, Michigan. It's a beautiful city with lots of old world charm. Located on the shores of Lake Superior, it gets huge snowfalls during the winter. In fact, they get so much snow that many of the older homes were built with exits on the second floor, just in case the snow was so deep that they couldn't get out. The landscape in the community consists of large hills and rocks, which always makes me wonder how they get around during the winter months. The people there have a joy for life that is inspiring! There are so many beautiful things to see in Marquette. I'm very excited about participating in Art on the Rocks and hope the weather cooperates. Look for me practicing my plein air painting techniques!

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Princess in Lace


Here's another in a series of paintings I'm preparing to introduce at next weekend's Art on the Rocks in Marquette, MI. This is Kristen standing in a field of Queen Anne's Lace. She was a real trooper that day... the bugs and bees where everywhere! I am so fortunate to have models who put up with so much. Her gentle beauty and peaceful spirit really shines through in this painting!

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

From Sketch to Fine Art


This painting is the result of a quick sketch I did recently at the care facility I visit regularly. It's such a joy to be there! I do demos and hold an art class once a week. We have no expectations -- just the sheer joy of creating a work of art! I always say "Everyone has a talent for something." I'm not sure I've found mine yet, but I'm definitely enjoying the process!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Good Moo-orning!


How time flies! When I was in Iowa a few weeks ago, this lovely lady greeted us early every morning as we went to set up for plein air painting. I just had to paint her!

I've been working hard to prepare for my upcoming shows. My new paintings include a variety of figurative and landscape works.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Happy Couple and a link to more photos


It seems I've found a niche in preserving a moment of bliss for happy couples about to tie the knot. What a great idea -- A gift of a fine art oil painting will last for generations! This one gave me some concern ... with close to 100% humidity for the last week or two, the painting wouldn't dry! It normally takes about six weeks to dry to the touch, but this one is well beyond that.

On another note, here are some photos posted by our wonderful hostess from last week's plein air workshop: http://showcase.netins.net/web/agricol/plein_air_painting.htm

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Painting in Iowa

Last week I attended a plein air painting workshop in Iowa with Vermont artist and instructor, Andrew Orr. Andrew is a wonderful artist whose work I've admired through his blog for some time (http://andreworrstudio.blogspot.com/). It was grueling work, but I have to say that if I intend to paint en plein air I'd better get used to it. As was explained, the best light can generally be found early in the morning or later in the evening. So we woke up every morning by 5:30am and were out and ready to paint by 7am. At this time of year, it would probably help to get out even earlier. We would break for lunch and an afternoon siesta, and then head out again from about 5-8:30pm. Those evenings were especially difficult. I felt like I was being eaten alive by the bugs! I did find out that a common midwest remedy for keeping gnats away is Absorbine, Jr. (go figure). I learned so much from this workshop, and can't wait to continue to put it to use! Here is one of the paintings I worked on this week. This one is 16x20. Most of the work we did were smaller studies.