Paintout today

What a nice day, it was a scheduled paintout at the Cary Farm in Hastings with the PAAWM group, a bit of a long drive, and the forcast was not good, thank goodness that the weather didn't know that, what a nice day. The Cary's were so generous, they provided us with apples, oranges, doughnuts, muffins, coffee, water, then they brought out a sheet cake, and when it was finished, they provided us with pizza. Wow! They were ever present and wandered around, so friendly, it was a wonderful site and it was a great day.

My friend Carol and I wandered around for quite a while and then decided to get to painting, I took lots of photos so I'll hopefully be able to paint more than this one painting. I usually paint with watercolors, but today I decided to paint with pastels, my surface was a new one for me, I ordered some suade paper, what a lovely surface, it hardly makes any dust, I really like it.

Anyway, I was painting the same scene as Richard Jordan (he's the one that organized the PAAWM group), and he's a very good oil painter, I hope I wasn't encroaching on his space by painting the same location he was, anyway, I worked on this for about 3 hours and I probably could change a few things, but I won't get the opportunity since I donated the painting to the Cary's, they liked my painting, and they were so kind to let us wander all over their property, so I decided to donate this one piece for their generosity. I hope they enjoy it, I really enjoyed the day and I enjoyed painting this picture.

Black River Gorge - Finished April 12, 2012

Here it is, I told you yesterday that I was going to post this one, I've been so excited about this surface, I'm loving it. When I got this board (Strathmore High Plate Illustration Board), I cut it in half and took it to my watercolor class on Tuesday, that was only slightly over 2 weeks ago, wow, two paintings painted on this surface, they are about 15" x 20", just about what a 1/4 sheet of watercolor paper would be. This surface is smooth, but it has a slight tooth, it however, is not slick, but slightly absorbent, a truely lovely surface to paint on. I'm going to finish another one that I started at about the same time (I think I started it on Thursday), that same week as that first waterfall painting I finished.

I have a start photo, which you will see is rather oblique, not much to say what it will be, then as I painted, it really grabbed me, now, you understand, I did all both of the first two, the start and the second stage, all the same day. I didn't have time to finish it then, or I would have, it really grabbed me. I didn't feel that I made much more progress for the 3rd and 4th stages, so I didn't photograph it, well, I probably should have, oh well, live and learn, so I actually worked on this 4 times, once on Tuesday, then on Thursday, and again on Tuesday this week, I had to work the Gallery yesterday afternoon and I had about another hour in this, but didn't quite have it finished, today was putting the water to rights, this painting makes me very happy, I think it's the composition and the bits of detail, I love painting falls and this one really gives me a lot to love, I'm hoping you love it too, I'm going to be exhibiting it in my show at the Carnegie Center for the Arts in Three Rivers, MI, August, September & October this year, hope to see you there, I'll be letting you know when the reception is and possibly you can manage to find time to go.

This is the final, now I'll put the 1st and second stages in.

Golden Stream finished - finally

I've worked on this off and on, it's been 2 months, and I really meant to have this, done within the week, well, I got sick, plus the fact that I had to work on that poster, I really got behind. Then, I got waylaid, I found a new surface to work on and I'm pretty excited about it. I have another painting that is almost finished, but I wanted to get this one done, I worked on both today, it was gallery day, and I think I must have worked on this painting about 2-3/4 of my 3-3/4 hour day. I was so excited to get this one done and then I worked on the next one, and was so excited to get so close to finishing it, I forgot to eat dinner, then my students started to arrive, well, I ate my salad when I got home, about half an hour ago.

This painting, as you will recall, is on Ampersand Aquabord, I discovered this surface when I was doing the daily blog painting, and really liked working on it. I wasn't sure when I would work on one this large, but I must have invested in the 22" x 30" bord during one of the orders I placed for bords, I do have several of the 6" square bords left, so I will be painting a few more of those at some point.

This painting has been about 3/4 done for a long time, I only had to finish the lower left corner, well, I think the problem was that those branches in the middle were holding me back, I finally got them done today, then I worked on the rocks on the left and the water right at the corner, this one is finally done and I'm so glad, now I don't have to feel guilty for painting on something else, I am planning on finishing the next one tomorrow, and I'll be posing that one then, hope you'll be watching for it.