September 2023
September 2023 will be remembered for two things: poisonous caterpillars and the Strada Easel Challenge.
I went up to Blue Ridge the week after Labor Day, so excited about painting for 4 days with friends. On Thursday, Preston, Joann and I drove over to one of our favorite spots on the Toccoa River and met up with Marsha and Julie. Had the best time!
After lunch I jumped down into the river bed and set up on top of a big flat rock, a spot I’ve painted in many times. Not too long after I began my second painting of the day,, I felt something drop onto my shoulder and instinctively brushed it off. When I looked down on the rock, there was a yellowish green caterpillar with spikes wriggling around. Didn’t think too much more about it until a few minutes later when another fell on me in about the same spot. Was there a nest up there?? I wasn’t sure, but that was enough! I grabbed everything and climbed back out onto the bank and kept painting. But I could feel a burning, stinging sensation. Was it my imagination?? I asked two painters to check my neck, shoulders and back to be sure there were no more critters on me. Little did I know, the damage had been done. Thankfully I did not wipe my face. I remember grabbing baby wipes and cleaning the pastels off my hands - that saved me!
The next morning I was covered in millions of bumps, my skin was inflamed, hot and stinging. Sheer misery. Preston, a retired nurse, checked me out and recommended 75mg of Benadryl, which didn’t even make a dent in the pain, so he sent me to the doctor. After a two hour wait, the doctor saw me and gave me two steroid shots in the hips, prednisone, doxycycline and topical steroid creams. I went back to our rental, watched Alain Picard videos to take my mind off the pain and slathered myself in steroid cream. Hoping I could possibly paint either a nocturne or a sunrise because the doctor told me I couldn’t go outside during the day due to the light sensitivity of the medications. But that night was awful, really, really awful, and I knew I needed to go home. Scott was waiting on me when I walked in the door on Saturday morning. He coated me in a paste of baking soda mixed with a little water, and it was almost instantaneous relief. But lemme tell ya … it’s been almost three weeks and my skin is still not back to normal. So, please be careful out there. Wear a hat, long sleeves, wash your hands and if you ever have a run in with a stinging caterpillar, use tape to remove the little hairs, wash your skin with alcohol and wash anything it may have touched in hot water, alcohol wipes or throw it away.
STRADA EASEL CHALLENGE
I’ve seen lots of artists participate in the Strada Easel Challenge, and I’ve never really been tempted to participate until this year. And I’m still not 100% sure why I decided to jump in, but it’s been extremely helpful. This challenge provided opportunities to play with mediums, materials, composition, color and subjects. If you scroll through the hashtag, you’ll see lots of the same paintings - shoes, bananas, avocados, tomatoes, Turp cans, apples, bottles of hot sauce. It cracks me up that we’re all drawn to the same things. And I painted some of those things, but I tried to do them in my own way. I heard Preston use the word “trite” while we were in Blue Ridge. It’s funny how we evolve as artists … I used to want to paint those “trite” subjects to prove to myself that I could. Once you get to the point where you can, you develop a disdain for some of those subjects, but I also understand that it’s almost a rite of passage. I definitely didn’t break new ground, but I was very satisfied with several of my paintings and I wouldn’t have done them without this challenge. It’s also been a reminder to me that I still LOVE still life paintings. Here are a few of my favorites from the #stradachallenge:
PLEIN AIR
Now that the weather has cooled off a little, the VHPAP are back in full swing. We painted and sold at the South Fork Conservancy’s annual fundraiser to support Zonolite and Peavine Parks. I sold both my paintings, one pastel (below) and another in oil.
And our new exhibition is up at Virginia Highland Books!
Our next big event is a week long paint out at Piedmont Park which begins Monday, October 2nd. Really looking forward to that. We’ll paint every day at the park, then sell those paintings on Sunday, October 8th. We have about 20 artists who are participating and 10% of the sales go back to the Piedmont Park Conservancy.
INSTRUCTION
On a whim I decided to take a course exploring the paintings of Pierre Bonnard and learning how to apply some of his techniques to our own paintings. Here are two of my paintings from the course. Painting interiors is very intriguing to me and I’d like to do a few more of those.
And I took a 3-day workshop on clouds with Nikki Davidson. Nikki!!!! My goodness, I love this sweet little munchkin so much. I’ve been trying to figure out why I’m so drawn to her and I think it’s because she reminds me of my grandmother, Be. Nikki is kind, generous, confident, sure of herself but not arrogant and she radiates the BEST energy - just like my Be did! I feel so optimistic and hopeful about the future of my art when I’m with her. I heard her tell another student, “I don’t want you to paint like me! I want you to paint like you!”
Nikki paints very traditionally and is a Signature Member of Oil Painters of America, an absolute badass. Her workshops are a fraction of the cost of the “big names” and she knows more than those people have forgotten. You can see below that my first painting was more traditional, and on the second day, I started the painting on the right. When she saw it she said, “Now there’s the Beth I know!” She doesn’t try to make me conform to her style. She meets me where I am and encourages me to paint my way.
PERSONAL
Speaking of favorite people, my other favorite badass, Michelle, stopped in Atlanta on her way to a plein air competition in Virginia. Love my girl. We had a fun lunch followed by a field trip to JFM. Then Scott made us cocktails and risotto, then washed the dishes. My man! We helped Michelle with some framing, then sent her on her way to kick some ass in Bath County.
COMING IN OCTOBER
Piedmont Park Paint Out with VHPAP, Edisto Island Paint Out, Georgia Color and a trip to the West Coast
OTIS and JULIUS
Otis has been sleeping in the sunroom/art studio and it doesn’t matter how cluttered it is and how much junk is on the sofas, that’s his spot … at least for now. He’ll snuggle in right next to my sketchbooks, bubble wrap, frames and paintings.
Comments
Post a Comment