(brace yourself) Boathouses!

My first--and greatest--student teacher was in town and she wanted to have an art-geek morning and go plein air painting! How could I resist?! We set up camp at non other than the Canandaigua Boathouses! Wendy ended up selling one of her pieces almost right off her easel! 


[oil paint on gessoboard panel, W+N oil paints on an allaprimapochade.com box]

Wendy's setup

More of her setup

action shot

finished painting

both of our finished pieces!

Not the boathouses--but close

If you've read any of my past posts you will notice that I like to sketch or paint the historic boathouses in Canandaigua. This particular day was too nice of a day to sit inside, so I made the trek down to the boathouses but instead of drawing them I sketched a lazy sailboat just opposite them.



[TWSBI Diamond 580, broad nib, w/Rohrer & Klingner Document ink, D+S watercolors in a Stillman & Birn Beta sketchbook-softcover]

Finger Lakes Plein Air

The FL Plein Air Festival is a fairly large art festival here in the finger lakes. There are 40 some juried-in artists that compete for a grand prize after painting all week. Their subjects are all taken from the finger lakes and range from creeks, to lakes, to barns, to ice cream shops. The artists travel around and set up shop in various locations and for 6 days you bump into them like a giant where's waldo book. I met a few artists and hit it off with a bunch of art-geek conversations. Keith Grunderson and Janet Howard-Fatta were two that I kept bumping in to! 

While the juried in artists are painting away there is a community quick paint event. We have 2 hours to paint and all of us are confined to a small location with a similar subject. This year was the boathouses that I paint and sketch on a weekly basis! 


I decided I should paint the boathouses without actually painting the boathouses. I found some cool buoys and set to work! 

the sketch

the final

my setup

our sketch group participants!

Plein air mini-hike

What do you do when your golf swing goes in the toilet and you don't want to meet your friends for a round? Why you go paint! 

So I grabbed my oil painting gear and headed into the woods. Onanda park "doesn't have hiking trails" but what it does have is an awesome walk into a waterfall with some more waterfalls if you are a billy goat--I had 45 pounds of painting gear on my back--so I opted to stay grounded. I eventually found a cool, flat, spot and picked out some tree roots to capture. It was an intimidating subject, but I had nothing but time in a very serene location. I even found a friend to keep me company! 

my only critic

Plein air afternoon

It was finally a nice afternoon around here and we had a sniff of spring last week. I grabbed the plein air kit and headed out to get some practice for the Finger Lakes Plein Air festival. I was accompanied by some locals who were sharing some VERY interesting life stories. 

[w+n/gamblin oils, allaprima pochade box--custom]

sketch

round 1

final

Bernie! Bernie!

After a quick breakfast I noticed some Bernie supporters on main street. They were waving signs and chanting things the sunday before the primary. I though they would make a great sketch subject so off I went. 

I learned a lot sitting there:
-Trump supporters are rude
-Trump supporters drive HUGE trucks
-Bernie supporters drive Civics or a Prius
-You are NEVER going to change people's minds by yelling at them
-You are doing any political favors yelling at people who yell "Trump"
-People are very ill-informed
-Opinions created in a vacuum are dangerous--for either side. 

[various pens, d+s watercolors, stillman and birn gamma sketchbook]

brrrrrrrrr plein air painting

We have had some unusually warm days this past few weeks so I have taken the pochade box out for a spin. The only problem is that with these warm days there is always a high wind factored in. So it isn't as warm as you want it to be! 

Boathouses

If you have read any of my posts before you will have seen that I have attempted to draw the boathouses on Canandaigua Lake many times: 

http://reddout.blogspot.com/2015/04/canandaigua-boathouse.html
http://reddout.blogspot.com/2014/12/painting-woes.html
http://reddout.blogspot.com/2015/05/canandaigua-boathouses-part-73.html
http://reddout.blogspot.com/2015/08/plein-air.html

While searching for some ideas in my classroom I came across an artist that drew these little fictitious scenes of buildings. The buildings were small, detailed and painted in watercolors. So I thought what a cool technique, I want to try that but I just need a subject...

[my girlfriend's (*edit* fiancee's) micron pens and D+S watercolors on either Stillman & Birn Delta loose sheets or Strathmore watercolor paper]

One man sketchcrawl

60 degrees and sunny in February! That calls for a sketch crawl! 

[namiki falcon with DeArtementis Document ink, D+S watercolors in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

[ball point pen, in a toned tan Strathmore sketchbook]

Playing ketchup

A running joke with my students is our MUSTARD DAYS. Not Catch up days, but Mustard. Get it?! So this post will be me play catch-up. Things get a little nutty around the holidays, so posting to an art blog isn't too high on the priority list. 

1. I have been following and reading about "vintage flexible nib pens" on instagram and the interwebs. I was determined to find a pen that was cheap, old, and had some super-flex to it. It just so happens that there is an antique mall about 2 miles from my house that houses, no joke, 1,000 different dealers! There are aisles and aisles of cases containing just about everything, including vintage pens! I picked up this guy, which is a 1930s (maybe) Gold Bond, 14K nib pen for $40!!! It's too cool! The flex is a amazing and I am dying to take it for a spin. 

2. We had a "last-day-before-break-holiday-sing-a-long-assembly" and of course I had my sketchbook. The kids were all wearing some sort of holiday hat which made for some fun sketches! I wish the songs were a little longer so I could have captured them better. 

[Uni-ball vision ball point pen, a brush pen with water and J. Herbin Pearl Noire ink, red Inktense watercolor pencil, in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

3. Same day as #2, but this was kindergarten playing with the blocks. The colors and movement were fun to see but hard to capture! 

[Uni-ball vision ball point pen, a Pilot Brush pen, a brush pen with water and J. Herbin Pearl Noire ink, Inktense watercolor pencils, in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

4. Since I have gotten into sketching one of the best things is waiting. Waiting in the doctor's office, waiting for a friend in a coffee shop, waiting in a mall, waiting in an airport (which is sketching gold) or just waiting. I can whip out my sketchbook and capture something. I was waiting for some friends at a new trendy, hipster restaurant, and sketched some of the glassware. They weren't necessarily in a neat line, but that is the beauty of sketching--do whatever you want! 

[Uni-ball vision ball point pen, namiki falcon with DeArtementis Document ink, a Pilot Brush pen, a brush pen with water and J. Herbin Pearl Noire ink, in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

5. Some more waiting! This time for a delicious burger from 5 Guys. After this sketch I realized that we are a VERY unshapely group of people.  

[Uni-ball vision ball point pen, a waterbrush with water and J. Herbin Pearl Noire ink, Inktense watercolor pencils, in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

6/7/8/9. Lamberton Conservatory! Rochester's best kept secret. I told myself that I wouldn't sketch the turtles because I do every time I am there. But I couldn't help myself--they make great models!  

[namiki falcon with DeArtementis Document ink, a Pilot Brush pen, a brush pen with water and J. Herbin Pearl Noire ink, D+S watercolors in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

10. A quick sketch of the dishes as dinner sautéed on the stove! My new favorite subject. 

[a Pilot Brush pen, a brush pen with water and J. Herbin Pearl Noire ink, in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

11. "You should mount a M60 on a tripod--no one would come on to your land then!"--um yeah. Exactly what is wrong with our country. A sketch of some hillbillies at a local diner. 

[Uni-ball vision ball point pen, a waterbrush with water and J. Herbin Pearl Noire ink, in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

12. "Santa! I know him!" Right next to my abode, there is Santa's house! Seriously, Santa. The real deal. It was a balmy 60 degree December day so I sat and sketched the people in line to see Santa! I was trampled on by a family of 5 kids, saw a woman almost pass out for no reason and watched at least 4 kids cry about 4 different things--mostly not wanting to leave the presence of his almighty Santa.

[namiki falcon with DeArtementis Document ink, D+S watercolors in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

13. More waiting! 

[Uni-ball vision ball point pen, a waterbrush with water and J. Herbin Pearl Noire ink, in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

14. And more waiting! This time for delicious, overly and un-necessarily salty Chinese food! 

[Uni-ball vision ball point pen, a waterbrush with water and J. Herbin Pearl Noire ink, in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

15. Another assembly at school and I got stuck in the storage room running the AV system so I sketched the crowd! 

[Uni-ball vision ball point pen, a waterbrush with water and J. Herbin Pearl Noire ink, in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

16. More waiting at the local diner. 

[Uni-ball vision ball point pen, in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

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Workout, sketch

What a better way to nuke a good workout session than to stop by the local bakery for a danish and a coffee. The danish was only half the calories since I started the sketch, ate half, sketched some more, than ate the other half. Right? Right?

[a Derwent "GRAPHIK" line marker in a Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook-landscape]

Last pages of sketchbook (lucky) #13

Here are the last few pages of sketchbook #13. I started this book on 8-16-15 and wrapped it up on 11-8-15. Not a bad run for a 64 page book! 

If you had seen the last post I sketched some dishes drying with some minimal tools--pentel brush pen, brush pen with some grayed out black ink. It was fun to think with minimal distractions, and I had to concentrate on translating the view I was looking at with only a few marks. That weekend I was in a coffee shop and they had a pile of dirty dishes and I used the same tools and got to work. The best part was that they kept on adding on to the pile and I kept on sketching! I could have been there for weeks if I wanted to! 

I got tired of doing the dishes, so I moved onto some folks sitting starring at their laptops or phones. I tried out some new "Graphtone" water-soluble colored pencils from Derwent.























My last page of sketchbook #13 was a very quick attempt at capturing a cool sunset on some buildings in town. Once I got the outline done the sun had set and I had to paint like Superman trying to reverse the earth's rotation. I cheated and added some details at home where there was light and warmth.