Drive 2 hours. Paint 1 hour. Great old barn in oil

This fall I was driving around aimlessly looking for somewhere to paint. If I spent as much time painting plein air as I did looking for that so-called perfect spot, I'd be a much better artist! By chance, as I blasted down a highway at 60mph I glanced to the right to look up a weedy road. STOP...pull over and back up. Nothing posted as private so I drive in about 40 yards and here is this awesome abandoned bard/shed. The painting had to be looking inside the building with all the broken wood slats and light streaming through the roof. 

I didn't get a close up of the 8x10 oil painting, but it was fun to try and get those grays correct. I kept the palette to just a couple colors and tried to work fast. So after driving for an hour, I painted for an hour. The sun was going down and it was time to,,,drive another hour back home. Such is the life of this plein air artist.

Gray day is a perfect day to paint outside

It's a couple days after Christmas. I'm still looking for a job. It's gray outside. I haven't seriously painted in several weeks. Hello...brain...tell this body to get off it's butt and do something...like paint.

So I know I have to paint more from life. But, it's winter. It's cold. It's ugly out. Isn't it? As a matter of fact, I love snow. It's the cold that I really could live without. I enjoy a big snowstorm. And when the snow is wet and sticks to everything, it's really a beautiful sight. Guess what it did just before Christmas? It snowed. Wet snow. It hasn't melted down and there's a painting waiting for me somewhere.

Okay, make a decision: I'm going to go paint outside. Ya know, plein air style. And I know just where I'm going to go because I scoped this spot out earlier yesterday, a whopping mile from my house. The resulting plein air trip produced a nice little study of snow, trees and a winding creek with fallen trees. It was a beautiful scene. The study has got me thinking about a full size studio version.

But for now, here's the video I put together as I trampled through a field on a perfect neutral gray day to do a little painting.

Pewaukee Classic Boat Plein Air

Last weekend was the 7th annual Classic Boat and Car show in Pewaukee, Wisconsin. Over 40 classic boats, lots of beautiful CrissCraft "woodies" were there. It rained early, but I didn't show up until 11am. I didn't enter the plein air event, though I should have, with only 14 artists and $1500 in prize money, even I had a chance at winning! Besides the boats, there wasn't much to choose from from a compositional standpoint. Pewaukee is a pretty small town. So I set up under the canopy of the train depot, which offered shade until mid-afternoon....thinking ahead cuz I've been in this spot before. 

Here is Step 1: Sketching

I liked the three boats with their colors; red, white and blue. They were tied up with matching color ropes so I thought I'd play into that theme. I had placed my new EZ L viewfinder over the area to help figure out what elements to put in.

Step 2: Blocking In- Start

Step 3: Blocking In- Complete

Step 4: Establishing Midtones and major shapes

The sun was on the move already. I'm about 1 hour into it at this point. A LOT of people were on the dock behind the first row of boats, but I decided earlier to just put in a few. My problem grew.

Step 5: Tightening Up

I should have been done by now. I'm 2 hours in and just all over the place. The foreground water is looking okay, but the reflective light on the boats and the water is giving me grief. Felt pretty good about the background lake and distant trees so I'm out of that area.

Step 6: Complete; Ol' Red White & Blue 12x16 Oil (Plein Air)

This is what I left with. The figures proved to be very difficult as they were always moving, like people usually do. I made a critical drawing error early on and though I thought about it, I moved on. The middle boat is out of scale and kinda threw everything off. When I got home I looked at my reference photo and sure enough was WAY OFF when it came to drawing. I didn't pay close enough attention to gridding the area to the canvas. I even had my new EZ L viewfinder and went through all the motions but still missed it in terms of placing the objects accurately on the canvas. The problem was the viewfinder is set up for 8.5 x 11 and I painted on 12x16. It's all in the proportions. Oh well. The crowd had grown to over a thousand people by the time I left. It turned out to be a gorgeous day...and I got to spend it painting. That's not too bad after all.

Images from the Door County Paint Out

The two hour painting frenzy was only topped by how many sold via auction while the paint was still wet! Everybody was crowding around the tent but I managed to snap a few photos of my favorites.

From what I saw, every painting sold, with a minimum of $500 being bid up to $2000. It was quite impressive and gives us artists hope that people are still buying art. What a great event!

Sweat & Oil Paint

Today is supposed to be the hottest day of the year here in SE Wisconsin...105*. So I ventured out early (8:30am) to paint. I've started wearing latex gloves and as I got going, I noticed moisture on my palette. I quickly discovered it was sweat dripping out from the inside of my painting hand glove! It was hot, and I had to constantly be aware of the sweat and wipe often. I was set up out of the hatch of my car so it offered some shade, but it was still a cooker. Sun worked its way around to affect my panel by the end...next up is a good plein air umbrella. Either way, things turned out well and I know there's a little "special medium" worked into the oils for this painting- "Hot as Hell on Hwy H"; 12x16 Oil

Winter Path- 16x20 Oil

Hiked out to a local nature center a couple weeks back. Attempted to complete this plein air but the oil paint wasn't cooperating due to the cold. I scrapped the 8x10 I started on and worked from the photos I took while I stood there. Sun was getting low and cast some nice shadows across the path, with the only tracks being mine.

Milwaukee Domes Plein Air

Blazing heat and humidity. but was able to put these two pieces together. Didn't win anything, but it was fun...and I needed the practice.

In front by the main entrance. My impressionistic palette of a very bland building/structure.

Looking south of Mitchell Park lagoon. Big willow dominated my thinking. It was overcast, so I thought the purple hues lent coolness to an otherwise hot day.

Summer Sunset

Painted during the last 30 minutes of a beautiful summer day, from the front seat of my car.

Funked

How else to describe a general state of nowhereness. Paint? Nothing. Draw? Ugh. Ideas? Where is my head? Is this what they call writers block? In my world, it's artist funked. Even though I've sold a big piece to a guy in NY, I just don't seem to be very motivated. My gallery owner is dinging me on working more hours, and I don't want to. So I don't know how that will turn out. Without the gallery, maybe I will find myself and quit worrying about producing pieces that sell.

I've felt more inclined to do some abstract stuff lately. Well, I do have 4 pieces in some stage of production, but I'm too lazy to even post those results. Lost my Flip Video so I can't record any more painting sessions, which was kinda fun.

Oh well, at least I came back to blog a bit.

Tosa Plein Air Work

Done during the week long event at Hart Park center by the Menomonee River.

My submission for the Cedarburg Plein Air competition. Painted at Covered Bridge Park.

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:

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

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.