My Painting Journal

Scott Powers 5 Day Plein Air Workshop

2009-08-20T14:51:00.028-04:00

Scott giving a short Lecture during day one in Bayonet Farm in Holmdel.

I am posting a few photos from the recently concluded 5 day Plein Air Workshop by Scott Powers. It was a lot of work to set it up but I learned a lot watching him teach all levels of painters vs. if I had just been one of the participants. I was also able to assist him in teaching one or two people , some were really beginners, and as I was teaching learned a lot too. Teaching enforces your methods and forces you to be aware of the fundamentals all the time. Anyway, we all had lots of fun and thanks to a lot of help from Judy Stach and so many different people, we had great locations and except for a day or two of hot and rainy weather an overall great experience.

Scott Doing a demo during the first day.

The first Day was a long Demo and lecture combination. Scott would show and tell you about his overall approach and show you his materials and how he has modified some of his materials over the years. Now he has resorted to making some of his own brushes so that it gives him a more organic and irregular look to his brushwork. His demo lasted for three hours and brings you from start to finish with mini lectures on proper ways of holding the brush to give you an easier time to control the minute details like tree limbs , windows , etc. After the demos he would ask the participants to do value drills working only in monochrome. At the end of the first day, Scott and I stayed and we painted till around 6 pm with a few people just hanging out either painting or watching.

Location of Day two at a private estate by the Navesink River

Day two started out rainy and wet but Scott was able to find a spot under a huge tree to show participants the lesson and drills for that day. In the afternoon everybody just painted spectacular views and we were happy to have Kathy Anderson of the Putney Painters visit us and Paint with us the entire afternoon.

Scott doing the second demo on day 3

Dinner Party at my home on day 3

(l to r: Nancy and Wayne , Soody (standing) , Lilli Anne , Scott , and Liron )

Day 3 was at a private Yacht club and ended at my home for a party for everyone.

It was nice to be able to relax and have some good food and good wine with a lot of great people.

My husband Mel was the one responsible for the food everyone kept talking about that night.

Thanks to him everyone went home with a new culinary experience.

One of Scotts bonus demos after the workshop day was over.

Day four was at Bayonet Farm again and this time Scott was letting everyone try to put together all they have learned and paint one or two paintings while he came around to everyone trying to help them individually. He actually made it a point to try to get to each individual at least twice a day since day one.

The Final Day was used for his slide show and critique of most paintings done by everyone during the week. We were hosted by the Middletown Art Center who let us use their state of the art theater facility for the slide show, morning painting and critique.

Overall I would have to say it was even better than last year. Here are a few testimonials:

"The workshop with Scott Powers was inspiring, informative, and very well organized. Not a minute was wasted, as Scott spent quality time with each student. What I took away from the workshop was how to see colors in the landscape, the importance of composition, and how to position my panel/palette to use reflective light to maintain the most consistent light on my painting surface. At the end of the workshop, Scott holds a professional critic of each persons work which is so beneficial for an aspiring artist to learn, and finally a show of his fantastic masterpieces. I highly recommend this workshop with Scott. " - Roxanne Duke

"The workshop experience was fabulous. Scott gave so much to all of us. We have all come away with knowledge to improve our work." - Leonia Mroczkowski

" I enjoyed working with Scott - he's the best, by giving specific suggestions on how to see as well as how to proceed to the finished painting. He is the best for giving individual attention -- he expends a lot of energy seeing every student several times during the day. Again, I say he's the best. " - Bob Herbert

Thanks to Scott and everyone who helped me make this workshop a success, I hope to do it again next year and look for ways to make it even better.

Scott Powers Workshop

2009-08-06T04:53:00.001-04:00

I am in the middle of another workshop by one of todays young masters, Scott Tallman Powers. I had met him and first saw his work at Plein air Easton in 2006. I had talked to him about wanting to study with him and set up plans for him to come to New Jersey so that other artists from my area would also benefit. Two years of planning later , and with a lot of help, we were able to do it and it was a success. The reviews from other artists were all positive and all were very happy with the amount of time Scott had spent with each student. I will post some photos from last year as well as this years workshop after it is done.

Whats up for 2009

2009-02-25T17:13:00.008-05:00

I've never really expected to be blogging about events more than the painting process as I originally put this blog up to remind me what I have learned in my artistic journey. But the events that I have been fortunate to be a part of has been so much fun and I do learn a lot too from other artists that I meet and from the experience itself. Lets take Plein Air Easton for example, this is the very first plein air event that I joined three years ago. Last year was my third year to be juried into this event and every year I always seem to learn something new and add to my overall artistic growth. Just seeing the quality art hanging at the Academy Art Museum by other competing artists , seeing how they paint the same subject you have seen and maybe painted too and their choices in design and composition is a worthwhile learning experience in itself.

Last year's Plein air Easton was special for me because the Academy Art Museum had purchased one of my paintings for their permanent collection.

Oxford Moonrise 11 x 14 oil

Permanent Collection Academy Art Museum

I also won an honorable mention for another painting "Oxford Boatyard" . At the end of the event I had sold a total of five paintings so I was very happy and greatful.

The people that make Plein Air Easton a success are really the big number of volunteers that work so hard for the Artists and the show itself. Many thanks go out to them, and also to our hosts who graciously open their homes to us.

Another Event that I had participated in last year is Paint Annapolis hosted by Mapapa ( the Mid Atlantic Plein Air Painters.) Again, another good event to meet great people and good artists. I stayed with my hosts who again were very nice and hospitable people.

Hopefully I get into good shows again this year, so far I have just come back from the 2009 CM Russell Auction , the first time for me and it was great. I will write about the CM Russell Auction on my next post. I have to get ready for my 2nd paint North Carolina Plein Air event coming up next week. Then my painting "Silent Rush" will be in San Antonio Texas for the 2009 Salon International in the Greenhouse Gallery.

Silent Rush 20 x 30 oil

I hope to write about the events when I return.

Paint North Carolina 2008

2008-05-05T11:14:00.035-04:00

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

2008-11-28T20:07:00.009-05:00

Scott Christensen 10 day intensive workshop

Oh my, I had not realized it had been 3 months since I last put an entry in my Blog. September and October had been really busy for me as I had a ton of paintings to do for my Three person show I had at one of my galleries, then I had to prepare for the Scott Powers workshop I had set up at the Guild of Creative Art. I'll write about that workshop after I have done catching up on writing about the busy summer schedule I had.
I want to write something about my experience with Scott Christensen's 10 day intensive workshop I took last June. I have to say I really did learn a lot. The way he taught was really very organized , where he would begin with three full days of lectures , really breaking down the basic information needed to really understand what he has learned in his years of painting and serious study of the landscape and what it takes to paint it successfully. He then does a demo which takes a whole day due to the fact that he did a 40 by 48 inch piece! He takes the demo piece to an almost finished state, letting us know that in a couple of days he would show us how to rework it.

You can view the finished piece here
Then he put that piece away to be finished on a later date, and he did another painting that was bit smaller .

After that he let us out painting in designated spots where he divided the 40 person class into two groups, and meeting everyone at a certain time to work on each persons painting problems with everyone watching, which was very good because everyone got to see different problems and how he would fix them.
At the end of the workshop he did a group critique and again worked out problems on a collective basis. In terms of one on one time, although we were 40, it somehow did not feel that way.
I'd say overall it was really great . If there was only one workshop that you could take in a year, take this. If you really are serious about your work and really want to know how to get better at painting the landscape, Scott's workshop will give you the tools you will need.

During the last day of the workshop After all the critiquing was done, Scott and Kristie surprised me by wanting to purchase one of my paintings I had done during the workshop .

I still don't remember the exact words I was saying to them when they told me that , but I bet I acted like a babbling fool. So I think I did forget everything I learned because of that shocker. :) Now I don't think anything can top that workshop experience for me.

" Before Sunset" 11 x 14 , oil . Collection of the Artist Scott L. Christensen and Kristie Grigg

Before I end this I have to say that Charlie and Kristie really worked hard at taking care of the little things that really made a difference to one's workshop experience.

Wayne Plein Air

2008-05-29T09:40:00.012-04:00

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.

2008-08-05T06:30:00.006-04:00

Variations on a Theme

Silent Moonrise 24 x 36 Oil

I have not posted in quite some time due to the events that I have been involved in but I will try to keep up and post more as the summer season is coming to a close. I still have to write about my workshop experience with Scott Christensen and my Plein Air Easton 2008 experience but before that I want to say something about a painting I had done before I went to these events and to touch on the process and source for this painting.

This painting had been brewing in my head for two years. !! I saw this scene in Easton Md , two years ago during the first Plein Air Easton event that I had been involved with. I was driving down to Oxford if I remember right, just after the welcome reception , before it actually got dark, and along the road I saw a row of pines and behind it was the moon , a color of pinkish orange that was only describable thru paints. After snapping a ton of photos and doing several studies, I finally did this 24 x 36 peice. I did this on gessoboard primed with Gamblin Oil Ground. I tried to paint the sky thinly so as to let some of the white ground add to the luminosity of the sky and put more texture thru scumbling layers of paint on the foreground . Below are two studies that I did , both 8 x 10 Oil on linen.

2008-04-03T15:52:00.014-04:00

Almost done just needs a few highlights here and there. Now it is time to put this away

Here is the finished shadow areas. I also tried to do some modifications on the tall pines on the upper right.

finished up the rocks then started working the yellow trees in the lighted areas. I also started working on the shaded foliage on the bottom right .

Then I block in the water and put a dark wash on the foreground foliage, also starting on the tree forms.

Here I work on the back islands trying to finish it as much as possible working from dark to light.

I usually work from back to front so I finish up the sky to point of finish that I am happy with. I also block in the darks of the foreground trees.

Final Painting

2008-04-03T16:19:00.012-04:00

Niagara River Morning . 30 x 40 . Oil on Linen

Here is after a whole day of modifications, lightening the far land forms, creating more mists in the water at the land form on the upper right, modifying the pines, adding more pines, and lightening the foreground shadows at the right a bit . Notice I also added rocks to the shaded areas which I did because I wanted to add more pinks and orange . I also added a small pale yellow tree in front of the tall one because I noticed the contrast between the top of the rock and the shadow areas of the tree attracted too much attention. By putting the yellowish shade of the tree beside the yellowish top part of the rocks it eliminated most of the contrast. I also put some highlights on the extreme right of the canvas to show the direction of the light .

first 30 x 40 demo

2008-04-03T14:09:00.002-04:00

This is a step by step of a painting that I did from a photo from my trip to Ontario, Canada and the Niagara region. The photos I used are from a roadside scenic view of the Niagara river. This is my initial rough sketch using turps and a neutral brown mixture. The surface is stretched Carleton DP by Fredrix .

2008-03-25T12:57:00.003-04:00

Afternoon Glimmer 24 x 30 Oil on Linen

This is my entry to the Salon International 2008 at the Greenhouse Gallery in San Antonio Texas. I did this scene from a plein air trip I took two years ago in upstate New York . It is the same place where I did my other painting that also got in the Salon Last year and sold during the event. I have been thinking of doing this painting for the longest time but always put it back. This is done on C13 Oil Primed Linen.

2008-03-25T12:38:00.002-04:00

Dragging the Net 18 x 24 Oil on Linen

This is a piece I did after several small studies of a scene I saw in Sandy Hook last October. I do not do a lot of figurative work, in fact this is probably my only one for 2007 or one of only two or three. I really like doing figurative work but i feel there is still so much to learn and so much more demands to really practice it. Besides, In my Landscapes, I still am very much challenged by the possibilities, that I think it would be good to focus on it first. But I will continue to do figurative work especially when scenes such as these present themselves.

Winter Brook

2008-03-25T12:15:00.003-04:00

18 x 24 Oil on linen

This is almost where i want it to be. I still wish I could add more color variety in the trees. But for now I am pleased with the result. In the future I may attempt to do the same painting on a larger scale after I have gathered more information in the field.

Snow Shadows

2008-02-25T13:44:00.004-05:00

6 x 8

I was trying to get the right color of the snow and its shadows for my studio piece I was doing earlier so I ventured out to my backyard this morning and did a quick oil study of the melting snow. Used a panel that i had primed with an Oil enamel that I bought in Home depot . it took the Paint really well . I read somewhere that Ken Auster was using some housepainting ground but not sure what it is. I like the way it takes the Paint off the brush. This was a Matte. the oil enamel comes in Matte and Gloss.

2008-02-15T16:08:00.008-05:00

Winter Brook 18 x 24

I worked on this piece using a fredrix linen board that i had covered with one layer of Gamblin Oil Ground. Ok so we still have not had any snow on the ground except for a dusting, so I searched through my old plein air stuff and found one painting I had done of this scene. I used white (utrecht) Ultramarine Blue, Pthalo Blue, Pthalo Green , Cad yellow lemon, Cad Yellow Light, Cad Orange, Radiant Pink, Alazarin Crimson, Chromatic Black, Terra Rosa, Burnt Sienna. I found the ground to be slick at first then it made the Paint tacky, maybe it was not dry enough? But I'm still not done with this as i need to darken some blues and define more branches , after working on it for 6 hours, I'll put it away for now.

Paint America Exhibit Schedule

2008-01-25T21:56:00.002-05:00

The exhibit for the Paint America Top 100 and Top mini 50 will be in Westboro Gallery in Topeka Kansas. It will Open on February 15, 2008 and will run till April 1. to see the participants go to www.paintamerica.org.

Happy New Year

2008-01-02T08:12:00.000-05:00

I decided to start a journal this year to basically compile and organize my thoughts and methods that I use in my painting processes and my plein air adventures. Although I have been painting a long time, It has sometimes been instinctive for me and I never really thought of documenting the 'hits and misses' of my plein air paintings, and my studio works. I do a lot of experimentation in my work and I know due to this I have learned a great deal.... but what did I really learn? Lets Begin with breaking down the materials I am currently using:

I use Linen Panels glued to gatorfoam, masonite or birch . I make these myself, although if I ran out of my own panels I use the Fredrix linen boards which are green at the back and are supposedly archival in quality. for the linens I use the C13 of Claessens and the Fredrix Carleton DP which has a rougher texture but i love the way it takes the paint. I use this now for works bigger than 12 x 16 , I find the texture of this linen in smaller works are too pronounced and can be distracting , unless I pile on the paint.

For Oil paints i use Artist Quality Rembrandt, Windsor&Newton, Gamblin and Grumbacher. for my Brushes i have recently switched from using only Flats to using Bristle Filberts and sometimes Flats , and Sable Flats. I like the Dick Blick masterstroke series 05208 Sables and Langnickel Sables series 5590, and I use different brands of Bristle brushes: Utrecht 209-F series , Robert Simmons Signet series , Richeson Signature Filberts and sometimes Arttec Bristle Supreme 500KF Filberts. I also use Cheap Utility house painting brushes that I buy from Hardware stores or the cheap Loew-Cornell bristles that you can buy at craft stores that come in big sizes. These are good for Big studio pieces where you want to quickly cover a big area on the canvas. As for the colors , I'll just post the ones I use per painting, this way I will be able to look back and compare .

Paint America

2008-01-22T09:48:00.001-05:00

Fountain Light 11 x 14 oil on linen

Just found out that my Painting "Fountain Light" was juried in the top mini 50 for the Paint America Competition. My other entry only made the 2nd 100 . I had only entered two as the fees can get expensive. The exhibit for this will be in Kansas, I will post more details when i get them.

First Good Weather Day

2008-01-07T17:12:00.000-05:00

9 x 12 . oil on linen

It was a good 65 degrees by noontime and I had managed to go out with my painting group to a farm in Middletown. it was around 11 am when I started and finished this 9 x 12 at around 12:45 . I used a C13 linen and for the colors I had used the ff:
White
Ultramarine Blue
Cad yellow Light
Cad yellow lemon
Cad Yellow Medium
Manganese Blue Hue
Ultramarine Violet
Emerald Green
Alazarin Crimson
Terra Rosa
Cad Orange
Bright red or Cad red light
Permanent Rose

I noticed the sky had a yellowish cast on the white areas, although The painting does not show it due to photography limitations, I tried to put a hint of yellow in the cloud areas. There were horses around but ran out of time to put them in before the light could change. there were a lot of pink highlights and subtleties in the grass and I used the permanent rose with white mixed in to the mixture of my light yellow green of the field. I used the Manganese Blue Hue instead of Pthalo Blue to make it easier to mix the sky color.