Wayne Plein Air

Crum Creek Reflections 11 x 14 oil 

   My Painting "Crum Creek Reflections"  was awarded 2nd Place at the Wayne Plein Air Juried Festival by the   Juror, Roger Dale Brown  OPA .  I was surprised by the event , the gallery where all 30 artists exhibited their paintings done during the 3 days was very elegant.   The  way the organizers presented the Show was very well done.   Sales were very good,  according to the recent news  55 paintings were sold the first few days.  For an event only on its second year ,  I'd say they did a great Job. 

     

    As far as My experience ,   as someone from another state,   I spent a lot of time driving to look for places to paint,  and usually due to lack of time or fear that you might run out of time,  you just paint whatever the area you went to  gives you.   Although  I did find a lot of good subject matter ,  the town was very nice and especially with Valley Forge National Park just 10 minutes away.  The Painting "Crum Creek Reflections "  was the second to the last  painting  I did for the competition.   I was able to do five,  plus one after the deadline to submit for the Jury,  which was to be hung outside in the lobby.     The scene was on the creek where there was a red covered bridge ,  on Goshen road.    Although the covered bridge was a very good subject in itself,  I was in awe of the dappled light hitting the water and rocks and especially the reflection the red bridge had on the water.    I set up sitting down and painted it for almost 4 1/2 hours.   I know the light had changed a lot but It took me this long because the clouds were causing the dappled light to come and go.  I was forced to wait and observe most of the time.  

The night of the Gala I walked in seeing the painting already had sold.  I was  pleased with the results I had on the painting  that  I was almost not going to submit it because I wanted to do a big studio painting of the scene.   I am happy and grateful that it sold ,  I just wanted to do another one first before I let it go,  for my own use.  I guess now I understand why some of the   great western painters  do not sell their field works,   It is like their journal and source of information for the major paintings they do. 

               

  

Evening Showers   8 x 10   Oil on Linen

Another  painting I did was of the Wayne Train Station.    I started around  6:30 in the evening and it was raining most of the day.  I did this on an 8 x 10   C13 linen panel.  I wanted to capture the wet pavement and the reflections of the light on the scene.     It was a grey wet evening and I was forced to paint a little thicker than usual due to my easel getting wet . I was standing across from the station under an awning that I thought would keep me dry.   I was constantly cleaning my easel and drying it with my paper towels.   It got dark around 8:30 as I finished and called it a day.   

Paint North Carolina 2008

It's been a while since my last post and I have a lot to catch up on in terms of my blogging, web updates etc, . It just takes so much time to format my photos that when I start working on the computer to update stuff, it takes away from my painting time and I don't like that. I know there is an easier way to do things but still have not figured this all out. OK, so I was just in North Carolina two weeks ago as part of The Germanton Gallery's Annual Invitational Plein Air Event. It was my first time to actually be in the show , as last year I just showed up for the Quick Draw. I had so much Fun meeting and talking to other artists . I Also Met Scott Burdick and Sue Lyon who are two of the countries top artists and two of my favorites, and got a chance to visit Scott's studio.

They were very nice and gracious to invite me and some of the other artists that were also present that Saturday to their home and studio the afternoon after the quick draw . The Photos above were taken during the quick draw and are photos of Scott and the group painting the model,  Scott did a charcoal sketch as you can see from the second photo on the right, and the finished sketch below that.

         Scott drawing during the quick draw

                                

  

I was also surprised to receive one of seven awards for my painting Buckhorn Colors . I painted this near the Buckhorn Reservoir around a 30 to 40 minute drive from Clayton .

"Buckhorn Colors" 9 x 12 Oil

I had travelled south from Jersey to Virginia Beach VA, where I stayed with my Aunt, who brought me to Knott's Island NC, just below the Virginia Border. I painted one painting there during the sunset hours , then I spent the next day travelling further south to Clayton, NC where my Uncle lives (my Aunt's sister). They were kind enough to drive me to wonderful areas of old barns, lakes and even a strawberry field where I saw the farmers picking strawberries . I also visited historic Pittsboro, where I painted Pasture Heat.

"Pasture Heat" 12 x 16 Oil

Then I said goodbye to my Uncle and Aunt in Clayton and headed to Germanton. This was a Thursday where we were supposed to submit four framed paintings later that afternoon. I scouted the area around the Gallery and David (gallery owner) told me to go to either Scott's House where most of the other artists were meeting but were going to paint around a barn nearby or paint wherever I want along the way.

Sure enough the views were so pretty that I had to stop at friendship road to paint the mountain view. Although i made one attempt to locate the group but was really getting tired of driving and running out of time that I just stopped by a roadside and painted.

"Friendship Road View" 8 x 10 Oil