Outside at Last

Today was my first day this spring getting outside to paint.  It was marvellous... I found a quiet spot in the sun by a creek.  It was partially cloudy out and so I would occasionally have very bright sun on the view, followed by cloud cover.  As you can see in the 2 pics below - it can sure makes a difference to your colours and values when it is cloudy vs sunny.  I attempted to get the 'sunny' view - however - I made the mistake of bringing a canvas stained with a deep orange.  I think for my Plein air painting - a lighter warm colour (grey or Sienna) would be better.

Only wildlife, other than geese overhead, was this colourful fly who sat on my easel for a few minutes, warming up.  Would be cool to paint him, but he didn't stick around long enough.

 I did two fairly quick 'sketches' - one is the general view - very thinly done with thinner and oil - so the orange really shows through too much.  The other was just a 'sketch' of the little tree in front of me.  Both I 'erased' after to reuse the board for my next time out.  I just made sure to paint the panel a light grey for next time.

Plein Air Convention and Expo PACE19 overview

I returned 2 days ago from a 5 day trip to San Francisco, CA, where I attended the 2019 Plein Air Convention and Expo #pace19  This post is a review and highlights for me from the trip, in case you decide to attend one (next year it is in Boulder, Colorado), which I highly recommend doing.  I kept a journal while attending and it is almost half filled with notes, tips and sketches.  Below I have a summary of Days 1 and 2.  Will do Days 3 to 5 in my next post.

Best Things
1.  AWESOME ARTISTS providing instruction and demos from early in the morning until late evening.  As an oil painter I attended the relevant oil painting demos, but there were also pastel and watercolour painters here.
2.  MARKETING BOOTCAMPS - Eric Rhoads  provided an early morning Art Marketing instruction with a ton of tips and info.  Very worthwhile for me as an 'emerging artist'.
3.  PLEIN AIR PAINT OUTS - great opportunity to paint urban and landscape around San Francisco and in Sonoma.
4.  Expo / Vendor Hall - excellent opportunity to purchase great artist supplies.  I bought panels, brushes, containers, paint and a Shelby Keefe video at discounted prices.
5.  PRIZES - lots of giveaways.
6. PEOPLE -Plein air painters are a nice bunch of people and it was amazing how when you get chatting you find you have a lot in common with others.

CHALLENGES - finding time to eat and sleep.

Detailed Info

Day 1- Wed, April 24th - Left Edmonton, AB at 4:15 am - Arrived at the hotel at 1 pm and headed off to the Expo hall for a demo by
Kathleen Hudson at 2 pm. She had a beautiful demo, several good tips  TOP TIP: uses small hand mirror to check her painting, to ensure values are all reading properly.

3pm  Newcomers Orientation - helpful

4 pm - Opening Ceremony - high energy - every day of the conference there were awesome prizes, such as paints, brushes, a PACE trip, videos, etc. and at least 6 or more people got a prize daily.  Although I never won anything, our registration package had some cool free stuff and often when you bought something in the Expo hall at the vendor booths they had a freebie included or had reduced prices.

7pm - 5 Artists one Painting - this one was fun to watch as Shelby Keefe, Paul Kratter, Larry Moore, Charlie Hunter  and Cynthia Rosen had roughly 20 mins to take a turn working on one painting.  Lots of cheeky dialogue amongst the artists and the challenge involved in not painting entirely over the previous artist's work.

Exhausted - Sleep

Day 2

6:30 am Eric Rhoads - Art Marketing Boot Camp - wow! Lots of helpful tips crammed into 1 hr, 15 mins. Top tip - Persistence 20% of work week is marketing

Excellent info for me as an 'emerging artist' to make sure I get on top of my social marketing now if I want to grow my 'art business'. 4 PAGES scribbled down in this time.

-  Michael Situ Demo - Highlighted always thinking about contrasts to add interest and balance the painting - Light and Dark, Warm and Cool areas.  Loved his colour use.

Kathleen Dunphy - I ran off to catch the end of Kathleen Dunphy's presentation as it was running concurrently to M. Situ's.  Top Tip: sometimes you have a Focal Path leading you around the painting and not just a single focal point and ALWAYS draw!

Brian Blood - did a San Francisco street scene, appropriately dressed in his hippy tie dye t-shirt.  I had one of his videos previously, so I really enjoy his use of light and colour.  Top Tip - gather info in your Plein air painting focusing on tone and value and being conscious of moments and changes that provide interest.

Randall Sexton - 

Car Portrait - he starts with big shapes blocked in vs drawing, cool to watch.

Plein Air Painting - took the bus to Chrissy Field below the Golden Gate Bridge.  Rude introduction to our Plein Air as it was cold and windy.  I should have worn another layer and had gloves.  Also I should have had my easel properly situated and weighted down as it blew over and I lost all my brush cleaner, which landed on my painting.  Learning many lessons!  Packed up and sketched instead, which I enjoyed too.

Scott W Prior - Urban night scene - Scott completed a painting that he had already started, showing us how he added the details to finish off a rainy, night urban scene of a street car.  Cool! Sorry the picture is very poor, check out his website instead.

What to take with you...

As it was another beautiful day, I headed outdoors for my first real 'plein aire' session this year.  Below is kind of my current set up with one or two extras that may not be needed. 

1.  A Pack:  We won this back pack somewhere and it has a fold out seat attached.  It was big enough to accommodate my Gorilla Painting box.  I rarely sit down when painting, but thought it might be useful should I become exhausted from the painting frenzy.  My tripod fits nicely on the side too.

2.  What is inside the pack:
-Roll of paper shop towels  -  a garbage bag  - pre-stained wood panels 9x12
- 5 to 8 brushes  - paints: cadmium red, alizarin crimson, ultramarine blue, cad yellow light, yellow ochre light, sap green, viridian and white
- a view finder
- brush cleaner (walnut oil)
- bug spray
- water to drink
- a hat (need a bigger hat next time)
- the Gorilla box which holds all the painting stuff
- palette paper
- tape for the paper
- bear spray  
- in the picture is a great little stool that I got as a gift.  It is from Lee Valley, garden tools.  I don't take it often but if I go on a workshop or will be out all day it comes along.

This was the scene I chose to paint.  Down in the ravine near home. Below is my tripod and box set up and paint laid out.

It is nice to have a companion along if you aren't painting with friends.  We don't bring the dog with us to bear country, but this is in the city so she enjoyed a couple swims while waiting for me.

The painting in progress.  

It's always good to do a couple brief close to home trips before you head off on a serious painting journey.  I discovered I should have had a bigger hat as it was seriously hot out.  It was too windy for the painting umbrella and you can't wear your sunglasses while painting unless you can compensate for the colour differences. So it is better to find some shade that will be around for awhile.  This is just an oil study should I decide I like it I would paint a more precise version back in the studio.

Painting is....SQUIRREL!!!

I believe most artists will struggle at times to stay motivated or focus on their painting every day - so many distractions. Currently my struggle is the beautiful weather, after a LOOOONG harsh winter, pulling me outdoors.  I am enjoying biking, hiking and gardening these last weeks and being inside the studio / office / work is difficult.

That is why today I decided I shall try to do some daily painting 'en plein aire' or paint outside for awhile.  As you can see below my current attempt to get some paint down has been a struggle.

the UNDERPAINTING of the Burmis Tree large 36 x 48 canvas

OOOO the Pretty Fern Leaf peony in my garden just outside my window, has finally bloomed for the first time ever!!

Oh I just need to make some baskets for the front porch

What was I doing... oh yeah, OOOps, I think I need to repaint the sky and maybe that grass too.  Maybe I will just go outside for awhile for inspiration instead.