DIY Easel up cycling

This was a table top easel I got years ago fairly cheaply.  It has been  gathering dust for some time now since I graduated to the big girl stand up easel.  I had a brainstorm to take off the easel portion and find my lightest camera tripod, to adapt them into a nice light weight plein air easel set up.

I purchased a guerrilla universal tripod plate ($24.) from my local art store.  I had tried  to cheap out and find the hardware in the nuts and bolts section of the hardware store but was told they didn't have anything like what I was after.  However, I was given a big piece of FREE plywood from Ron at the hardware store since I only needed a small piece. I bought a  camera tripod attachment plate at the camera store ($16.)  I attached the plywood to the easel, which I had removed from the base.  Then on went the plate and now I can quickly attach it to my camera tripod. 

Because the easel had adjustable support arms when it was on the table top  easel, I left them on and they are perfect with two baby bungees to make the whole setup more stable in terms of blowing around.

This is what the tripod and easel look like and really is light weight compared to my guerrilla box, should I want to do hikes into the hills this summer.

in progress painting, the top arm can slide down snugly to hold it in place

Plein Air Convention Days 4 & 5

Finally, I have a couple moments as all 'my Boyz' are busy making me Mother's Day Brunch and I have a few minutes to do what I want. So here is my review of the final 2 days of the PACE19, Plein Air Convention. 

 I actually slept in and missed the last 6:30 am Boot camp - dang - these were very useful, but I think I needed to catch up on some sleep.   

The first seminar I attended was Suzie Baker.  She was great. One of the top tips I took away was you should STOP when you see something that inspires you and DEFINE what about it inspires you.  Get that main idea written down so you can paint the thing that inspired you.  (the light on the hill, the colours in the sky, etc). Three pages of notes from her demo - she would definitely be worth taking a workshop from.

The second artist seminar I attended was Joe McGurl.  This guy is serious - seriously talented and pretty hardcore about plein air painting - take a look at his work - he foregoes using photos.  He builds lots of his own gadgets to make his  plein air forays into the wilderness easier and to ensure he gets accurate studies for his studio work.  Joe was awesome about sharing all of this info.  He is like the Red Green of plein air painting.  And I am a fan of self-building and home made gadgetry, so I took lots of notes.

Today we had a nice long afternoon paint out at Lands End Park.  Views all over the place, unfortunately I became overly excited by so much to see and tried to include it all in my plein air piece.  The top photo was my view, and so I tried to include golden gate bridge, the beach, rocks, etc. I think I needed a focus and my painting was a struggle with no clear focal point or path.

After about an hour and a half. I packed up my easel, did some sketches and went for a nice long hike down to the beach you can see in the photo.  I really enjoyed the day and got some good photos, despite painting a little stinker.

 SUNDAY - THE FINAL DAY OF PACE 19

This was the last day of the convention.  We bussed out to Viastra Winery in Sonoma at 9 am to paint until 5 pm.  Finally, a beautiful day with the fog lifting by about 10:00.  I set up facing the main building and spent until noon working on a study.

 After I had some lunch I switched spots and found this little vista which had some wonderful atmospheric affects happening with the hills.  I sat in the shade and really enjoyed just painting for another 2 1/2 hrs with a bit of chatting with a pastel artist close by.  An awesome end to a great trip!

Loosey Goosey or is Tighty Righty??

Just when I feel like I am getting closer to a preferred 'style' of painting, I do something different and start to wonder.  For example, I am in the midst of painting the two pictures below.  The landscape was fairly loose and fast with colours that were not quite what I saw so I ramped them up a little.  The building is very tight and controlled and the colour is pretty true to the photo I was painting from.  I enjoyed doing both.  Hmmm.... I think in about a year's time after I get another 100 paintings under my belt I might be closer to the answer.

Lazy Painting

Lately I have been working on some paintings I am doing for a series.  The very large one of the barn and mountain was going along nicely until I got to the foreground.  Everything has 'ground' to a halt. HA!  I had put lots of thought and effort into most parts of the painting, but hadn't thought about the foreground, since, when I drew this out, it seemed like such a small portion of the painting and therefore insignificant.  WRONG!  It has been wiped and repainted 3 times and now the painting is in a back room so I can't see it.  

Black and white photo of large oil painting

The problem being I got lazy.  I planned everything else out pretty good.  (I do see some parts that need tweaking)  Since I put too little thought and planning into the foreground area it now stands out as a weak part of my painting.  It must be fixed before it goes anywhere! I will wipe again and work on it soon.

 Moving on to my next painting.  I felt I planned it out fairly well.  Considered different layouts, laid in all my darks and began painting.  Of course I attacked the foreground immediately and felt that it has a good start.  Current struggle is with the colours in the background ... aaah!  However, I now feel that I can go back to my large painting and tackle that foreground with more knowledge and hope that it will work out.

I say all this to say... you just can't be lazy in any part of your painting.  Proper planning and preparation (value sketches, colour studies, etc.) are what help your painting turn out.  I spent the last hour or two at Outdoor Painter website re-reading about values, composition and tonal drawings just to refresh my memory on why it is so important.   I have heard it several times now from many respected instructors, just need to keep following through.