Class begins

I started teaching my Introduction to Oil Painting class tonight. 6 adults, most with little to no experience with painting and none with oils. Highlight of the class was one woman getting a huge streak of blue paint across her forehead and then wiping it into her hair. Spent the next 15 minutes with turp and soap cleaning up!

Basic color wheel/mixing exercize that tested most students. Laid down underpainting for next week project.

SOLD

Got a call from gallery today to let me know I sold another painting! Hurray, I can pay the rent for 4 more months. Now how do I live off my art? How about paint more and focus. Sorry....didn't even take a photo off this piece. Shame on me!

Plein Air- Vernon Wisconsin

It's been awhile since I've painted outside (plein air) but with several events coming up I figured I'd get some practice in. Stumbled on this spot while biking the other day and decided to hike back in. Worked a lot on my value range since I really feel there are some problems I'm having in that area. Color didn't matter as much this time around. Even though I finished it in an hour, the sun had moved enough to wipe out the shadows I was looking at to begin with. These are the sequence photos:

My art class Kids

Hundreds of kids from Michigan to Wisconsin have been involved in my after-school program called Aspiring Artists. Here are some of them after our Mother's Day card project.

Art Crawl Craziness

I was involved in the Waukesha Art Crawl over the weekend. We had some great weather and the streets were packed with people and energy! As an artist with Almont Gallery, I painted en plein air right outside the front door. Sometimes good things happen, especially with people watching. Below is what I whipped together. The underpainting was done in Cadmium Red and the darks blocked in with Hooker's Green. The sky was primary yellow. In the end, I ditched the tree as it would have made things too busy.

Crawl Craziness #56

Acrylic 20x24"

$400

Completed piece for friend of mine. Probably took around 50 hours. Lots of learning and trial and error since this was the first horse for me. Hung it tonight at the gallery in preparation for the Waukesha Art Crawl Saturday.

Fridgid Plein Air

Last Saturday I went out in Menomonee Falls to paint with the WIPAPA local plein air group. OMG was it cold! The paint got real stiff and my fingers were numb after an hour. Thank God a coffee shop was a mere 200 yds away. But, I did paint! Two versions, same subject, photos taken back in my (warm) studio.