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The Blog &
Stuff, 2009
Read the 2008 entries
August 11, 2009
July's
Colorado trip
Last month I
spent a week painting in the beautiful San Juan Mountains of
Southwestern Colorado around Ouray, Silverton and Telluride.
This was to be an outing with the Outdoor Painters Society, but
an ear infection forced me to delay my arrival until the end of
that gathering and, except for one evening meal, I missed the
opportunity to socialize with the group.
It was a great
week of camping and painting. The weather was such a nice change
from the humid heat of East Texas in July that it was truly
difficult to come home.
I did fifteen
plein air studies in six days (as always, I feel it should have
been more), and took 275 digital photos. My objective was to
observe and capture the subtle changes in value and color of the
mountain landscape as it recedes in those great distances -
changes not seen at home and which are difficult to capture
unless one is able to paint that subject frequently. Some of the
studies can stand as framed pieces (three are reserved for a
show in December) and the others will remind me of what I saw
and felt as I painted them. And they, along with the photos,
will be used as reference material for larger studio pieces. In
fact, I have done one small studio piece so far for another show
(see below).
I have started
planning another trip to the area for later this year, but we'll
have to see if that materializes. There is certainly plenty of
subject matter there waiting for me.
Toward
Silverton, 9x12
May 16, 2009
Recent
outings with the OPS
During the last
two months I have spent some time painting with other members of
the Outdoor Painters Society, once in the area around Brenham,
TX, and then in the Hill Country around Fredericksburg. It's
always great to get together with this group and at the Hill
Country event we had around sixty members and guests! Quite a
turnout.
Some of the
OPS kicking back before supper
If you're a
plein air painter you know you must put up with distractions
like bugs, rain, wind, passing art critics and more. Well, the
first problem in the Hill Country was wind. One painting I did
was much looser than my normal style because I simply couldn't
always put my strokes where I was aiming due to the wind. Then
after two days of good light and too much wind, the heavy clouds
moved in and things got pretty dark, making it hard to find an
exciting scene.
Michael
McClure and Bob Rohm under a bridge on Crabapple Creek
I had waited
too late to get room reservations through the weekend, and I had
found a room near Brenham for Friday night, figuring I would
paint around Brenham on Saturday. So after painting a small
study of the Pedernales River on Friday morning, I headed to
Austin to see my brand-new grandson (less than two weeks old at
that point). Later that day I drove on to Round Top near Brenham
where I visited the Gallery at Round Top and had a good
conversation with the owners, Karen Vernon and Ken Meunzenmayer.
After assessing the weather again and determining it was still
too dark to paint and unlikely to improve, I decided to cut my
losses, cancelled my room and headed home.
Lots of people
can paint on those dark days and come away with nice paintings.
But for me, it takes subjects that lend themselves to the
low-contrast, dark motif and I wasn't finding those. The bugs,
heat, etc., don't keep me from painting, but after having done
this for several years now I have learned that, at least for me,
if the light isn't conducive to painting, I need to go home and
come back another day.
The best news
to come out of the trip is that I was invited to join the
Gallery at Round Top and will have some things there as soon as
I can finish a few suitable pieces.
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