September 2022

 

We wrapped up the end of the summer in our new favorite place, Maine. On this visit we flew into Bangor, then spent the next several days in Stonington and Deer Isle. Stonington pulls in more lobster than any other port in the state. It’s a very quiet seaside town, just a few shops and restaurants. We stayed at Inn on the Harbor, which was perfect because we could walk a few blocks to grab coffee, lunch and dinner. The view from our room was also pretty fantastic. I loved watching the lobster boats pull in, drop off their catches, then head back out to sea.

I joined the Maine plein air painting group on Facebook so I could start learning more about where artists go to paint and hopefully one day soon paint with them. There was a group painting session on Tuesday, the day we were heading home, but I was able to get several recommendations on scenic spots to paint. 

We also went on a sunset kayak trip, which turned out to be one of my favorite parts of our trip. We paddled out on a Sunday afternoon, no lobster boats motoring through, so the water was calm and peaceful. The best part, though, was seeing seals pop their heads up and follow us throughout the whole paddle. They’re so cute, playful, and curious! They maintained their distance while following us wherever we went, swimming right along side us and keeping us company.

It was a relaxing, peaceful holiday weekend … heavenly!

BLUE RIDGE PAINT OUT

After a day of washing clothes and repacking, I headed up to Blue Ridge, Georgia, for the Blue Ridge Paint Out. My friends and I rented a cabin and painted for four days. We painted apple orchards, rivers, mountains, old trucks, trees, churches and more. The Quick Paint (always a challenge) was at a golf course, and I chose to paint a tree. I’ve been working with a private instructor to improve my trees, and I figured this was the time to put my new skills to the test. After looking all over the golf course, I found a tree that caught my eye. I took my time, sketched it, found my gray scale values, then pumped as much color into it as I could. 

I can’t really explain what drew me to this particular tree, but I brought several different panels for the Quick Paint and I decided it would look pretty cool on a 12”h x 6”w format. And I knew I wasn’t going to win any awards, so this painting felt more like an opportunity for me to prove something to myself. There was something that reminded me a little of Edgar Payne’s trees, so that was also an inspiration. 

We had 90 minutes to complete the painting and I finished with about 15 minutes to spare, so I rechecked my values found a few areas I needed to tweak, fixed those, then headed to the clubhouse to put my painting in with the others.

While the judge did her thing, we all gathered around a big table to laugh and cut up over a glass of wine. These are my favorite times in a paint out … just hanging out, talking smack, laughing, teasing each other, talking about painting and letting loose. Painters are the NICEST people! We work really hard and we’re competitive, but we keep it friendly, light and fun. I learn so much from my friends who are always willing and eager to share what they know. BIG BIG fun!

After the awards I noticed that artists were starting to pack up, pick up their paintings and head to dinner, so I walked over to grab my painting and realized it was gone. I asked the volunteers where my painting was and they said, “It sold!” Whaaaaaaattttt???? I went nuts, hugged people and even ripped off a few karate kicks. I don’t know why it was so exciting??? You’d think I’d never sold a painting before. For some reason, it just meant the world to me. Maybe because I knew how hard I worked on it? Who knows, but it went to its forever home in a pizza box. Thank you to the collectors who made my day!

The whole weekend of painting was a phenomenal experience. As always, I learned a lot about myself, areas I need to work on, got in some quality bonding time with fellow artists and was inspired by their paintings. One huge takeaway was seeing my pastelist friends, the “dusties”, at work. They pump so much color into their paintings. That’s something I want to incorporate into my work. Water is another challenge, and I knew that, so I enrolled in a water painting workshop a while back (more on that in a minute).

At this stage in my development, I’m able to identify very specific things I want to improve, then drill down on those areas until I figure them out … and if I can’t figure them out, I’ll go get help from an artist who can teach me. Which leads me to WATER!

SEASCAPE WORKSHOP

This little cutie pie is Nikki Davidson. She is one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met and she can paint like nobody’s business. Her Native American portraits are exquisite, but this session was all about water. I was nervous when I saw what we’d be painting because it looked way more complex than I thought I could manage, but Nikki broke it down into bite sized pieces and it fell into place.

 

I also completed the painting on the right so that Nikki could teach me about painting rocks under water. The workshop was great, but I will add that we painted from a studio perspective, not a plein air perspective and that makes a huge difference. Plein air is almost always loose, brushy and simplified. Studio pieces typically are more complex and detailed. Nikki is an excellent teacher, incredibly patient and kind. Highly recommend.

PIEDMONT PARK PAINT OUT

My Virginia Highland Plein Air group continues to grow. Right now we have about 115 artists who are members of the group. Andy, our fearless leader, worked out a deal with Piedmont Park so that we could paint every day in the park for a week, then we sold our paintings on Saturday where the Green Market is typically held. We had SO much fun and sold a bunch of art, with 10% of our sales going back to the Piedmont Park Conservancy. One of our artists, Sheena, was kind enough to print aprons for us, and I absolutely love them. Aren’t we cute?

As you can see the weather was out of this world, so it truly was a phenomenal week of painting and community with fellow artists. I hope we can do more events like this in the future.

MY FIRST NOCTURNE

My upcoming Georgia Color competition includes the opportunity to paint a nocturne. I know absolutely nothing about painting nocturnes, so I watched a bunch of YouTube videos, studied some nocturne paintings, then met up with my buddies to give it a whirl. We met at the little neighborhood bodega down the street from my house just before sunset, set up our easels, did some preliminary block ins, then painted as fast as possible. The light at this hour goes SO fast, that there’s no way to keep up. 

I tinted my panel with a dark blue, which at first was jarring, but I think now it makes a lot of sense. I need to do some work on what I painted before I post it, but it might not be as bad as I initially thought. We’re meeting up again tonight to take another whack at it. We’ll see how that goes :)

READING

I read “Edward Hopper in Vermont” while we were in Maine. It’s a really good book and although the main topic of the book was his watercolors in Vermont, there was so much in the book about Hopper that resonated with me. I also read Ryan Holiday’s new book, “Discipline is Destiny,” which was right up my alley. Although I know many of the talking points from Ryan’s previous books, it helps to reinforce those points repeatedly because life constantly pulls me off course.  

COMING IN OCTOBER

I’ll be heading down to Providence Canyon next week to scope out the park and get some photos for a Paint Out there in November. Georgia Color is October 18-20, and I have a paint out in Newnan on October 22. I’m really looking forward to all three of these events, but especially Georgia Color! 

OTIS and JULIUS

JuJu has been more affectionate with me lately than usual. He’s also been creeping up in the bed very early in the morning (4-5 a.m.), getting right in my face and letting out a big meow. This morning he even patted my face with his paws. No clue what that’s all about, but I’m not exactly thrilled about it. Good thing he’s cute!

 

Have a great month and I’ll see you back here in a few weeks!