This painting was awarded Third Place in Oil Painting at the River City Art Association Annual Juried Show in August.
12 x 16, oil paint on linen panel.
Out of The Shadows
Tag oil paints
People’s Choice Award
This painting was recently awarded People’s Choice Award at our RCAA member Show in Marshall, IL, at the Gaslight Art Colony. The Show is over, but this painting is still on display there until the end of December.
It’s the first time I’ve received a People’s Choice Award, and I’m delighted!
Plein Air, Fall 2024
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:
Then I tried part of the same scene with a palette knife, on a smaller board:
And I started a painting of the river facing north, using oil crayons as an underlayer ‘drawing’:
It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience!
William T. Thurman Plein Air competition
Oil on panel, 9 x 12 ins
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.
Live Portrait group in PA, II
At the end of the session, the model inspected the various representations of himself, with generous comments to all!
The group plans to continue painting veterans every other week, and in Nov 2022 have a display of all the year’s portraits of veterans at the VA hospital. At that time each veteran may choose one portrait of themselves to keep. I thought that was a great plan!
Several months later, I painted the same subject again (from my photo), on a larger canvas and with a more expressive background.
Yellow Roses
Yellow Roses, 11 x 14, Oil
After I enjoyed the lesson by Kelli Folsom so much (Terracotta Pot with Grapes, that I painted with my sister), I bought her Masterclass on painting roses. The first lesson was black and white studies of roses structure and form and the second lesson was on colors for roses.
This painting is from the third lesson. It included instruction on still life set-up, composition and colors. Kelli has such a warm, friendly and encouraging manner that it is a pleasure to listen to her, and her information is always useful. I loved doing this lesson!
Plein Air today
8 x 8 ins, Oil on Linen Panel
I painted this from my front porch this afternoon, an exhilarating experience. It was a crisp, clear, windy December day. My focus was the large maple tree in the middle of the front lawn, and the way the nearly-setting sun was lighting it, although by the time I finished (an hour later) the light had pretty much gone from the tree.
I took a lot of artistic license with the view and completely removed the houses across the street (their complexity and presence did not add to my ideas about the tree), so this is not actually the view from our porch, but my ideas about the tree and the light this afternoon. I loved doing it.
Master Copy III
A copy of part of a portrait painting by Philip de Laszlo of the Princess Elizabeth, oil, 12 x 12 ins.
I painted this Master copy earlier this year, in a lesson with my teacher, Kari Rajkumar. I chose the portrait out of several she showed me because of my Britishness and my interest in painting children.
There are so many lovely colors in her skin! I really enjoyed trying to match them. I have focused since on understanding the warm and cool colors in skin, and I think I’ve gained some ground.
Plein Air in PA III
Oil on canvas panel, 9 x 12 ins
Our third Plein Air class was in the middle of very quiet Amish countryside, near New Wilmington, PA. The three of us stood within in a fairly small area but all chose different views, so came away with three totally different paintings.
I liked these big trees overshadowing the farmhouse buildings, with the big barn a little closer to me. There were numerous Amish buggies coming and going, and horses being used to plow the fields, so almost the only noise was of horses’ hooves. Altogether a very peaceful three hours of painting.
Plein Air in PA II
For our second 3 hour lesson we went to a rural area and found a pumpkin field. One fascinating aspect of painting outdoors with other people is that we can stand in a small area together and produce totally different paintings!
My choice of view and subject was based on the pumpkins leading up to the white barns, which are silhouetted by the dark trees. I also liked including the distant hills. I had a strong sense of representing the feel of what was in front of me rather than the exact image. To that end I ‘moved’ the pumpkins around quite a bit!
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