(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!

Plein Air--Ganondagan

We got up at an obscenely early time for a sunday and went painting/photo-bug-hunting at a near by Native American Community/Museum. They have some great hiking trails and grasslands open to the public--which coincidentally for my fiancee--contain a ton of creepy crawly spiders for her to take pictures of. Meanwhile, I can set up the ole easel and paint away! 

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

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

Apples and oil paints

My lovely girlfriend and I got up way too early on a Sunday and headed out to the Apple Farm for an "art date"--she takes pictures, I paint. The day was wildly beautiful, sun and clouds and a crisp fall air blowing in from the wrong direction. I hiked it way out to the far corner of the property trying to find something to paint. It wasn't for a lack of scenery, it was the opposite--TOO MUCH SCENERY! I started one painting and about 45 minutes in I was not happy with the design so I wiped it all down and moved to start something different. The results were much better! 

All the while I was visited by some nut-hatches, a cardinal, a disc-golfer, and a family of turkeys. 

Oh, and the best part about painting at an apple farm? No need to bring snacks! They grow on trees! 

(Thanks Bejan)

first attempt

better attempt!

sketching seems to help with my design

Thousand Islands

But has anyone "really" counted them?

We had a dudes weekend planned and the weather decided to be less than favorable for the time we were in the 1,000 Islands. Mid morning I took break from our usual shenanigans and headed down to the water to paint. It was a dreary morning, gray and more gray, rainy and did I mention gray? 

I decided to use a limited palette to reflect the grayness. Indigo came in really handy! 

the image needed some editing--it was so gray the pic was dull! 

Plein Air

I recently purchased a travel pochade box (thank you Ben for creating a custom smaller version for me!) so I can dive into plein air painting. Plein air painting is an old form of painting where the artist travels outside of the studio and creates a piece outdoors, while in front of their subject. Monet was a very big proponent of this style, often time painting 10 or 12 pieces in a row as the light changed! Most of the time the artist will create the piece, alla prima, which means 'first attempt' or all in one sitting. My plan was to use this as a hiking kit, travel to a location, create a painting, and then hike out. It took a few tries to get the pack situation figured out, what tools and snacks to bring in order to be truly portable. Below you can see the setup and a few paintings I have attempted with this new piece of hardware. 

started on site, but had to leave in a hurry--finished in studio

maiden voyage! canandaigua lake vista

started a cool sketch of the boathouses and then a truck blocked my view! 

a paint outing with canandaigua's finest artists

My lovely girlfriend giving it a whirl!

wednesday night painting!

My better half brought home some lovely sunflowers and all day wednesday I was super excited to bring them to painting class and paint them! I've attempted flowers before and it didn't go as planned. So after a few false starts I pounded out a 12" x 16" painting! It was a ton of fun and yet another painting where I feel like I am "getting it"! 

[oil paint on 12"x16" canvas]

wed. night paintin'

It is (was) wednesday! That means painting night! I was digging for some reference when I remembered this cool picture a local photographer friend had taken. I saved it to my phone and thought "this would make a cool painting". I set up my phone, turned the auto-lock off and got to work! 

This is probably the first painting I have made where I am super-excited about the outcome, and during the whole process I had a clear direction, and an idea where I wanted the piece to go. It was awesome! 

After the hour it took to paint, I wasn't in the mood to paint another panel. So I grabbed my sketchbook and sketched one of the women who was working. She is very animated when she works and made a great subject. 

[painting: oil paints on 8x10 gessobord panel]
[sketch: pilot V5 pen with PITT cool gray markers, and white gel pen in a NEW Strathmore Toned Gray Sketchbook]

last wednesday night painting

Whoops! I forgot about these guys! 

The first painting was an edit to a painting of the Canandaigua boathouses that I started a few weeks ago. I was unhappy with it and edited some of the shadows and pushed some colors. Much better! 

The second was a small plant in the corner and I decided to make an impromptu still-life. 30 minutes later--Voila!

[Oil paints on 8x10 gessoboard]

wed. night paintin'

[oil on gessobord<--yes that is spelled correctly]

wed. night paintin'

wednesday nights mark my excitement for the week because that means i get a sloppy burger and i get to paint with oils. i haven't found my subject matter i am married to yet, bouncing between still-life's and painting from photos. i am not a fan of painting from a photo because it isn't "fun". i don't get the depth from seeing something in real life, if the lighting is off, i can't just turn on a light and adjust--you are stuck with what you are looking at in an photo. so while a few artists were eating lunch the other day there was this little butter container that a finger had pushed into creating a little wave of yellow aluminum and some neat shadows. it was a neat little object, a fun composition in a tiny little butter container. i immediately thought "cool! that's going to be my subject--a little butter container!!". of course i left it at home and forgot to bring it! there is always next week! 

instead i was stuck with painting from a photo--more boathouses! 

[oil on gessoed MDF panel, 8x10]

wed. night painting

i was uber-excited to get to my wednesday night painting class. i got all setup, all ready to go, and i ad no idea what to paint. another student had the idea to paint this still life. a cliched wine bottle, carafe, and some grapes. i wasn't feeling it and neither was my instructor. so i wiped it down and started again. i am still unhappy with the results and i think the MDF panel is going to meet mr. turpentine and mr. sander next week. 

wednesday night painting!

here is tonight's adventure. i was trying to capture the progression of the painting process. but i got too into the painting and forgot some other shots. oh well. there is always next week!

tools: [oil paint on board]

[edited] wed. night paintin'

while all of us artists were having a delicious burger, we decided to create a still-life at the studio and all of us would paint it! some of the artists had never painted a still-life before! it was a pleasure to see all of our different approaches and styles all from the same subject matter! 

oil paint on MDF board

EDITED! 
here is the same painting touched up a bit! 

oil paintin'

oil on gessoed MDF board. 

back in the saddle

it's been 18 years since i have painted with oil paints--so instead of buying a new xbox one, i bought myself a painting class at a local art gallery. i joined a gaggle of seven "seasoned" woman, and another dude. some of them have been painting every wednesday for 8 years! crazy! 

i was a little nervous at first, and a little intimidated. everyone had all of their cool art tools all laid out, squeezing paints on assorted palettes or boards and taping up their reference photos. the room was filled with the smell of linseed oil and turpentine! (could that be a new yankee candle?)

a majority of these artists created their artwork slowly and methodically. i dove in throwing paint around and getting to work. a few finished one piece, i blasted thorough two!

it felt good to be painting again and the freeness of your mind while you do it is refreshing. it's like a mini-vacation from everything! i look forward to the next 5 wednesdays!


oil on masonite panels