Garden by the Shed, 7x5" Sold

Garden by the Shed, pastel on board by Adriana Meiss

   This pastel was one of the four paintings sold at last weekend's Plowshares fair.  In fact, three of the paintings were bought by three different previous customers.  Still, doing the fair is a great opportunity for me to meet new people and to get them interested in classes and future workshops.
 
Last summer I lost a sale for not being able to accept credit card payments. This time around I was prepared for it and I'm glad I did!

Showing at Manlius Library until Nov 16

North Truro Moon, 12x9 pastel on panel by Adriana Meiss

I was asked by the Associated Artist of CNY if I would be interested in having a show at the  Manlius Library. Of course I said yes as artists should take any good opportunity offered to them.

The first thing for me was to take stock of what I had and and come up with a title for the show. I decided on Landscapes: Near and Far because besides wanting to show some of my recent work done on location, I wanted as well to show work from other places that has been in my shelves for some time.
This meant a lot of framing and as paintings dictate what kind of frames they look best in, I had to order new ones and deal with some delays.

Anyway, yesterday the ladies of Associated Artist of CNY showed how efficiently they worked: the exhibit was set in a very short time and I must say that it looks great. North Truro Moon above, is one of the 22 pieces in the exhibit. Even while hanging work, I had the chance to talk with a nice lady from NJ who told me that some of my paintings reminded her so much of the area she lives in.

The reception in next Sun Oct 20th from 2-4. The show will last until Nov 16th. If you are in the area please stop by.

Library hours:
Mon -Thu: 10:00 AM- 9:00 PM
Fri -Sat : 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Sun: 1:00 PM- 5:00 PM

2nd Canandaigua Plein Air Festival

Sunday's Pressure Off Painting: The Red Boathouse , 12x 9"

I'm still so excited from the past four days that I don't know where to start!  I did not come back home with any awards nor anything like that, but I feel that I gained so much in many ways. I made new friendships and learned so much from fellow artists.

Wed June 5th, Registration Day
Having to deliver some paintings for an upcoming exhibit in Cazenovia, NY, I did not leave Syracuse until 5:30PM. I arrived at the Pat Rini Rohrer Gallery in Canandaigua towards the end of the artists reception, but got all my Ampersand boards stamped for next day.  We were given a bag of goodies (including a nice apron and hat), maps, instructions, and an envelope with labels for the maximum of five paintings we would be allowed to hand in at the end of the second day. Before heading to the motel I scouted the surrounding area for possible interesting scenes for Saturday's Quick Draw.
At the motel I was staying with my friend Lori -who wouldn't arrive until next morning, I met three women artists, who kindly invited me to hang out with them out on the porch. We had wine and relaxing conversation. Then we each went to our rooms to get a good rest for the upcoming day.

Th June 6th - Day One
The weather refused to cooperate. There was rain, rain, and more rain from 8:30 AM on.
Reminder to self: next time read instruction carefully.  Being an early riser I could have been able to produce a decent painting before the rain started. As it was, I thought we were supposed to start painting at 8:00 AM!

Being told there were several parks down East Lake Rd. I headed out in that direction. I found Ontario Beach Park and tried to paint the view facing south, but pretty soon it got foggy so I switched to the view facing north. I wasted precious time figuring out if I should risk setting up my gear near a picnic table or if I should paint inside my car. A few rain drops convinced me that the car was my best bet. With the parking lot being almost empty I positioned my car so that I could have the best view and be able to paint with the hatch opened. The painting below was the result. I'm not happy with it so this one will likely end up being washed off.

PA #1, Marina at Ontario Beach Park, 9x12"

After 2 hours of work and tired of painting crouched in the back of the car I went back to the motel and had lunch. Afterwards I went to the pier to see if a scene would speak to me.
I debated whether I should paint Squaw Island, a landmark, because I don't like to paint cliche scenes, but the beautiful contrast of a tree with a bright foliage against the dark spruce decided me to go for it. I also liked the misty background. While painting it inside the car, one of the photographers for the event came over; he said the island was a rookery for the seagulls and  told me that he had kayaked around it and found it quite smelly due to their droppings. I thanked him later for providing me with the title.

PA #2, The Rookery, 9x12" - SOLD

Feeling like I could squeeze one more painting that day, I moved the car a few yards down the road. The colorful boathouses are another landmark, but I did not want to paint a row of them. So I found a beautiful boat that became my focal area, with the boathouses in the background. The rain had stopped so I set up my gear on the sidewalk, but a few minutes into it a real downpour forced me to put everything in the car and I finished working there, hatched closed, having to use my roll of paper towels as defogger.
While I like the painting and the colors, I'm aware that I need to put more effort into loosen up when painting structures that are not the focal area. This one needs more work.

PA #3, A Quiet Day at the Pier, 9x12"

 At night, we were treated to a demo by David Lusier, the judge of the event. One of the things that stuck with me is that he said it is best to start with your darks because that way you will know how far you can push your lights.

June 7th - Day Two
The day was cloudy with chances of rain. I headed off to the Muar Lakes area nearby and found Lagoon Park across from where I had parked the car. There was a large gazebo by the pond so I went back to the car to get my gear. Fortunately for me, I found my scene right there. All I needed to do was to decide how to paint the changing sky and clouds. It was so nice to finally be able to work standing up for a long period!

PA #4, Peaceful Morning, 12x 9"- SOLD

After lunch I headed to the residential area near downtown, scouting for something to paint. The night before, event organizers had given us some addresses of people who would allowed artists to work from their porches. Nothing clicked so I went to Sonnenberg Gardens. There were beautiful views to paint near the greenhouses but they offered no protection from possible rain, so I went to the mansion. There, I found another artist under the large porch facing the Italian Garden. The wall of large spruces in the distant and their colors in the mist won me over. I worked at it until closing time. I took artist's license with the foreground and removed many small trees.  The hint of the gazebo and the statue of Jupiter were enough to place the scene. I will need to take a better photo of it though.

PA #5, Italian Garden at Sonnenberg, 9x12"

 Back at the motel, I started framing. One of the things that I did at home which also saved me time here was to number the glass panel corresponding to each frame. A lot of people use one single kind of frame but I think that it's the paintings who decide what frame and color they will look best in, so I brought seven different ones with me. Despite all the work done ahead, it took me over two hours to frame four pastels.

June 8th, Day Three - Quick Draw Day
Early in the morning I handed in my paintings. Cloudy with chance of rain. I needed to find a place to paint before 9:30AM where I could work from the car in case of rain. I found a parking space by the market, and facing the hatch was my scene, an alley. With some time to spare I even did some shopping right there. I had brought with me different sizes of boards to choose from depending on the scene, and this one, having large shapes and being relatively simple, I thought it best to work in a large format so I could keep things loose. Taking with Lori the night before about color, value, and general trends in plein air painting, got me into paying more attention to what I was doing. Fortunately, the rain held off so I worked standing up. I finished before 11:30 AM, put the board without glass in the frame, and took it to the Commons where the paintings were going to be displayed. I got very nice comments about my painting and the composition. I'm happy with the results and my effort to keep the colors subdued. Now all I need to do is to fix a few things.

Quick Draw, The Alley, 16x12"

That night was the  award ceremony and preview sale. My friend Lori won the Artist Choice Award for a beatiful close up painting of a boathouse. We were treated to a nice dinner and had the chance to meet the other artists. I think the weather made us all comrades in adversity so people were more inclined to share their experiences with others.

Sunday June 9th - Public Exhibit and Sale
Having all morning to do whatever we wanted, we decided to go painting. (Hadn't we had enough?) The painting heading this post is my effort of that morning and I did learned a lot from it. I tend to think sky reflections as light blue, but when you place such color next to a light yellow they are almost the same in value so I had to find darker and darker blues. I like this one a lot. All it needs is to darken the building on the right.
At the exhibit I met two nice ladies, each of whom went home with one of my paintings. It's always nice to hear someone say " I saw it (the painting) and it spoke to me."

The event was well planned and it promises to get better. My thanks to the organizers, donors, and the volunteers who made it possible, and to the artists and people, with whom I had the chance to exchange ideas and good laughs.

Art by the Lake -en plein air painting

Sheds, 12x9" pastel on Colourfix paper by Adriana Meiss

Yesterday was the Art by the Lake at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown. My friend Vicky and I participated as plein air painters. There were also fine art vendors under a huge tent and I was impressed by the quality of the work.  We had all day until 4:00pm to paint to our heart's content, but the heat and my heavy set up (why do I always carry more than I can handle?) were a factor in my not being able to produce more than two paintings.

Not being familiar with the area, it took me half an hour to find the best locations to paint. Also, because it was so hot, I wanted to paint under the shade of trees.  What to paint first? Here I had to estimate or foresee how the light/shadow patterns were going to change in the next two hours and decide whether I should wait till the afternoon when the light might be more interesting. At first sight, I was tempted to paint the lake but the water and the sky being of similar value meant problems so I decided instead on the sheds.

Path by the Lake, 9x12 pastel on Wallis paper by Adriana Meiss

At about 11:30 am I started my second one, Path by the Lake. At this time the shadow pattern changed considerably but only in the distant path so I was able to work without major problems.

After lunch I took a long break to see the American Impressionism exhibit and to talk with vendors and other plein air painters. Then at 3:00pm, the  lake looked just perfect for painting: deep blues an greens. Although the water wasn't smooth I swear I could see the pinks of the big clouds reflected on the water. I hurried across the expanse of lawn to get my gear but by the time I reach it any little energy I had in me had left me. It was time to call it the day.  The area is so beautiful that it's in my list of places to visit again and explore with more detail.

Robert Carsten Workshop

I've heard that one should take time to put in practice what one has learned from one workshop before taking another. That makes sense, but when a good opportunity comes one's way, one just have to take it, so that's why I ended up taking the Robert Carsten 2-days workshop 2 weeks after the one with Susan Ogilvie.
Painting#1
Carsten was invited to Syracuse by the Everson Museum, and because a friend had said so many wonderful things about him and the tidbits of info he gives here and there, I decided to take it. Good move! He is a wonderful teacher, who made the lessons fun and relaxing, at the same time that he encouraged us to do several paintings.

Painting #2
I learned so many little things that are very important in producing good work, one of them, not to give up so easily when the painting is not working the way you want it, as was the case with painting #3, where the season went form spring to summer,

Painting #3
and an opening was added on the left bank switching the area of interest from the water on the foreground to the opening, and making the painting more interesting.

Painting #4
I wanted to get ideas for painting different weather conditions and we had 30 minutes left before a general discussion session. So, my snow scene was done in a record time of 20 minutes! The pressure made me decide quickly what to leave out.

I'm very happy I took this workshop as it also gave me chance to get to know other local artists I see only on occasions.

Ogilvie Workshop, continued-Day 2

On Day 2, Susan did a sketch demo on location, at a beautiful area of the Moose River. She uses the Golden Mean to place the areas of interest. Important points are : Get the parts that appeal to you. Simplify. Use abstract shapes to compose. Make color notes.
Painting #2
Her idea of making the sketch work for you, was a revelation to me. I have often taken artist license when painting certain scenes, but what she said had more implications and possibilities, and made me realize why sometimes I end up with paintings that do not work. This is more difficult to grasp when you are painting outdoors and feel you are cheating if you make major changes to the scene.
I did two sketches that morning and would have liked to do a third one but it started to rain. It was lunch- time anyway. In the afternoon I worked solely from my second sketch.

Susan wanted us to paint water reflections and at least one structure/building. I had 2 paintings with water reflections, now I needed one with a building.
Painting #3
For a while I've been thinking of a photo of a barn I liked, but didn't know how to change the composition. I knew what particular things I wanted to include but didn't know how to put it together. Susan suggested to place a tree behind the barn. I did a sketch using that idea and it worked! She also suggested that I include the pole to give a sense of scale.

Reference for painting #3
I'm showing the reference photo just to give you an idea of how much you can change something and make it work for you.
I think the specs of reddish underpainting add a lot to both paintings and I'm planning to use it for other supports.