Plein Air Convention 2016

 Just back from the Plein Air Convention 2016 in Tucson, Arizona.  It was amazing!  I met some of my absolute artist heroes, painted and demonstrated.  The horses are my pastel demo.

Lily Pads

"Lily Pads" was started in my studio and mostly done with a palette knife.  I brought it to my oil class to finish as a demo.  I thought it would be good for my students to see it transform from mostly an abstract painting of color fields into this more descriptive painting of a pond.  It's 18 x 24 oil on canvas

Watercolor Figures

5 min

Why watercolor?  I love working the figure from life.  It keeps us fresh, observant and forced to make decisions quickly and with authority.  I learn a lot from doing this.  I am used to doing oil and pastel figures but with watercolor, I experience a greater challenge.  Watercolors are "dangerous"...one often feels they have a life of their own.  I am learning to be free with accuracy, let the water define my shadow shapes which in turn, define the form.

10 min

 20 min

5 min

25 min

Taking a Break

On a snowy day in April I decided on this little 6 x 6 oil on board as my morning demo

Marketplace and Charleston pastels

Marketplace

Still practicing..honing my familiarity with pastels for the Plein Air in Tucson.

Charleston

Portuguese Street

Well, the Plein Air Convention is just two weeks away and as I will be a pastel demonstrator, I thought I better start getting back to some pastels.  Not sure what I will demo yet, but don't want to go in cold!  So, this is "Portuguese Street" and it's a 9 x 12 done on Colorfix Paper with Terry Ludwig and Unison pastels.  I will be demonstrating at 11 am on the Pastel Stage on Saturday, April 16.

Masai

This morning's oil demo.  I chose to paint a more detailed figure for my class...I wanted to talk about structure of the head and turning form with color.