Inside Winter Painting Time

When it Snows... paint in the studio

It is cold and snowy outside and I am inside painting. The sun is not shining and I am dressed in layers to stay warm. I run outside only to take the dogs out, dressed in layers and layers for warmth! Brr! My February goal is to paint more landscapes. Up North where I live this means painting from my reference photos. Painting from photos is way less fun than painting 'en plein air.'

I have hundreds of reference photos and yet I still have a hard time choosing which one to paint. I can get stuck in an endless loop, scrolling through photos looking for inspiration. Some photos I have painted before, some are intimidating or do not have good light. Am I too picky?

Perhaps I should rely less on the photo and more on making up my own colors and designs. I went to a workshop once and the instructor used a poor photo as her reference pic. She made a beautiful painting but I could not understand how she chose the pretty colors for her painting as they were not in the photograph. Her reference photo was one that I would have deleted, it was lots of greens and not much design, how did she make it work? I have a lot to learn, and much to figure out. How can I  take a sad reference photo and make it a great painting? I have a long way to go in this regard.

I have learned that painting the same subject over and over yields better results! Right now I am working on a painting that I have painted twice on location –two different days two different paintings. Those paintings are my references now, and I am thinking of them as I start anew. This is my third iteration of this painting, and this one, this  one has potential…. 

I am very pleased with the final results (pictured), I hope to enter this into a show, wish me luck!

Portraits Plus a February Show

Postcard for our February Show

My art group was asked to have a February Exhibit locally at Livonia City Hall. Of course, we said yes, let's do this. I know it will be a lovely show as my art friends are amazingly talented award winning artists.


If you are in the area, the show will be open during business hours at Livonia City Hall. We will be hanging the show February 1 and taking it down February 27. Please stop by and do let us know what you think of the show.


This show is unique for us in that we typically only show our portraits, as we are a portrait painting group. In this show, we will also showcase our landscapes. I have  two portraits and two landscape paintings in the show which is exciting. I am especially excited about my Red and Green painting, a sweet little barn and tractor painting, 8x10. I just framed it last night, it looks so good! I should mention that all works will be for sale!

A close up of my red barn & green tractor painting, painted 'en plein air' at the farm. Enjoy the show!

Fast Forward into ART BUSY!

Welcome to the Post-Holiday DASH!

At My Window, 11x14

There is a lull in art activities around the holiday, and now in January activity starts to pick up again and we all are feeling overwhelmed with the artbusy. Suddenly there are multiple shows, in town and online. Do I have enough work? Do I have enough finished work? Am I ready? What are the deadlines for show entry, dates of drop off, dates of show? 

Planning and organization are important facets of being an artist. Honestly, I am unsure of how some artists get by, they never remember deadlines or drop off dates—these need to be on your calendar and set up as reminders. You should track your art and where it has been displayed too. I keep seeing the same art over and over in local shows when I know the artist is working and creating new artwork. Please put some of that new art in the show, your followers and I have seen the old stuff before.

So today I am planning to mark my calendar with upcoming show deadlines. I still have a printed calendar, being visual it helps me to write on it, retain it, and see it daily. I may also add deadlines to an online calendar or my phone (reminders). Not only do I need to think about art deadlines, I also start thinking about which artworks will go into the shows, much planning needs to be done. It helps to know the shows too!

There are two favorite local art shows that I love. One is a member show, and there I always put in a portrait as the show heavily features landscapes and I want to stand out. The other is a figure show, and that is competitive and well respected—that I try to get into with figurative work if I can –that particular show is juried. Ok, so there are those two shows in February and March. Then there is a juried show in March for my Detroit Society of Women Painters. And my art group has a show the month of February. And another local art association has a show in March. Plus my online national art group is calling for entries into their Summer show, and I very much want to apply to that. Well, it is all stacking up as you can tell! WOW! Hello ‘Feb March Art Extravaganza’, can you hear that frantic fast music as I search my studio for works to put into all these shows? Oh my, yes, this will take some planning and strategy.

Dashing through the studio I go! 

Great Art News

Acceptance Into A Juried Paint Out

Driftwood Texaco, 5x7

While reading online at Outdoor Painter (Plein Air Magazine), I saw an ad for Paint The Town 2019, a plein air paint out in Marble Falls Texas. Since I am working toward doing more plein air paintings, I read the information. This paint out is not near my house but I noted and confirmed that it is near my sister’s house. Even though I have not painted in a Juried Plein Air Event, I have painted in several plein air paint outs. After texting my sister to confirm that I could stay with her if accepted, I decided to apply. The application included a Bio, an link to my website, and photos of my plein air work.

I was thrilled and surprised to get an email that I have been juried into the paint out! WOW! Exciting and oh boy I have some painting and planning to do!

I need to coordinate the dates with my sister so that I and my art stuff can descend on her home. I have painted in paint outs before, so I am not concerned with my supplies or getting my supplies to the destination.

I am concerned that I will not get enough plein air painting days outside before the event. The weather here has been ‘feels like teens’ and no sun, which means no outside time for me! I live up north and there will not (for me) be many paint opportunities between now and the paint out dates. I need to figure out how best to prepare for this event, in a painter way. 

Organizationally I have this! I have the equipment and motivation, I just have to figure out how to create more landscapes between now and then. In the meantime, I am looking at my TX reference photos and creating little studies. And, I am reading as many landscape books as I can get my hands on.

Here are the Paint Out details (stay tuned more to come!):

Paint The Town

Paint Out in the Texas Hill Country, Marble Falls

March 31- April 6 2019

Juried Plein Air Competition and Show & Sale

April 1 - Money Monday Paint Day

April 2 – Artists Paint at Spicewood Vineyards

April 3 – Gallery Set up, Patrons Viewing

April 4 – Student Art Day at the Pavillion

April 5 – Lakeside Pavillion open 11-5 for gallery sales

April 6 – Family Day Lakeside Pavillion 10 AM-7PM, Quickdraw at 10AM

Reading and Painting

5x7 color & composition study

Landscapes landscapes landscapes! Are on my mind! And yet, mostly I have worked on portraits because I have the artportuntity to paint from a live model 3 times a week. I have to take advantage of that which means that I am not painting as many landscapes as I would like.

I live Up North and landscape painting outside is not a possibility for me right now. Call me a wimp, but with 30s as highs (wind chills in teens/no sun), I am not interested in being outside. Just walking the dogs hurts my hands and face -even though I am geared up!

View from Wildwing, 9x12

 Guess what I did on Black Friday? No, not shopping, I avoided the mall. Despite the freezing cold and wind, the sun was shining-- I went driving to find landscape photo references. Yes, I really have landscape on my mind. I went to my favorite park and was able to find a few photos and areas that I could get excited about. Plus, on this day, with the promise of a hot cocoa, I had great company and a driver in my husband.

Along with taking reference photos, I borrowed books from my wonderful art friend who has an amazing book library. I really am enjoying and absorbing this wonderful older book called "Painting Better Landscapes" by Kessler. I am reading about how yellow recedes as you go back in a painting. I know others have tried to share this information with me, but it is simply stated and there are visual color examples in the book so it really makes sense. I am thoroughly enjoying this book and I am learning too!

So maybe I am not getting outside like I would like, but I am still working toward landscape painting improvement through reading and gathering materials (photo references). Tonight I plan to landscape paint at home from one of my photo references.

Not Every Week is a Winner

Last week I painted and painted; sadly I am unhappy with my results.

Last week I was determined to paint, particularly as I had been travelling and then sick, missing 2 weeks of my painting time. Early in the week I chose to paint landscapes from photographs. Having reviewed the catalog of works in a show that I aspire to be in (someday), I was determined to paint a water scene. I noted that 35% of works in the show depicted water scenes. So I scrolled through my photographs to find a scene I thought would be good to put into a show, in a similar vein of those I'd seen in the big show.

I also wanted a more simple photo reference. I found an ok reference but the left side was dark and obscured by trees. I made a design decision to have a left land mass, smaller but similar to the mass on the right of the water. I also made a design decision to have a high horizon line, I wanted the water to have a strong presence. What greatly appealed to me was the bright yellow fall grasses. Also, the sky in the photo reference was blue, but I wanted to add a contrast to all the green so I made it an orange pink.  I had a grand vision for this, I am not sure I executed the painting as well as I wanted to.

Last week I also painted two portraits from life, I was not happy with either result. In both cases my colors were strong, I love my color! But there has to be more than color in regard to a good portrait. One portrait featured bright green and pink and those colors together were fantastically appealing. But, I did not capture her face and shoulders, I had wanted this to be one that I could put in a show but it honestly is not my best work. The other portrait had lots of orange color (background and flowers) which also was appealing. I could not get the eyes right and the hair which was pulled into a braid does not look right. Perhaps I need to take my photo references and work on these, or I can call it and these two works can go in the trash. I do not want to show either work here, no thank you! Both portraits remain in a TBD pile--I may or may not work on them.

The good from last week is that I did get in the painting time that I wanted. But, wow, I am disappointed in my results. I have got to be more focused and really get back to where I want to be as an artist. Perhaps this week I will be better!

Time to think About Goals

My BIG 2018 goal was to "paint more!" 

Me & Marilyn, Art Inst. Chicago

2018 Art Goals that were completed:

• Paint more! 
• Update my blog 2x per month
• Update my website 2x per month
• Stay on top of my art inventory

Paint More!
This was achieved through  painting quick studies each day for a month (started in Jan), painting Richard Schmid's color charts, continuing to paint portraits each week (2x) at the studio plus attending extra sessions. Plus painting en plein air and painting in 4 plein air paint outs. I tried to paint more at home when I could but I definitely fought distractions, I totally see the value of an out of home studio<<<A Girl can dream!

Lessons Learned
So what have I learned this year?

Paint outs are quite a lot of work, much time and much attention is required and all are organized differently. I enjoy the paint outs that are closer to home, it is easier to be organized when you get to sleep in your own bed at night. Many works don't sell, but the experience is important.

Richard Schmid's color charts are a time consuming value add. Each chart that I created took a time consuming three plus hours to paint. The color mixing really helped me, I am a faster color mixer and I learned more about what I can do with my palette. I am an 11 color palette artist now. Week to week I only need these 11 colors.

Researching and joining a national organization for your art is valuable and beneficial. I joined the The AIS (American Impressionist Society). I really like the organization, the way the organization is run, the AIS artists and the member benefits.

As always, I want to be more organized and have a better painting schedule. I am terrible at having a daily art schedule, I am an organized person but I struggle with this--so tracking my art continues to be a goal. I did get a great suggestion from a mentor on this one, she said to keep a journal at my easel and track my time, yep this is going on 2019 goals.