EAST: East Austin Studio Tour 2011

Happy News!

I'll be participating in the East Austin Studio Tour this year. My paintings will be at the Real Gallery, #46 on the Tour. Please stop by and see the exhibit if you're out and about. The Real Gallery will also be open during the week: Monday - Thursday from 2:30 to 5:30.

The Italy Paintings!!!

Here are the paintings I did in Italy at the Carver/Stats workshop... at least, the three that made the cut. I also did some black and white studies but threw all of them away except one and someone in the workshop accidentally picked it up. We were timed on all the paintings we did, these are 1 1/2 hour studies. We also did one exercise where we had to pick a spot do a 10 minute study, turn 25 degrees and do another, etc. until we had made a complete turn. Will post those later.


Ciao,
Ann

The first is a view of the vineyards and service road right below the Villa we stayed at. The second is a painting of one of the outbuildings at the Villa. All of the buildings had the most wonderful copper gutters with incredible details on them. Very Etruscan looking. The last is of one of the main streets in Certaldo Alto, one of the hill villages closest to the Villa.

News!!!

Hello

As usual, I've been bad about posting. I do have news though...

Three paintings were juried into the Plein Air Austin Members show which runs from Oct. 2 to Nov 19 at the Corridor of Arts downtown Austin. Please visit if you can as there's some really great art. You'll be glad you did...






While I have been working on paintings in the studio, I did not do too much plein air painting this summer as it was just too d... hot. Then I went to Italy for the Jill Carver/Katherine Stats workshop. Words cannot express how much fun that was. I am so grateful I got to go as it has been on my dream list of things to do for years. Here's a photo of our Austin group on the last evening in Certaldo, Tuscany.

From L to R: Nancy Kirk, Nina Brodsky, me, Suzanne Stewart, Deborah Thomas and Ruthie Ford









When I returned to Austin, I discovered the day of the reception that all three of my paintings had been juried into the Wimberley Valley Art League Members show. A great honor as there are only 26 works in the show. When the DH and I got to the reception, I discovered I had gotten second-place award. Well, knock me over, y'all...

Me with my painting "Riverwalk Pigeons" which placed second in the show.










This past week, was the Scot Christensen and Quang Ho Reception and Demo at the Insight Gallery in Frederickburg, TX. This exhibit is well worth the drive to see! Twelve of us went to the show and the demo and also did a little painting on the side. Here's a photo of us after the leaving the reception.

Yes, it's all the usual suspects...
Front Row, L to R: Nancy Kirk, Sandra Farrell, Suzanne Stewart, Kay Morris, Deborah Thomas
Standing, L to R: Camille Olsen, Me, Karen Wilkerson, Ellen Willis

Not seen is Belinda Aber-Haddock as she was taking the photo!



My last post was about the Austin Visual Arts Association exhibit where both of my paintings were juried in. Here's a photo of me with the paintings: Wide Urban Spaces 1 and 2.

AVAA Show-Bucking the Texas Myth

Greetings!

I'm very excited to announce that I'll have two paintings in the upcoming AVAA show, "Bucking the Texas Myth." The first painting is one I posted last month and renamed "Wide Urban Spaces 2." The second is also an urban scene. I'll post an image of it tomorrow.

The show will be held at the Austin Art Space at 7739 Northcross Dr. here in Austin. The opening reception is this Saturday, August 13th from 6:30 to 8:30. If you're in town, please do come by and say hello.

El Mercado at Sunrise

I love painting urban scenes of my favorite city, Austin, TX. Especially at those quiet times of the day like very early in the morning. Today's posting is one I did this past Spring. It's the back of El Mercado Restaurant on 17th and Guadalupe. Catching the early morning light in combination with the street lighting really intrigued me.

El Mercado at Sunrise, 6 x 8 Oil on panel

I Art Congress, May 14th

Hello

This past Thursday was the fourth I Art Congress at the Real Gallery. Unfortunately, all the venues on the list to tour experienced little traffic. Still, we had a very good time. Here I am with my good friend, Bonnie Orr, a local screenwriter and producer. Thanks to my fellow exhibiter, Greta Olivas, for allowing me use of the photo. Oh, BTW, those are not my paintings, mine were on the other side of those panels :-)

Some Still Lifes and Exhibit News

Hello:

I will have paintings at two venues this week. The first is "I Art Congress" this Thursday evening from 6 to 9 pm at 912 E Congress and the second is the opening for the AVAA's Members Show this Saturday at Austin ArtSpace. Please come by, if you can, and say hello.

Now for the Fun Stuff! Two recently done still life paintings.

The first is a small painting of some stacked bowls that I painted at my friend, Nancy Kirk's home. We both painted the same setup and it's so interesting to see how our individual styles come through.

Bowled Over 6 x 6" Oil (Sold)

Her husband has put together a set up for lighting still lifes such as this. It was perfect and made setting up this little still life very easy.










A small study of some flowers I found on one of my walks with our dog, Priss.
Still Life 1 8 x 6 Oil (Sold)

I love doing small works like this. There's such a looseness of how the paint was laid on -- a lot of fun.

It's Wednesday already!

Good Morning:

I thought that today I'd post some studio and plein air studies I've done over the past several weeks. Since my mission for the summer is to paint en plein air as much as possible and trees, I thought I post a study I did of a Levitan painting. If you're not familar with Levitan, he was a Russian Post Impressionist and a wonderful painter. Please look him up. This is a section of one of his paintings:

A Bit of Levitan
Oil 10 x 8


Here's a study I did at Barton Springs Pool when I was painting with a few of the Wildcats Painters. Barton Springs is a lovely, spring fed pool located in Zilker Park here in Austin. I'm very pleased with the way I captured the transparency of the water and the shadows of the life guard station. Two other things I'm working on this summer...

Lifeguard at Barton Springs Pool
Oil 10x8


This last plein air study is from last week, when some of the Wildcats, the Brights and I met at the Park at Central Market North and painted. The Park is really very lovely with a walking trail, lovely trees and a pond. This whole complex used to be part of the State Mental Hospital (sorry, I don't know it's official name) and you can see some buildings in the background that still remain. (BTW, it's still in use.)

The Pond at Central Market North
Oil 6x8

Jill Carver Workshop - March 18-20, 2011

Hello All:

I recently attended Jill Carver's Workshop in Wimberley, TX (sponsored by the Wimberley Artist League) and it was a fabulous experience. Several of my painting buddies have asked me to post my studies so here they are (disclaimer: these are not finished paintings but studies done for different exercises Jill assigned).

First Day
We painted at the Sabino Ranch which is owned by Bill and MF Johnson. They originally own and operated Camp Longhorn which my husband attended as a young boy. Their property in Wimberley is just beautiful and borders the "Blue Hole" section of Cypress Creek. Our mission of the day was to do four value studies: One set done while it was cloudy; a black/white study and a color study of the same view and then one set done when it was sunny - again a black/white and a color study of the same view. We were also divided into two groups: Group A had an infinite number of values to use and Group B had 5. Lucky me as I was in Group A. Soon after we started the clouds went away so only the "Sunny" set was done. Here are my examples:



Jill also took a photo of the view we painted and showed all three images in iPhoto set to black and white so we could see if our values were the same all the through.

Day 2
More of the same but this time we went to Deborah Elliot's fabulous ranch. She and her partner have wonderful hilltop views where you can see for miles. Jill painted a demo of an oak tree. We painted in the afternoon. I did a color study of a cedar tree on the property. It's slightly mangled as it got caught in the lock of the trunk of my car. The trees folage is very splochy -- my summer project is TREES...



Day 3
Back at Sabino Ranch with more black and white studies for me.



The first painting is more successful than the second. The values are truer to the view I painted. The second looked more like a nocturne before I painted into it but the tree is still a little too dark.

Two Views of the Hillcountry

Yikes, it's mid-April and I haven't posted the finished painting of "Twight on N. Lamar." I think I have this problem of photographing work just about solved and, once it is, I won't have this excuse for not posting anymore. Of course, I have others to use but soon, not this one :-D.

Instead, I'll post two paintings I did two weeks ago at my friend and fellow painter, Suzanne Stewart's ranch out near Hamilton Pool (outside of Austin). Her beautiful home sits on a big hill and so one gets a bird's eye view of the surrounding country side--just beautiful. Here are the two small studies I did that morning:

View from Suzanne's House 6 x 8 Oil











Alamo Village at the Reimer's Ranch 6 x 8 Oil

Sunset on N. Lamar

I'm in the process of finishing this painting for the next I Art Congress show at Real Gallery. Since it's been such a long time since I've posted (the usual excuse: paint or blog and then I had a bit of bad luck - broken finger on right hand and then a few weeks later, I tripped over a parking curb in the dark and broke my right collarbone), it's embarrassing. I'm fine now and am back at the easel.

Sunset on North Lamar was painted from a photo I took on my way to paint with Noel Robbins. The sunset that evening was so beautiful I had to paint it.


"Sunset on North Lamar" 8 x 10 Oil