"Norwood's Buttercup Fields" A Plein Air Study, 5" X 7" Oil on Canvas Panel.

Oil Paintings and Plein Air Outings

NEW!!! Oil Painting Blog

New to my blog as well as to me, join me for my adventures in Oil painting.  

Yep you heard it O I L, (water mixable that is!)  

I've always had a sensitivity to oil paint but mainly the solvents needed for their use. After a few years of trying to make pastels, acrylics and my beloved colored pencil work "En Plein Air" for onsite paintings I've found that water mixable oils will do the trick.  I'm using Cobra brand for this purpose and I'm taking to it like a duck to water.   

"Norwood's Buttercup Fields"  A Plein Air Study, 5" X 7" Oil on Canvas Panel.

I had a really great day today!  Who can ask for more than that?

Creating my very first Oil painting, (using Cobra Water mixable oil paints).

Wonderful Spring air, very few bugs, painting in the shade of a hundred year old tree - and Virginia buttercups filling the fields at a local Historical landmark plantation, Norwood.  This plantation has been in the same family since 1835.  To view the plantation click:  here 

The back fields, I plein air painted, in colored pencil, one c-o-l-d November morning in 2013, are horse fields that lead down to the James River in Powhatan County.  When we visited that Nov. day the owners volunteered to allow us to come back in the Spring to paint the same fields when the buttercups were in season.  

Me at my easel. 

And Oh my! Were they right about the beauty of the golden fields!  What a view from the back of the house.  Knowing that at one time, there had to have been tobacco or other crops planted there, but today they board horses.  The horses came and went all morning long but this painting was not about them.... it's was all about the buttercups.  

Ok, about the Cobra paints --  as an ex - acrylic & watercolor painter, who has primarily made her way to the wonderful translucent color of Colored Pencils - 

Cobra's, by Royal Talens,  are Juicy, Creamy and didn't dry fast like Open Acrylics do.  The breeze was warm and 92 deg. today at 2:00 when we finished.  So they did dry enough to add layers on top of my underpainting to enable me to finish in the field.  No solvents are needed, not even water, except to wash out a brush!

Although I worked small, "just a study" I told myself.  It didn't have to be a finished painting, after all.... my first oil and first completed "Painting Media" painting in 15 years.  I left the golden field of Norwood happy and content that I finished a piece in 3 hours.  That would never have happened in CP, I'd have had to go home to finish it even at this small 5 X 7 size.       

OK now since we painted under the trees, evidence of critters and debris fell into my palette the longer the session went.  To the point that I was adding texture as I went.  LOL ;))))

While I have much to learn about these oils, I love not getting a headache from solvents, and clean up is easy with soap & water.  Stay tuned for more adventures in Oil.  

Powhatan's James River Plein Air - Sticking it out in the Rain!

                                           Powhatan's James River Plein Air Study 8 X 10

Now that summer is half over I thought I had better catch you up on what I have been up to recently besides teaching summer open studio class in my home studio.   The above plein air study was CP painted on Ampersand pastelboard last Wednesday.  My cohort in Plein Air travels, Kathy Scott and I painted at the new Powhatan James River State Park.  She in oil and as usual I worked in CP.  We had planned to get an early start before the impending rain or heat and humidity of the Mid Atlantic set in.  But after a brief walk around we were forced to work under the pavilion on our morning's pieces.  The view was at more of a distance from what I had originally decided to paint so I worked from memory of the view I liked the best, supplemented with short jogs out into the rain to re-familiarize myself with the original view.

The rain of course was not my only challenge today.  You see I had a board from a failed attempt to plein air in my bag which had a slightly rendered image on it already, a statue in a garden surrounded by rocks.  Although it appears in the photo below like a landscape sketch it was really in a vertical format 10"h X 8"w.  After erasing the board as best I could, then turning it into a horizontal, you can see what I was left with in the image below:

Not the best when using a translucent media like colored pencil, but I actually had little hopes for this new piece given the rainy day we were working in and the distant view of my desired composition.  As you can see in the reference photo taken below,  my view from under the pavilion showed little of my original vision.    

But 3 hours later when the rain had stopped and a few faint sun rays came out, we were invaded by a YMCA camp bus of little people ready for a "Nature Talk" by the park rangers.  So we packed up and vowed to return on a sunny day.  I worked for a short while when I arrived home the next day tweaking the far bank and foreground areas.  You can see my statue underpainting is hidden (actually she is under the tree bases and along the front bank of the river).  

Lessons learned:  #1Yes, you can salvage a failed start and cover it in CP just like in other media, on Ampersand that is.  #2 I was proud of Kathy and myself having stayed the course in the rain.  We found a scene stuck with it and worked thru the conditions. #3 I think I captured the atmospheric moisture in the distant shore as still kept  the lighting and shadows of my initial view before rain set in.

Besides being a great friend and CP artist herself Kathy is always ready for an adventure!  Here is Kathy Scott's plein air from our trip: A 10" X 8" oil painting titled: The James River In Powhatan.   More of her work can be seen at her website:  http://kathyscott.fineartstudioonline.com  As you can see Kathy chose to keep the rainy feel of the day with her piece.  Her view was certainly different than my own, but I'm sure you will agree, a lovely calming view of the James.

                                         

Our trip was the second in a series for me of James River views from the central VA area in which I live.  More to come for this series.  Next blog post will continue my plein air travels with CP from this weeks trip to a the Harrisonburg area of VA and more!  

Have a colorful week!  

Gloria

Car Show and Wine Festival - New Work

                     1954 MG TF Landscape  12 X 16 Colored Pencil on Ampersand Pastelboard

I finished this piece last Wednesday just in time to get it photographed, varnished and framed for our local British Car Club Car Show at New Kent Winery this past weekend.  We have and arts and craft area in which I show my art.  My husband and I are members of the club but currently our 1953 MG TD is in many parts and pieces as it undergoes a total renovation.  So until it's completely done and road worthy I draw other great cars from our club.  This one is our club president's car and it certainly is a beauty.  (our TD is much the same style)

Creating this work involved a few changes to the original photo so I thought I'd show you what I had to work from.  The day the photo was taken in Aug. 2011 was very sunny and a typical VA warm humid one.  The meeting was during the mid day when sun was not the best for photos.

I removed the large white tent behind the car on the right and added more of the vineyards like on the upper left.  I chose to create a more fall-ish coloring starting on the trees since our show is a fall show and also to add some warmth to all the greens in the reference.  The photo made the car look so much blacker of a green than it really is, due to the lighting on this day.  Working on the sanded surface helped me quickly create the gravel surface, by just skimming over the surface with Prismacolor sticks and using some stippling with CP's.  I went for a warmer gravel than in the photo to keep color harmony in my work.  Being a slave to the photo is not always a good thing, so remember to compose your piece to make a better painting than photo.   As you can see the sky was a complete wash out in the photo so I made this one up from all of my observations of skies and clouds.  Mental photographs are a great resource and you always have them in your head.  All you have to do is take the time to really see some of the great skies we take for granted.

The show was a great success with over 250 classic European cars.  And I made some great contacts for Car Portraits!  Which is really just a still life in a landscape.  Enjoy your colorful day and next on to a new piece from my Provence Trip.

   

Last day in Paris and Monet's Home and Garden

 Claude Monet's garden is about 1 hour 15 min., from our hotel via our special tour bus, and was everything I had hoped it would be and then some.  The artist's home is inviting with the rose arbors lining the garden side of the house.  And the gardens it over looks are so filled with blossoms you hardy knew which direction to look.  My only disappointment was it was so busy (we got there when it opened) there really was not a place to even do a quick sketch.  And we only had 2 hours to see it all.  Inside no photos are allowed but for those who have not seen it, it's decorated to the exact duplicate of the photos displayed inside. With replicas of his paintings hanging in his studio. My favorite part of the house was the blue and white kitchen.  His bedroom was a cheery space that's windows opened up onto his magnificent garden.       

The bridge view today is much the same as in some of his famous paintings but appeared to be lower than I expected.  I suppose it's because he painted from his boat in the water, giving it a higher angle and view.  But again many crowds to contend with thus no drawings ala Plein Aire.

We concluded our afternoon with a trip to the Musee de l'Orangerie  on the grounds of the Louvre gardens.  Containing a tribute to Monet's Water Nympheas series that took over 4 years for him to paint. They fill the walls of 2 long oval rooms. The link here will give you a teaser. www.musee-orangerie 

So that was a good ending for our Monet day.  
Au revior,

Gloria

Provence Plein Aire - Roussillion

View of Roussillion, France and it's Ocher  pigment in the mountain.

Yesterday was our trip to the perched town of  Roussillion, where the ocher pigments

My beginning for the view of Roussillion.

were mined, in all shades.  Finding the town which is only about 15 min. from Bonnieux was a little tedious as 2 of the roads were washed by mud slides.  So the third option 25 minutes later panned out.  Climbing in switchbacks the whole way up "Bubba" our new vehicle made the trip up smoothly.  Such a change from the vehicle I started out with.  Thank you Hertz!  

Lavender fields in many areas were out (not as much as farther south) and proved good photo ops.  As the driver I had to stay in the vehicle so I'm waiting for the copies my car mates ran out to get while I hung on to the edge of the road.  Look for them in follow up posts when I get back.  Being the designated driver has it's downfalls as I can't shoot so many of the quick shots of this wonderful landscape while driving, like my car mates can.  

As you can see my start for the view of the town was slow to develop.  The Mistral winds were at first a thankful gift for this hot day but soon became.a force to be reckoned with.  As the ochre colored sand and dust blew across the parking lot where I sat in the shade, I soon had more grit in my eyes and teeth than I could stand.   Here I'm working on a 5 X 7 piece of green ampersand pastel-board. laid out initially with 10 % french grey.  The drawing needs corrected some but the various little buildings are at varied angles which I observed first hand while in town.   This is as far as I got in about an hour and 15-20 minutes.  It was difficult to not loose your place while doing the sketch, while holding on to your supplies n the wind.   I hope to add some more to it from my photos.  More to come.  

Have a colorful day! Au revoir,

Gloria

The Wave - A study on water

                                                    The Wave a 8 X 10.5" study

I've been working on this study  for a few weeks off and on, trying to get the look of the ocean, it's color and action.  This was an exercise for a larger piece coming next and my first try on Canson Edition paper.  Not sure I like this paper as it doesn't take the layers my normal Stonehenge does or for that matter what my HP Watercolor paper does.  But a Study is just that but I do see some uses for this paper in adding it to my artists journal as is is supposed to handle mixed media too!  For this I used 100% colored pencil, no wc pencil under painting.  But I will have to try that out when I add it to my artist journal.

After dealing with many on going internet issues (2 months with Verizon checking my lines, modems and such) I hope to get caught up on blogging and other communications.  But today I'm planning on getting my newest water themed piece of and running.  Line drawing, and transfer to board on the agenda.  Will show you the progress in a few days. 


What art have you created today!

Gloria

New Painting Photo'd and ready for framing

                                            Spring Thaw   16 x 20 Colored Pencil On Pastelboard

Now that the big Easter egg hunt for the grand daughters is over, dinner cooked (with too much ham left over) I was finally ready to get this newly finished painting photographed.  Getting a true likeness of my painting via the camera and then Photoshop is always an ordeal for me since I'm now on my own for this task.  (My son is off to bigger and better things.)  A photo reference of melting icicles with the VA creek rushing by, prompted this painting.  The attempt to capture the coldness of the ice yet the awakening of the moss and lichen growing on the rocks was my goal.  Full of abstract shapes - this really had me checking my left brain at the door!  It will go into a very nice Expresso /blackish frame that is 3.5 inches wide.

On other news, I have been assembling my newly purchased pastels for a trek into the PA Mountains for a plein aire outing.  With my sole goal of finding a faster medium to get more accomplished with a saturation of color and the Plein air experience.  No I'm not going to replace my beloved cps,  but I hope to use the pastels to do more saturated studies for future works to be done in cp, along with the gained skills of working from life.   And I really don't want the mess of pastels in my studio, outdoors the dust and mess will be easier to live with.  Now I may go around an entire day with colored dust on myself for the world to see but my studio should still be clean.  Okay, I know I'm a bit of a clean freak when it comes to art supplies, but I have to admit shopping for those pretty colored pastels had a rush that put me over the potential messes to come.  The Terry Ludwig set of 60 Maggie Price came today and they look so good!  I'll save the set up for my Plein air box/kit for a future article, that is after I figure out how to pack for just this one new media.............

Back to the wonderful work of painting,
Gloria



 


  

Landscapes in Colored Pencil

                            Lakeside Sunset - 12 X 16 Colored Pencil on Ampersand Pastelboard
    
I have always admired the Hudson River Valley painters and wished to convey my style in a landscape.  Like most artists I'm always wanting to try something new, or add to my bucket list of paintings done.  My current challenge is to develop my style into the landscape genre.  I've been participating in a free landscape webinar put on by WetCanvas and F & W books and artist Johannes Vloothius.  These webinar recordings will be available for download by F & W at a later date.  I found out about the web classes after the first 8 classes were given, we are now into the 18th class.  (Ever the timely one here. LOL) This class is primarily for painters in oil, water color, acrylics and pastels.  But has so much great info for even this colored pencil painter.  I wish I had started the above shown painting after I gleamed valuable landscape knowledge from this master painter.  As it defies many of his do's and falls short with many of his don'ts. 

But I have learned from the advice of other artists friends, and that is not to mention a paintings faults but to learn from them and move on.  Even Johannes comments to not redo or fix a painting but to just progress from there.   So that is what I'll do.  The painting is of a sunset from the lake at Dillman's Resort in WI where I attended a colored pencil class given by Cecile Baird.  And no matter my issues with the painting I can still hear the loons calling at night when I look at it.      

I do wish to become adept at creating landscapes with colored pencil.  Realizing that I may need to practice with plein air work in pastel when on site.  But this was a studio piece from a photo of that sunset on a June evening when art was in the air.

Now back to scribbling on my new challenge rushing water UP Close and Personal............