Mileage on the tires

 Today was a fun day of plein air. The weather was perfect, the company was great and I didn't even want to throw any of my paintings away today. I painted with Thom Robinson, Pam Newell and Donna Shortt today. We started at Adrians orchard and after that Thom had to leave. The rest of us went out to whiteland to paint at another artist's house. After all was said and done I had five paintings that didn't turn out awful after getting them out of my carriers upon returning home. The top painting is the first that was completed. There is a yellow trailer with a tire in it, sitting by the parking lot of the orchard that caught my attention. I like the abstract shapes and patterns created when you zoom in on old machinary. The bottom painting was the last done today. After everyone else had gone I was there looking for one more painting before heading out myself. There was an old worn out trail leading back to a group of large trees. Today was fun and got me excited for this weekend. I might not be able to post anything the next couple of days but when I do get something up it will be worth the wait.

Busy Days

Last night I was celebrating Halloween with my family at my aunt and uncles. After we went trick or treating with my daughter we set up talking until we were tired. I had planned on doing some paintings after the trick or treating but things didn't work out that way. So this morning after eating breakfast and getting everything ready to leave I did this quick painting of a tree outside their backdoor. This was the first watercolor I have done in two months and I wasn't sure if I even remembered how to do it. I kept this color palette simple. After working with oils, mixing the watercolors seems much more easy. This was done fairly quickly and I think keeping this little watercolor journal when pastels or oils is out of the question would be a good idea. After getting home I took some photos of the new paintings outside and am currently toneing some oil panels. With any speed I can get another watercolor done before my daughter wakes up.

To top of a good weekend

This weekend there was a family get together at my parents house. Also at this time they are harvesting corn so I wanted to get some paintings of that process. On Friday night we arrived around 8 so the sun had already gone down. That made getting a painting of combining or loading out of the question. Thankfully the grain bins that they unload at are lit up well. I started painting one of the trucks unloading but didn't get it finished before they took off. It was already late and that was the last load of the night. So I had to choose some other stuff in the barnyard to paint. After a couple of hours I had two really good paintings that I really enjoy. Those are my first night time oil paintings and it was a lot of fun. It did get down right cold that night. At 1:30 I decided to call it quits when my feet were numb. By that time a good layer of frost had accumulated on all my stuff which made it hard to get everything in the car. My hands were deep red and I thought it was because of the paint but it was the cold. Touching that metal tripod with that frost on it hurt. Surprisingly working in solitude when its dark and having loud ambient noise from the grain bin driers put me in a meditative trance. Hours flew by and it felt like minutes. There was hardly any thinking and all decisions seemed to be innate reactions. It was exciting as the first time I painted in plein air and easily as addictive if not more so. Night painting is a new muse and many more paintings will be up soon.

Today on the way home my family swung by brown county to take in the fall colors before they fully disappeared. Sadly the leafs have all but gone from all but the last trees that shed late. There is also a show running in the brown county art gallery that I had put two paintings in. Usually you receive an email letting you know some kind of information about the show but I am still yet to receive anything. So we swung by the gallery and had a look. I took home best of show and that is the photo at top. I'm very excited about getting that award. There are a lot of great paintings in that building and to win anything there is awesome. Weirdly enough the painting that won was not the one that I personally like the best of the two. Thank goodness I didn't just take the one I liked or I might not have won anything. After thinking about the couple of shows I have won in, the painting that won has never been my personal favorite. I'm beginning to think I have an odd taste in art. I'm not sure if that should be taken into consideration when entering shows or if I should continue to put in my own favorites. It is something to think about but staying true to what I see as the best is most likely the path I will take.