16"x20" oil/canvas
plein air
I'm back from the exciting Paint Annapolis 2009 compettition. No awards for me but thats alright.
I did this one during the Saturday morning quick draw competition. We had bright sun and I picked a less than usual subject for me.
Saturday night was the artists party and it was great to meet up with friends made last year and new ones made this year. Thanks Jane, you know how to entertain!
At 5:00pm I was honored to be one of 6 artists selected by Kenn Backhaus to do a round table type discussion aimed at educating collectors and the general public as to what plein air painting is all about....how our differing styles developed....the importance of the plein air movement to each of us.....etcc... I really enjoyed the evening and hearing the other 5 artists comments. They were... Lee Boynton, Abigail Mcbride, Stewart White, Lisa Egeli, and Mary Pritchard. Due to the timing of this event I didn't get an afternoon painting in, however, I'm very honored to have particpated in the group discussion and would do it again in a heartbeat!
20"x16" oil/canvas
plein air
I did this one Friday afternoon when the sun finally made an appearance. After I finished painting, a local fellow docked his sailboat . We talked a bit and he took me to a local Eastport pub for a beer. A nice way to cap off the evening and yet again meet interesting folks in an unfamiliar town.
20"x16" oil/canvas
plein air
This is from Friday morning. Still low cloud deck and gray day conditions. I felt good about the location and liked how the boats lead the eye to the Annapolis side of Spa creek.
16"x20" oil/canvas
plein air
I did this nocturne Thursday evening. I scraped down 2 paintings during the day. I was struggling with staying loose and just about everything else. So as night fell I headed back to Eastport. I completely let loose, mixing and applying paint like a madman. I use a little battery powered light that actually illuminates my palette more than my canvas. Basically you don't know what you have while you're painting. I just trusted my eye and mixing skills. I use cool colors for nightlight and warm colors for the darker areas. I realised the next day that parts of this are quite difficult to read, however I have not touched it since the session. I didn't want to kill the blurred, energetic night scene that I had witnessed.
7 comments:
Congratulations on your whole Paint Annapolis adventure. What an honor to be invited to the round table with Ken Backhaus. Would you speak a little more about what was decided about educating the public?
Your paintings are beautiful. I especially love the Friday, sunset one. Really nice light.
Nice work - love the light in the boats in the marina. It would be great to be able to see a video of that discussion.
Hi Loriann. I just got back from the Peoria show. Things are very hectic right now.
I think that the thing that Kenn wanted to get across was the fact that not all art is created in "secret" quarters. There is a misconception that artists go behind closed doors and create some sort of magic. Noted- I am not opposed to this idea and in fact if sorcery is creating a believable vision in the minds eye so be it. That being said, the discussion pretty much revolved around our approaches to subject... atmosphere...technique..and history. The importance of plein air painting from the collector's perspective remains to be seen, but this discussion was geared at educating everyone about the process.
Thanks for the compliment. That was my favorite one. The evening sunlight was quite captivating.
Thanks Kathleen. We all thought that it should have been video'd. That would have been a nice you tube link. Although the discussion went on for about two and a half hours! Maybe next year, although I think they will have a different judge. At any rate Kenn has some great quotes on Robert Genn's painters keys website check this link http://quote.robertgenn.com/auth_search.php?authid=809
Hi Brian,
It is great to see the fruits of your labors from Paint Annapolis. I think my favorite is the one you did before your Friday 'happy hour', though the nocturne is a close second.
Sorry we didn't get to talk much at the event, and even sorrier that I missed the lecture. Felt a little overwhelmed by it all I'm afraid, and made myself stay out and try to get something down once the weather had turned. (It's a comfort to me to know that I wasn't the only one with 'wipers' during the event!) The lecture sounded great though, by all accounts. Congrats on a job well done.
Hi Jennnifer and thank you. Yeah, it was great meeting you. It's always tough chatting with everyone as energy just keeps getting diverted from one place to the next. The lecture did occur during some of the best light of the week, so I don't blame you for painting!
I enjoyed reading your account of the Competition. Spot on! Hopefully I'll see you there next year.
I find your Friday morning one just fantastic. Excellent movement and energy there.
Thanks Jala. I liked that one too.
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