Prep for a Painting Retreat

What Else Will I Need?

Kensington, last summer 5x7

One of my art friends expressed surprise when I asked how I should prepare for a plein air painting retreat. "Each week you pack your art supplies and paint at a friends studio." Yes, that is true---BUT after the studio, I go home and unpack--also the studio is indoors. A Painting Retreat will be four plein air days at a Nature Center (staying on location) with no art supply stores nearby.

Additionally, a plein air retreat means that I will have to bring my outdoor equipment. I have plein air painted before, typically near my house--logging many day trips to the park and back with a trunk full of art supplies. So I asked my art group--"What else will I need?" Here is what they said:

Important Items to Bring for a Plein Air Event:

First Aid Kit, Eye Drops, Energy Bars, Water, Gatorade, Extra Plastic Bags, Ball Cap, Paper Towels, Wet Panel Carrier, Bug Spray, Sunscreen, Brush Soap, Extra Tape, Hiking Boots, Warm Socks, Extra Socks, Long Sleeves, Spring Clamp, Clothing Layers, Lots of Brushes

Advice:

• Go through paints bring fresh full tubes and a large tube of white
• Inventory Mediums and take extra
• Perform Equipment Check
• Put your name on Everything
• Put Business Cards in a Baggie
• Anything you carry can get WET

Great advice, thank you friends,

Get It Together

Organization  & The Reluctant Coordinator

Visual reminders of Deadlines for the art group!

My friend is an organized and informed artist whom the rest of us rely on for art motivation and information.

She makes art and encourages and coordinates our art group shows. If you have ever entered a show you know how much work it is: paperwork, paperwork drop off, artwork that must be fresh and framed and priced, then drop off and pick up times (if accepted) - it is a lot to keep up with -- many deadlines and dates to remember.

And, here's the thing, I would never volunteer to be the Art Coordinator -No Thank You! And yet our Art Coordinator emailed me from the hospital; she has chosen me to be the contact for our group show. Oh no! I don't want to be in charge! Is this because I am organized?

Our group show is in August and there are many deadlines for the venue and for the artists. It is much to coordinate. Each Artist will have to print and sign their inventory and their insurance waiver. I will sign the contract for the venue for the group. Each Artist will have to provide a Bio/Artist Statement and a jpeg image of their work. Thus far I have emailed the show timelines and deadlines to the artists. I have created a Cork Board Information area for the artists which includes a printed month by month calendar (deadlines written in). I have designated folders for signed paperwork and all will be displayed prominently for artists to see. And still I know there will be stragglers who don't check their emails/whose printers don't work and who will miss the deadlines.

Wish me well & wish me patience,

 - The Reluctant Coordinator

Be Brave - Take the Chance

I belong to a studio portrait painting group and we meet every Wednesday which is exactly when a local landscape group meets --so the choice is one or the other (portrait or landscape). Oh how I would love to do plein air painting, why can't it be on another day?

A One Hour Quick Study - Up North Fall 5x7

I did find, on the plein air website, a very reasonable plein air "Spring Retreat" paint out that will occur in April. When I emailed asking for more information, I learned that I was emailing with the Wednesday Plein Air Contact. I have a new art friend simply from a few emails. Aren't Art Friends wonderful?

In our email exchanges the Plein Air Contact invited me to meet with them on one of their regular Wednesday paint outs - which I cannot do because of the schedule conflict. However, I did suggest adding a "Bonus Tuesday" to the plein air schedule. Guess what? We are going to coordinate a few Bonus Tuesdays this Spring -and all I had to do was ask! Be Brave!

WOW! It was so easy to ask for and create what I hope will be a fun experience with new art friends!

The other item that I wanted to mention was be sure to share challenges and ideas with your art colleagues too. I mentioned a few months ago that I wanted to paint 1 hour quick studies each week. And, I mentioned it to several art friends. We now paint 2 quick paintings per week, each one hour (small) and the results which we post online are amazing. I am surprised at how much can be accomplished in an hour and also how many people have joined the group! I really feel that the quick painting and fast decision making are helping me improve my painting skills.

So, my advice to you is to be brave--ask the question, talk to your friends, organize and coordinate! Take the Chance!

People's Choice, A Little Surprise!

Solo Show Thoughts & Ideas
Lighthearted - a February Show 

I just had a Solo Show Art Reception Friday night and whew I am still in recovery. There is so much to think about with regards to a show, you have to be an organized planner. At the end of it all I realized that in the future I would like to do more small group shows (maybe with 5-7 artist friends). Independence is great, but it is a lot of work. How did my friend Barb do Fifty One Woman Shows?

I thought framing all of the art and getting all to the venue would be the hardest part...wrong! The hardest part was hanging the show by myself. The hanging system at the venue was pliers based -- so for every artwork, I had to use pliers to adjust the hanging piece up and down--with 40 artworks it took me 5 hours to hang. Wow! I had used other hanging systems before, and I must confess they were easier to use, definitely I could have used some assistance, ah hindsight and lessons learned.

#1 People's Choice -the small "Summer House" landscape

The great part about the venue was the music, the atmosphere, the coffee & lemonade and the good food! I wish I had thought to get a picture of the food I brought. I bought a gorgeous box of valentine chocolates, a fruit platter, valentine Hershey kisses, cheese and crackers, salted popcorn, macaroons and other goodies. I went with a Salty and Sweet treat theme.

One of my ideas for the show was to have all attendees write down their favorite artwork in the show--this turned out to be a fantastic and valuable idea. I had pens and paper at the treat table and asked the guests to each write the title of their favorite work and then place it in the jar before they left the show. Once I got home that night (with the jar), I tabulated the results and I was SURPRISED! The People's Choice was a small 8x10 landscape painting, one which I almost did not put into the show. And, I loved going through and seeing which artworks people chose, that was delightful. My next step is to ask my art friends why this painting (#1) was chosen as I need to produce more like it to get more positive responses and sales! Only one person chose my favorite artwork as their favorite, so that really puts my thoughts of my work into perspective. What about the #1 painting was so successful? I personally think the light and the composition but more to come on that...

Pictured below are the other People's Choice Artworks:

Top- You Gotta Be, #2 Favorite

Left: Love to Infinity, voted #3 (TIE) favorite (my fave is the one on right)

Blooming Rose -far left TIE for # 3

Becoming, TIE for # 3

Accepting The Workshop Challenge

When was the last time your art brain hurt?

My Quick Value Study

I just finished a 3 Day workshop and it was exhaustively wonderful! My brain hurt from all the learning and concepts, each night I would go home tired (this was a good tired)!

Day One was all about value. I always need a value reminder. And, value is incredibly misunderstood. I found a teacher who not only has a firm understanding of value but who also can talk intelligently to students about value. While this workshop focused on portraits, it was clear that value could be applied to landscape and still life as well. Value I  need thee.

A View of Student work--red green challenge!

Day Two was the most exciting day, all about color! As artists we get set in our ways and set in our color palettes. What I really loved was how effective the instructor was at challenging our color  thinking. When the instructor put colored theater gels over the lights--this changed everything and yet when looking at Planes of the Face you could see how the color of the light impacted the face! Amazing! I was particularly struck by how when placing a hot pink paper under the face, the bright hot pink reflects back up into the face and under the chin, the light and color relationship is fascinating!

My Red Light Challenge

I especially loved the challenge to the workshop students. We were given an hour to paint a model who was under RED theater gel light. Her face glowed orange-red, and her cheek appeared grinch-green--a tough challenge! This really makes you think and look! The first 30 minutes I was unsuccessful! After a break, I went back to the easel and really looked and started to "get it". It is all about seeing light and color (and value)! I started to see the bright orange hair highlights and the purple shadows! WOW!

My "form" Unfinished Day 3...

Day three was putting it all together and focusing on finding form, finding a story and then incorporating fun and play. After watching a demo, a model posed for us under cool light. And the instructor gave us each challenges --determined for each student. My challenge was to "paint the form" (not features, not symbols). How amazing that after two days, the instructor could go student to student to work with each of us on our weaknesses! And it was tough as I like to place in features, just adding form and shape is a new and difficult way to start for me. While all of my works are unfinished, I could have used more time on this one. I would have liked to go back in and add darks to the hair, and to blur the left eye feature (I outlined it) and to blur a bit the bottom lip-the light side...

A great workshop, much needed to reinforce value, form, color and where I need to focus on my art.

A special Thank You to Vianna Szabo, a wonderful artist and instructor.

Learning & Exploring & Loving It!

I am really loving my art quick studies experience. I find that I am fearless with composition and color application with my mini one hour paintings!

Little Red Barn 4 x 6"

The Red Barn was toned red (lower half) where there would be a lot of green and orange (upper half) where there would be blue sky. The hardest part to paint was the pole in the middle as it was light and bright but very very narrow Also, it was hard to indicate the phone lines--I ended up using a palette knife as even my small brushes I could not get straight lines. Still, I like the result and am happy with what I was able to get done in an hour.

The hardest part of the quick study for me is finding reference photos to work from, I have many photos but it takes the right one for me to be inspired.

Once I decide to do a quick study, I set up my screen /image (to paint from), I layout my paints and brushes and then set the one hour timer. Ready or not I always stop at one hour.

I have learned that I love complementary color toning canvas. My last few paintings I have painted orange under blues and reds under green (light turp washes) and I love the results.

This quick study I liked so much that I used it as a reference to create a larger painting. Both canvases were toned orange before I painted on the whites and blues. I loved the thick layer of snow after the storm and the long blue tree shadows falling across the snow and house.

Snuggled - 4 x 6"

Nestled - 9 x 12"

Solo Show - Save The Date!

Prepping/Organizing/Framing/Marketing/WORK!

A pic of my Save The Dates for my Art Opening

I am thrilled to be having a solo show in February! And while it is exciting, it also will take quite a bit of organization. Right now, I am in the midst of prepping and planning, there is much to do and much to think about.

I just finished two works that I love and want to include in my show. This means that I need to sign and varnish the works and order frames for them.

As of now I know that I have enough completed works for the show ( a sense of accomplishment).
I figure that I will need to have 40 works that are framed and ready for the show. Currently I have 32 framed works with 8 works that need to be framed--(5 frames have been ordered, 3 I have at the house). I consider this a good place to be, ahead of the game!

I also had to come up with a title for the show--after much thought and deliberation I chose "Lighthearted". I chose this because my show is in February and my works are light, bright and lyrical. Now that I have a title, I can do PR. The venue will provide a bit of PR but I will share the show information on my website and with my art associations and with my art groups and friends via Social Media and printed cards.

I just ordered "Save the Date" cards for my Opening Reception. I ordered the cards on Vistaprint and included photos of my artwork. While this was an expense to me, I want people to attend the show opening --I have shared the cards with my art group,  neighbors and family.

Next steps include creating an art inventory just for this show - not all my works will be in this show and I need to give an art inventory to the venue soon. And I need to ensure that my business card and art information (title/price) are on the back of each artwork.