Wekiva Paint Out Quick Paint

Continuing my plein air Florida adventures I had found out about this one in an article from Plein Air magazine. My plan was to just do the quick paint. Maybe next year I can investigate getting juried in. The quick paint is part of the last day of events during this paint out, capping the night with the "gala"; music, art and sales opportunities.

Wekiva Island is just outside the state park. I had never been there and it turned out to be one hopping party place. Lots of people much younger than me, families, dogs, and just a fun atmosphere. Oh yeah, there was a lot of art on exhibit and what turned out to be a dozen quick paint artists. While I was fairly happy with my piece (more than two weeks ago at Lighthouse), it didn't grab one of the top three awards. Here are a couple photos I took during the progress.

 The location alongside a creek with sun hitting some top water vegetation

 Block in. Turpy wash with darks

 ID the focal points and wipe out some excess paint

Framed at the car and ready to hand in for judging. Fair amount of palette knife in the highlights

2nd Place & Artist Choice- New Berlin Plein Air Competition

Lucky me: The urban landscape of New Berlin, Wisconsin. About 50k people, lots of office and industrial parks, main artery freeway and a couple of winding roads and vanishing barns. But I went to one of my favorite places in NB, Calhoun Park. Three soccer fields, a baseball diamond and one pond. The pond with a bridge. I love it. Reeds, trees, scum, ducks. It's a painting waiting to happen. And the verdict is 2nd place PLUS the coveted Artist's Choice. Thanks people.

I went out of the box with my approach and got all impressionistic. Cape Cod school of art was my influence with 5 layers and heavy palette knife. Painted 9:30-11:30am on a sunny Saturday morning.

Painting Live at Open Canvas 2012

Last night was another awesome opportunity for me to paint for my 6th year at Open Canvas. Organized by Jeff Kursel with art scholarships to MIAD, this year the date was wedged into a Thanksgiving weekend. It's such a classy act with tons of original art being created before your eyes. What a concept for the viewing public. A charitable event where 80 or so local Milwaukee area artists paint live and all the work goes up for silent auction during the evening. Lots of food, fun, people and ART.  I heard pre-sale tickets were down 20% but it sure looked like a nice size, good looking crowd was in attendance again; maybe 500-600?

2012 has been the year of the abstract for me. For some reason, I've stumbled upon some inspirational artists on YouTube and found other in art magazines. So it only seemed appropriate I do an abstract for this event. It did sell, not where I hoped, but this year has been tough for 2D sales everywhere for a lot of people. I liked what I did and had fun doing it, so nothing else matters.