April 2022

May 08, 2022

April 2022

Mark Fehlman (L) and Bill Davidson (R)

Lots of fun things to share with you this month! The Olmsted Plein Air Invitational was the main event for April. I was involved in several ways. First, I helped staff and stage the Olmsted Gallery on Miami Circle. This was the headquarters for the event and I thoroughly enjoyed my volunteer time there. Being in the gallery offered the opportunity to meet the invited artists, devour their work up close, help sell art in the gallery and see how a plein air event works from behind the scenes. I was really impressed with how organized, calm, cool and collected everything ran. Lillian Ansley and Mary Ferguson are two forces of nature and tons of fun. I learned so much from them.

My friend Shirley and I worked together to hang the show for the judges review. Shirley cracked me up the whole time. We had so much fun.

I got to hang out with one of my favorite art teachers, Bill Davidson, and I got to chat with so many of the invited artists. One of my favorite moments from the weekend was listening to Bill and Mark Fehlman analyze the paintings from the show. It was fascinating to watch and hear them break down brush strokes, colors, values, lines, techniques, etc. I tried to log every single nugget into my brain.

Scott and I purchased two paintings during the event: one by Mark Fehlman, the other by Christine Lashley.

The final piece of Olmsted was participating in the Quick Paint on Sunday. They open up the competition to the public on Sunday, so there were two divisions: the elite/invited artists and the community group. I wanted to paint my best, so I went to the site of the competition (Olmsted Linear Park) nearly every day for 2+ weeks to work on my skills. I didn’t win, but I did sell my painting that day and that was pretty cool.

Judges surveying the Quick Paint entries in Olmsted Linear Park

One of my many practice sessions

I work best with little written reminders on my palette

What did I learn during Olmsted? Lots. But the main takeaway is that these are my people. I am an art geek and many times I find myself dialing back my intensity around nonartists because I don’t want to look silly or annoy people, but these artists are just as geeky, if not more so, than I am. We can stand together in front of a painting and flip out over the way Qiang Huang scrapes his palette knife to create a shadow on a chimney. How many people can you do that with????

I also learned that this level of painting is years away for me, and I can hardly wait to get there. These are the very best plein air artists in the US and they’re solving problems that I don’t even know are problems yet. The competition is razor sharp, so you better bring your A game if you’re going to compete at that level. I was incredibly impressed with their work ethic. No doubt painting is a mental challenge, but it is also quite physical. Schlepping your gear, the heat, the humidity, the bugs, all kinds of weather and sometimes all kinds of terrain. It ain’t for wimps.

But Olmsted was not the only plein air action this month! I competed in my second plein air competition: Sautee Nacoochee, or as I’ve been calling it, The Cooch.

Warmed up with a quick barn painting before the competition began

The following day we battled 25 mph winds and rain,
so I hopped in the car and painted from the front seat

The next morning we had rain, sleet and snow!
I woke up early and dashed outside to nail down a quick painting of our cabin where we stayed.
Little snowflakes swirled as I painted … so cool

I will always treasure this little painting. It reminds me of one of my favorite art instructors, Kathie Odom, and the advice she’s given me. She was with me in spirit the whole time I painted this painting.

So, in less than two months I’ve competed in three plein air events and sold two paintings from them. That’s something to celebrate!

More photos of art I worked on this month:

War Angel Farms

Currently available for purchase at VaHi Books

Painting with friends at War Angel Farms

Trying new things! Cad red underpainting for this painting of Hazel’s Cafe in St Simons

10th and Peachtree

It was definitely a good month! Learned so much, spent time with so many great folks, painted my butt off and sold several paintings.

COMING UP …

Scott and I just got back from a nice little visit to Provence. I am working on a blog post with photos from our trip, so watch for that coming this week. I’m going to be painting LIVE at the Midtown Neighbors Association annual Midtown Garden Stroll on May 15 and I’m competing in my 4th plein air event in Ellijay from May 20-22.

OTIS and JULIUS

Spoiled stinkin’ rotten little monkeys!! It was hard to be away from them while we were in France. But we’re home now, back in our usual routines and they’re happy again.