Wednesday, October 30, 2013

back home and Wolf Kahn


Here are two small paintings from this morning's time outside.
And a little Wolf Kahn wisdom.
"The moment you know how to do certain things, you should by rights stop doing them. You would be ceasing to search and starting to perform. You would become your own expert, and your art will become an exercise in self-congratulation. Once a particular procedure has become general, there is trouble in the making. Our practice must remain open-ended. It can’t become habitual. There needs to be a moment of surprise in every work, something that grabs the viewer (first of all, the maker) by the collar and won’t let him go."

Monday, October 28, 2013

5 reasons to do plein air events



 
1. You meet awesome people.
2. You paint your A game.
3. You see a portion of the talent out there.
4. You get new ideas, learn new things and open up your thinking.
5. You work hard AND have fun.


Sorry about the quality of my images. They are all from my iphone. More images later.

Friday, October 18, 2013

talk to yourself


Yes, that's right, talk to yourself. That means, whether on site or in the studio, always begin by asking yourself, "what is my real interest?" Narrow it down. My interest in this field was the feel of vibration in the oranges of the grasses, not the sky. There is a slice of sky simply for the contrast to make the field grasses have a counter point.  The sky might be another painting...another day. Cropping is important, whether done with your fingers or a tool, you need to narrow down the focus.
photo of the field
Now I am off to catch my flight for Sedona...till later.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

field love

Today I traveled to the Manassas Battlefield Park. The sky was beautifully overcast. Finding the right colors to make distance and vibration was a challenge. But standing of the hill with no other sound than birds and slight breeze is one of the reasons plein air painting is my favorite way to take in information and figure out possibilities.

Monday, October 14, 2013

Sedona Plein Air, October 19- 26, 2013

one of last year's Sedona paintings
another Sedona painting from last year
The time is here. The boxes have been sent. Sedona Plein Air. I love this place: the fields, the rocks, the light, and the people.
Please come visit and say hi. Here's a link to find out more.
The schedule:

·       Paint Out on Main Street – Saturday, October 19 (1:30 – 4:00 p.m.).  Sale at the Arts Center immediately following.  Reception for exhibition from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.)
·       Paint Out in Jerome –Tuesday, October 22, all day
·       Artists Paint in Sedona Area – Sunday, Monday, Tuesday Thursday and Friday
·       Quick Paint at Sedona Heritage Museum - Wednesday, October 23, (10 –  Noon). Open to the public, we will provide period models and props as well as Red Rock vistas.  Sale immediately following on the Museum Grounds.
·       Keynote Speaker – Wednesday, October 23, (7:00 p.m.) features Jill Carver “Plein Air to Studio Work” open to the public. Wine reception following in our Special Exhibition Gallery.
·       Native American Celebration  - Thursday, October 24 (TBD)Paint Out at Montezuma’s Castle and Montezuma’s Well Evening Awards Ceremony and Spoken Word Event at Canyon Moon Theatre.
·         
·       Preview Party and Awards Presentation - Friday , October 25, 5 – 8 p.m. at the Arts Center, SEG and Theatre Studio. Patrons Preview  Party with wine tasting, cheese and hors d’oeuvre.
Final Public Sale Day – Saturday, Oct 26 10 a.m. – 3 p.m

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Van Gogh Repetitions exhibit




 
the road menders
I just returned from the excellent exhibit (that just opened this morning) at the Phillips Collection (a private museum in DC not affected by the crazy shutdown.) Wow! Come and see it if you can.

 "Van Gogh Repetitions takes a fresh look at the artistic process of Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890). While recognized for the intensity and speed with which he painted, the artist could also work with careful deliberation, creating numerous versions of some of his most famous subjects. The first exhibition in Phillips Collection history devoted to the artist, Van Gogh Repetitions goes beneath the surface of some of his best-known paintings to examine how and why he repeated certain compositions during his 10-year career, inviting viewers to look more closely than ever before at van Gogh’s celebrated works.
Featuring 35 paintings and works on paper and examples of 13 repetitions, the exhibition is the first to focus on van Gogh’s “repetitions”—a term the artist used to describe his practice of creating more than one version of a particular subject. He often began by sketching a person or landscape rapidly from life. Back in the studio, he would repeat the subject, reworking and refining his idea on a fresh canvas, in some cases many times, to extract the essence of a motif.
Van Gogh Repetitions is inspired by The Road Menders (1889) in The Phillips Collection and a painting of the same subject, The Large Plane Trees (1889), in The Cleveland Museum of Art. The exhibition reunites the two masterpieces—never before seen together in Washington—and invites deep, focused study of the similarities and differences between them, revealing some surprising facts about van Gogh’s process and motivation. Changes among repetitions are also explored in van Gogh’s series of portraits of his friend Joseph Roulin and Roulin’s family. The exhibition also highlights the artist’s practice of repeating work by other artists, including Paul Gaugin. Created in significant locales in the Netherlands and in France, including Paris, Arles, Saint-Rémy, and Auvers, the works in the exhibition reveal the vitality and persistence of this method across van Gogh’s career.
The exhibition brings together portraits and landscapes from some of the world’s most renowned collections, including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Philadelphia Museum of Art; The Art Institute of Chicago; Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo; and the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, including The Bedroom at Arles (1889), are also showcased alongside paintings from the Phillips’s permanent collection by artists van Gogh admired, including Gaugin, Honoré Daumier, and Rembrandt van Rijn, to create a richer, more meaningful picture of his personal life and artistic production.

The exhibition is organized by The Phillips Collection and The Cleveland Museum of Art."

*excerpt from The Phillips Collection
the large plane trees
 *note on the government shutdown- day 12 
The forced close down of the government affects many innocent people, pawns in the government's folly. This is not what the people want, but they have no choice. My husband (a scientist/cancer researcher) continues to work without pay. While the Congress continues to receive paychecks. Hmmmmm.
I couldn't keep silent any longer. This craziness makes my brain steam.

Friday, October 11, 2013

from black and white to color

This is a larger pastel created from a recent larger black and white pastel.   The color was created tin response to our constant rain we are experiencing right now. It has rained non-stop for 3 days and will rain for many more.
 I have found that my black and whites have more mood and I try to find that same mood with color.
A challenge.

Tuesday, October 8, 2013

hit me on the head


40x30 oil on linen
I don't know why I haven't been doing it all year. What have I been thinking?!
I always use my small plein air paintings as ideas for my larger oils, so why haven't I been working with all of my memory pieces? They really are the best for exploring vibration. What can I say? Sometimes the most obvious things take the longest to find.
I am still working on this one, inching my way forward.

"I am never in a hurry to reach details. First and above all I am interested in the large masses and the general character of a picture; when these are well established, then I try for subtleties of form and color. I rework the painting constantly and freely, and without any systematic method." quote- Camille Corot

Friday, October 4, 2013

new opportunities

 The government furlough has frozen this area. I'd guess to say at least 50% of people around here hold government related jobs. My husband, a cancer researcher at the NIH, works with no pay. (Yet Congress works with pay. Go figure.)  I will try to not get political, since that's not the purpose of the blog... but its is hardship on many. I try to look at the opportunities that have opened up. For one, there is very little traffic. That means that the drive to Manassas Battlefield National Park, normally a hard thing to do on the weekdays was easy. The fields were beeeeautiful (of course the field was technically closed...since all National Parks are closed...but there are side roads)

Thursday, October 3, 2013

allowing the painting to dictate

Same infatuation, taken to the studio. I have been playing with all kinds of different stains and underpantings.  I enjoy how much the stain or underpainting, in its spontaneity influences the painting. Remembering not to cover it and holding back the marks are key. Each mark must have reason. Constantly questioning...do I really need that color/mark?
This is on sanded museum board stained with coffee.