I was delighted to receive an Award of Merit for one of my paintings from the Swope Art Museum Plein Air Event, at the awards ceremony yesterday evening.
The juror was Julio Suarez, professor of Art at Hillsdale College, MI. He gave an enjoyable and interesting plein air demo yesterday evening, accompanied by thunder, but we never felt rain.
Musallem Union, Rose-Hulman, 11 x 14 ins, oil on canvas board
This was painted in one session on the morning of 6/24/25. The main part of the building pictured here is the Dining Hall in the Union building.
I painted from the small beach on the side of the lake— a great way to spend a morning!
I love painting outside! When the Plein Air event is in my home town, it is so exciting! This is the third year it’s been held and the third year I’ve taken part. I had a great time!
It was intense in time and heat; I tried to get out early on 4 mornings to catch the morning light. I aimed at 7 am, but usually hit 8 am. By 11 am the temperature was in the mid 90s, so I came home and went out to paint again on 5 evenings, 7-9:30 pm.
I like to choose a theme to reduce the time I spend deciding where to paint. This year my theme was the campus of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, which accounts for 5 of the 6 paintings. The other one is a farewell to JoAnn Fabrics, before they take all the signs and wording down.
I had great interactions with the public (someone even wanting to buy one of the paintings!) and fun talking with the other artists. This for me is a very positive side effect of painting outside.
I was fortunate to have three paintings selected by the Juror for display in this year’s Small Art Show. (For this show, each piece must be no more than 12 inches in height or width).
The Show Opening was on Friday, Nov 18, 2024, complete with live ukulele music! The Show will run until Jan 10, 2025.
If you’re in the area, go along and take a look! There’s a lot of enjoyable art there.
Wabash River, Fairbanks Park, looking north. 9 x 12 ins, oil on PVC board.
This is my finished painting, started the previous week. It was lovely to be out there, enjoying the scenery and sunshine, moving paint around on this super-smooth board with my palette knife.
A few people walking along the path stopped to investigate and chat a bit. I used to be fearful of this, but have grown to appreciate it. The comments are always very positive, and the people seem genuinely happy that someone bothers to paint. I felt that maybe people have a sense that there must be something okay with the world if artists can take the time to observe, concentrate on, and record the beauty around them.
After the William Turman Plein Air Event at the Swope Art Musem in Terre Haute in June 2024, I and a couple of other participants decided to go out painting more regularly.
Since the last half of August we have been going to local parks almost every week on a Friday morning. We found a good routine was to go to the same site two weeks in a row, sometimes to finish a painting, sometimes to explore a new idea that came up the previous week.
Here are two paintings from the first week, August 23, 2024:
Wabash River, Fairbanks Park, looking south. 9 x 12 ins, oil on hard board
Then I tried part of the same scene with a palette knife, on a smaller board:
Wabash River, Fairbanks Park, looking south. 8 x 8 ins, DaVinci board
And I started a painting of the river facing north, using oil crayons as an underlayer ‘drawing’:
Courthouse from the ISU campus, 9×12 ins, oil on linen canvas
On June 13-16, 2024 I took part in the second Plein Air Event in Terre Haute. This year we were allowed 10 blank canvases, up from 5 last year. I could not manage to paint 10! I ended up with 5 paintings.
I decided to have the Courthouse as my focal point this year, painting it from different directions at different times of day.
Thumbnails on the first morning, from the N EastFirst block inAnother viewDetail, oil on linen canvas boardFinished on the second morningHow I kept the sun off my palette
I decided to try this view again on Gessobord, so I went back later on the second day to block in the shapes, and then returned on the morning of the third day to finish it.
This view received an Award of Recognition!
I also painted to the west of the Courthouse, at Dewey Point at the Wabashiki wetland, over two evenings:
The view across the Wabashiki Wetlands to the Courthouse, and a poor photo of my painting of it. I had lots of fun interactions with people at this spot, I was in a hurry to go to the next spot to finish painting there, and forgot to photo any of the painting process!
My third location was in Fairbanks Bank, on the banks of the Wabash River, but this year I turned my attention to the Courthouse instead of the river. I painted two paintings from slightly different locations.
Unfortunately, I also forgot to take progress photos here, and this is not a clear photo. I like this composition, and I was happy with my use of greens, and the brushwork. The top 3 photos are from the 1st visit—a beautiful calm, quiet evening; I painted the ‘block-in’ (first layers of colors). I felt I was getting into my stride.The last photo here is a poor representation; I was hurrying out of the door to get them all delivered to the collection point.
When I returned to complete it the next evening, lots of people started arriving for a family concert (a local Wind Band) playing in the Amphitheater! I had not expected this, and it was a very different atmosphere! It turned out to be really fun. Lots of people stopped to look at what I was doing and make comments, or tell me their story; children were especially vocal and engaged. A girl told me she loved my painting and it ought to be in an art museum, and then she picked a clover and gave it to me as my award! Beautiful experiences!
(I wrote this a couple of months ago, but a lot of October and November has been taken up with the end of life of my mother. She has now passed away, and I’m attempting to return to my ‘usual’ practices).
Following on from the Mastering Composition Course (Ian Roberts) which I took in January-March 2023, I then signed up for the Bold Brushwork Course (April-June). This was only open to people who had taken part in the Mastering Composition Course.
The first lessons and exercises were to practice value scales, edge scales and gradations in paint—(Ivory black and Titanium White). Most students used oil paint, although some used acrylic, watercolor, gouache, or pastel.
Then we painted compositions in black and white, concentrating on values, shapes, and edges, using a ‘Paint It and Leave it’ approach.
The next step was to consider color temperature, and to do this we added yellow ochre to the palette to indicate warm light, and used the ivory black to indicate cool light. (Our paintings were limited to warm light and cool shadow situations for the learning purpose).
In the final part of the course, we added an extra color dimension and used Ultramarine Blue, Cadmium Orange and Titanium White. Now there was more intensity to deal with, either to mute or to use in small amounts as an accent.
It was a very rewarding course. I felt I improved at putting on thick paint and ‘one touch’ brushstrokes, and gained a much better understanding of color temperature.
My vantage point to paint the White Chapel. On the first session out, 6/22, I did not think to include my easel in the photo.Sunset at Fairbanks Park, 6/22Le Fer Lake, St. Mary of the Woods College, 6/23Deming Park, 6/23Dobbs Park, 6/24All five paintings framed, ready to deliver.
This Plein Air competition, the first of its kind in Terre Haute, was run by the Swope Art Museum and the Indiana Plein Air Painter’s Association, 6/22-6/24, 2023.
I have not done much plein air painting, but was keen to join in because I thought it was an encouragement to do more, and support this community event.
All participants had to present their blank canvases (max #5) to the Swope Art Museum for a stamp on the back to verify it was blank.
I was delighted to find that my painting of the White Chapel was given an Award of Recognition!
The winning paintings from the event (including this one) are on display at the Swope Art Museum from July 14-Aug 19, and all others painted over those 3 days are on display at the Arts Illiana Gallery for the same time period.
This Spring I had three paintings accepted for the ‘Spring’ (any interpretation) Show at the Arts Illiana Gallery. I was particularly happy that my painting ‘A Spring in Her Step’ was juried in.
This year I submitted 5 entries to the Small Art Show at Arts Illiana and was delighted to have all 5 selected for the Show. All pieces in this Show must be no more than 12 inches in any dimension, including the frame.
We had a very pleasant opening reception on Oct. 7, 2022.
The Show will be up until Dec. 17, 2022. All the works are for sale.
marymayhewart 