New Equipment

Since coming out to Sedona, I have done more "plein air" painting. I really enjoy painting on location. I wanted to buy one of the French Pochade boxes that has everything self-contained but they always seemed too expensive. But, a friend gave me a tripod, so I decided to splurge and buy a French Resistance box. It is similar to the Pochade but a bit smaller and lighter. It has a small pallette area, holes for your brushes, a compartment in the lid for paints, etc and can hold up to an 18x24 canvas or panel.

I decided to splurge when (brag alert) one of my paintings at the Sedona Art Center sold and I got word that I have a buyer for my painting in the Norfolk Cultural Center show. So, I have found money to pay my credit card bill.

Here's a photo of the box on site near the Honanki Indian ruin. It is sitting on a tripod (it came with a quick release). You may be able to see that the brushes can stand up when inserted into the holes and you can hang your paper towels from the box. I have clamped a slightly larger palette to the box to give a little more room for the paint and to make cleaning it a bit easier. This palette is stored in the lid (with some minor modifications that I will work on when I get home). So, far I really like this set up. I bought a few more of those Art Cocoons so now everything I need is in my knapsack making it very easy to carry what I need to a location.

This was a great spot. There was an old cattle chute, used to load cattle onto a truck, and a watering hole. During the day, the sun passes almost directly overhead so that at any given time all the shadows will be changing. Got to work fast.

SAC Member Show

Friday night was the Sedona Art Center Member show. We became members a couple of years ago, but this was the first time I submitted anything for the juried show. All 3 of my paintings were accepted.
The opening night was part of the 1st Friday Gallery Tour in Sedona so there was quite a crowd. This photo of the Art Center doesn't reflect the crowd as everyone was inside.

There was an eclectic display of sculpture, glass work, stone work as well as traditional 2 dimensional art. There were awards in each category, but, alas, I was not among the fortunate recipients. Maybe next time. I was pleased to have been juried in. Although there were signs to NOT photograph the artwork, I figured I could sneak a shot of one of my own works. This bronc rider from a photo taken at the Tucson Rodeo is, coincidentally, placed next to my friend Michael Johnson's painting of the Grand Canyon.

I took this picture, below, at about 5:45 from the back steps of the Sedona Art Center. Not bad, eh?

The "Best in Show" was awarded to an "emerging artist" for her bronze sculpture of two hands painting a Navajo pot. Once it set in that I wasn't going to win the "Best of Show" we went out to dinner with Bill and Sarah.

Sedona Art Center Member Show - Acceptance

I was pleased to hear today that 3 of my paintings have been accepted into the Sedona Art Center's Annual Member Show. I was Juried in as an Emerging Artist and will be part of the show that lasts for the month of March. There will be a First Friday Reception on 3/2 if any of you happen to be in the neighborhood.

As we are in Sedona, I submitted a few of my southwest paintings. My friends at home in the NVA have seen them but they may be new to other people.

Of course, I had to enter one of my favorite subjects, an old truck from the King's Mine in Jerome.

Other favorite subjects to paint are jeeps and the red rocks. This one has two subjects for the price of one. I came across this guy struggling over the slick rock on the Broken Arrow trail.

Finally, I painted this bronc rider from a photo I took at the Tucson Rodeo.

I am really elated to have my work appreciated enought to be juried into the show. When I saw the check marks after the word Accepted for each submission, I was thrilled.

Plein Air Painter's Blog mention

Michael Chesley Johnson gave my Rubicon a shoutout in his blog today. You can check it out by clicking here. We all had a fun time and even had a few art critics stop by as part of their Pink Jeep tour. I'm looking forward to the next one.

Dry Creek Road

I joined Michael Johnson's class for a day of painting along the west branch of Oak Creek on Dry Creek Rd. We were joined by 2 of his students, Jan from British Columbia and Bill from Cincinatti. Dry Creek lived up to its name as there was barely a trickle of water. So, instead of painting the water over the red rocks, we set up on an overlook and painted the beautiful back ground scenery. I tried to concentrate on one Juniper that stood out.

The others took advantage of the vista to paint views of the distant red rocks with some of the greenery in the foreground. This was a good spot as there were many subjects to choose from. I have a feeling we will be going back there again.

Upcoming Shows

I was pleased to hear that one of my paintings was juried into the Norfolk Cultural Council Spring art exhibit. It is one of my favorite subjects. It is called "Side Kicks". These are two of my buddies from the old mine/junk yard outside Jerome, AZ. The exhibit will run for the month of March at the Norfolk library in Norfolk center.

A number of my Neponset Valley Artists (NVA) friends were also accepted. We should have a good showing. Congrats to Kim, Frank, Ann, Haydi, Dianne, Nancy and Cindy.

I'll also have a couple of my adirondacks on display at the new Walpole Library when it opens in the near future. They are nice 6x8's in gold plein air frames. They'd look good on someone's wall as a pair. Hint, hint. Here's a photo of one of them.

Finally, I'll have a couple of my works on display as part of the Foxboro Art Association Spring Member Show. This show will be at the Gallery at Patriot Place on weekends (fri-sun) during the month of March. For a change, I've entered one of my pastels of a steer staring me down. I don't have a photo of the pastel, but I've uploaded an oil version to give you an idea of the subject matter. Check it out.

Sedona Plein Air Adventures with Michael Chesley Johnson

Starting in February, I will be joining my friend, Michael Chesley Johnson, and his students in some off-road, plein air painting adventures. As part of Michael's workshops, we will venture out to areas only accessible with high clearance or 4-wheel drive vehicles. This is where my Jeep comes in handy.

Along with all the great places to paint in Sedona, like Cathedral Rock and Bear Mountain, we can get to hard to reach locations to paint, such as the "cow pies" up Schnebly Hill Rd

or the some of the remote sites along Dry Creek Rd.

We have a great time and the visitors to Sedona get a taste of that off-road experience which is so much fun and provides for unique painting opportunities.

Bill St George Workshop

A week ago, a few of us in the NVA participated in a workshop led by Walpole/Boston artist, Bill St George. Bill was my first art teacher and I had taken a couple of his workshops so I was looking forward to this one. Bill told us to bring at least 2 18x24 canvases to work on so I knew it would be fun. We loosened up for the day by doing quick, large sketches in charcoal. He encouraged us to draw quickly and fill the whole page. This got our juices flowing and we moved on to our own references or one of his. Although his style is pretty loose, he made points about being accurate with our drawing and how important the use of negative space is.

I used one of his references. The background in the reference was completely dark so he suggested I find another reference to use as a background. I found another reference and worked that into the background. I'm not sold on that background yet and may change it. It is still a work in progress. Here is the 18x24 in its current state.


In the afternoon, we loosened up by painting a quick study using a limited palette of acrylics. This got us to paint from arm's length and not be too concerned with details early in the process.

My afternoon painting was a street scene in Boston. I have a number of my own references of New York (which I couldn't find) but used his scene of Boylston St. I am happy with the start and should be able to post that soon.

FAA Member Show

At the recent meeting of the Foxboro Art Association, I pleased to find out that I was awarded a ribbon for my painting Blue Bomber. This is a painting of some of the junk trucks found in the old mine outside of Jerome, AZ.
Blue Bomber
9x12
$125
See the post below related to Perc Cup cafe for a picture without the ribbon covering half the painting.
Several of my friends also won ribbons. Frank Quinn 1st Place in oils, Nancy Bacevich 1st Place in pastels and Haydi Hurley Honorable Mention in watercolor. Our teacher, Kim Weineck was quite proud of us.

Cindy Baron at the FAA

This month's demonstrator at the Foxboro Art Association meeting was Cindy Baron. She is a member of the American Watercolor Society and teaches water color classes at the Rhode Island School of Design. She also is an accomplished oil painter. Her demo was in oil. Cindy is originally from Indiana where she had some notoriety for her paintings of barns. Now that she is living on the east coast, she has become the painter of rocks. She also travels extensively and has many works depicting the inspiring landscapes of the American west and southwest.

She is a "plein air" painter and usually works on 8x10 canvases when painting outdoors. She believes that painting outdoors is one of the best ways to properly see things and to grow as an artist. She stretches the canvases herself and grounds them with a brown mixture made up of most of the colors on her pallette. When working in her studio from a reference, she will use that "brown" mix to do her version of a value study.

This is the process she demonstrated on a seascsape with a crashing wave. This process was new to most of us and we were anxious to see how it would turn out. She brought with her two other fairly large canvases of similar scenes that were already blocked in with this method so the audience could see the direction she was heading. She covered the canvas with a mid-value of the brown mix and then proceeded to wipe off areas to indicate the sky, the large wave or the faces of the rocks. She would add back in darker browns where necessary to indicate the darker areas of the seascape. Then, using a rubber tipped tool (pastel blending tool), she carefully drew in more detail. She was especially concerned with the cracks in the rocks. She said to indicate some key cracks, but not all of them. Less is More. She was also aware of the length and direction of the cracks and made changes to them so as to not lead the eye of the observer right out of the painting. She made sure there were some cracks to lead one back into the picture. She added darks, wiped out areas and drew in more detail until she reached a point where she would normally let the canvas set up over night to dry.

After an hour or so, she had a pretty complete and well done value drawing. To demonstrate this next step in the process, she used one of the other value sketches that she brought with her. She takes her time with her paintings and keeps working on things until she feels she has it right. She uses the obvious techniques of squinting and stepping back, but also relies on a large mirror in her studio for her reality check. She spent most of the rest of the time working on the rocks before adding a few bright highlights to remind her where the center of interest was going to be. She made sure she had some of the sky color in the rocks and the rock and sand color in the rolling water. Here is a photo of the rocks.

She will continue to work on the rocks, foreground, ocean and horizon line until she is satisfied. She plans on this painting being one in a series of 3 paintings of the rocky shore near her home in Rhode Island. We all look forward to her final results.