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

Paris Cafe

I did painted this Parisian street scene over the summer. I love Paris and if I can't be there, I'll create paintings of that wonderful city. This cafe is actually the one featured in the movie "Amelie," the one she worked at.

Rainlily Farm/Nocturne

Last Spring, my family and a friend went to a Cuban Pig Roast at Rainlily Farm that was sponsored by Slow Food Austin. Rainlily Farm is an urban organic farm within the city of Austin. The owners, not only farm organically, but have a landscaping design business and also run Farmhouse Delivery which sells their produce and produce from other Community Sponsored Agriculture or CSAs here in the Austin area to it's members. The food and atmosphere that night were wonderful--a lovely Spring moonlit evening to remember. I painted this from a photo I took of my son while we were waiting for our car at the end of the evening.

Rainlily Farm/Nocturne
Oil

PAA Exhibits

Hello:
Well, this is my first post in "quite" a long time and I apologize for taking such a long break from blogging. As I've said before I don't have a lot of free time so when the decision is paint or blog, I will be painting. Having said that I've promised my fellow artist friend, Regina Calton Burchett, that I will start blogging more--thank, you Regina, you are a true friend.

So what have I been up to. Well, this year Plein Air Austin has had two juried exhibits and I've managed to plein air paint enough that I had paintings to exhibit. The present one, which opens September 18th, will be held at the Bass Auditorium on the University of Texas at Austin campus. I will have two paintings in this.

Evening on the Guadalupe, 8 x 10 Oil:













Summertime in Austin, 6 x 8 Oil










Earlier this summer, we had a show at the Forsyth Gallery in College Station, TX. The gallery is very new and nicely equipped and the folks there are fantastic. Thank you again, Forsyth Gallery. Also exhibited two painting:

Long Shadows, 6.5 x 12 Oil







Oak Tree at WildFlower Center










More blogging and paintings later, I promise ;-D
Thank you
Ann