Plein Air Painting Workshop

While my family continues their summer trip to Michigan I am participating in Plein Air Painting workshop with Scott Tallman Powers. I decided to create a video report for your viewing pleasure. Just my "final thoughts" after an entire (9am to 4pm) day of painting outdoors.

BTW, the other plein air painters are excellent painters and artists. It was great to be in a workshop with them hence my video sarcasm (when will I learn that sarcasm is never a good ice break! ugh). I will report each day of this 3 day workshop - if I survive!!

I usually paint in watercolor paint (which I LOVE). My fellow painters have been encouraging me to begin painting in oils (the dark side - it's an artsy joke). So I dove in this weekend with much trepidation and fear of being pulled into tedium.

Night Painting

I'd love to say I painted plein air at night in a snow storm, but I'd be lying. I was out in the snow on SuperBowl Sunday and snapped this shot with my camera phone (I wrote about it here). It was a challenge to paint. The only way to render snow in watercolor paint is to not use paint but paint the things around the snow. Negative painting. I think I blew a pupil. The photo of the painting DOES NOT capture the true colors. The colors in the the painting are so much more intense and clear - my camera could not translate this. If Gloria Gaynor can survive, so can I.

Ahh - Blinding White

I heard a statistic that darkness cannot be measured. Darkness is the opposite of light, which can be measured. So the only way darkness can be defined is to be "less light". Kinda of cosmically optimistic of God to make it that way, eh? I love being outside in inclimate and severe weather. I'm drawn to it like a moth to flame. The weather evokes passion in me. Sometimes it evokes thoughts of lost loves or instills longing for new ones as well as unseen lands. I got a weather fix today. Well a mini one.

This morning, I bundled up bigtime and headed out into the snow. It was overcast and gray. But the snow was still quiet, white and intact. It hadn't turned to noisy grey slush. Laden down with all my plein air painting stuff I headed to Wood and Division - our meet-up spot. I drove around there the other day hoping to find some inspiration for my painting. It was difficult for weeding out the noise of modern man and yuppies. Arrgghh, where was the beauty? Division, west of Damen, is looking really good - BTW. Lots of cute shops and eateries. Not too intimidating like the shops of Bucktown (have a decent sale already for Beck's sake).

Today I walked all over Wood/Division-area looking around, checking the light, looking for neat shadows, etc. Good thing I had a hot latte in my hand or else I would've been abysmally disappointed. I was having a tough time. There is a lot more foot and car traffic in this part of the city and the snow had been disturbed. The snowscape idea was losing it's appeal quickly. How many more days would I have to actually paint snowscapes (see some of my previous attempts here)? Today really counted to me.

I came to a place across from an alley next to the post office at Marshfield and Hadoon. The alley revealed the rear side of shabby frame housing and remnants of small businesses. But above it all, the scene gave way to some amazing architecture notable of our fair city. In the distance was the John Hancock, masonry church basilicas, old brick apartments and new ones. There was a lot going on. To the side of me, out of this view, there was a small crowd of post office employees on break getting their food fix from a "roach wagon". You know those pick up trucks with the quilted-looking stainless steel cabs (Okay, catering truck). Restaurants have modernized this idea by simply packing up heated/cooled mini pick ups with their restaurant food. You can find a lot of these around the campus at Northwestern Hospital (one of the Italian places had a good meatball sandwich... but my favs are from Soprafina and Costello's - in that order - so get one if you're near those places. Or take me to lunch and get me one).

A roach wagon has been around forever. I should know. My Dad owned one when I was a kid. I remember he used to have to charge the battery in the truck everyday in the winter. He just plugged it into an outlet in the garage wall. In the old days battery chargers would often electrify the entire truck. I'd sneak (along with my sisters) into the garage to steal an RC out of the truck. Only when I went to pull up the heavy steel door, I was jolted with electricity. It didn't stop me, let's just say I built up a tolerance. That is until I learned to simply unplug the truck before touching it.

I'm writing all this simply to walk you through the artistic conundrum of what to paint! oy vey. I chose to to paint the above scene. As I sketched it out on my cold press paper I realized I forgot my paints! *Sigh*. I think I'm going to draw in the roach wagon to make it more interesting. I'll be sure to post the finished product if it turns out. Now that I have you on the edge of your seat as to how I'll creatively express my view of the above scene...I'd like to invite you all to the Annual PAPC Exhibit. Reception is April 4, 2008 @ the Palette and Chisel, 1020 N. Dearborn 5- 8 PM. It'll be a hoot and a holla and you can see how I'm progressing (I AM improving- and style takes time folks). Have style? Come to this event. Need some style? Come to this event. Remember to shout out, it's good to hear from ya'll.

Adventures in Ice Painting

Well, it finally happened. My paints froze while painting outside, en plein air. (see photo for slushy watercolor paints)

I paint with the PAPC, an informal group of artists who paint at different locations each Saturday morning. Spring Valley Nature Center in Schaumburg, Il (of enormous Woodfield Mall fame) was our stomping grounds for the morning. A surprising, natural gem of a place in the middle of suburban office complexes and huge retail.

Wow, it was a very crisp, yet sunny, snowy winter morning. The birds were chirping, the snow was glowing and reflecting all kinds of light. Life outside seemed to move a bit slower and the world was a bit peaceful. I enjoyed the 1/2 mile hike, in massive ice fishing boots, in deep snow while scouting locations to paint. Sidebar: I’m quickly learning how to dress like a frontier’s woman when I go painting so I don’t freeze! One is miserable otherwise.

The temp was 6 degrees when I left my Chicago home… a bit colder than forecasted. Needless to say, I grumbled on my way out the door. We’ve had a lot of snow this winter and I needed some experience painting snowscapes. I just got a new Anderson field easel and was excited to try it out. I was using an easel of my own creation – being an old music stand for the watercolor block, and an old TV table to hold palette and water. No one is sayin’ it’s sexy, but it did a good job. It was just a huge load to transport.

OK, back to the painting… Plain ol’ water just frozen up! Whenever I’d lay a wash down on the paper, it would crystallize in about 5 seconds. It was frustrating. At times when I’d wait for a wash to “dry”, I went for a walk to wait for the layer to “freeze” so I could put on the next layer. Kinda fun considering, I got a chance to do more hiking in the neat winter weather with nature and wildlife all around. Remember, I’m a born and bred city chick. Street lights and concrete are considered nature around here.

I finished one painting and went to lunch. My friend, Stuart, convinced me to return for another round. Here was my chance to paint near dusk – which I had been wanting to do for awhile. Also, there’s safety in numbers. I found a nice spot with a wonderful scene of a barn, lofty snow hills and beautiful low sun casting crazy-long shadows and warm light. It was gorgeous. I would have been happy just sitting sipping a hot chocolate. But hey, I’m a plein air artist, I have to document the creative process, not just sit there and admire nature. Off your duff Beck.

My second painting was even a bigger frozen disaster than the first. The temperature must have been dropping. My paint was turning to slush right there in the mixing palatte. I applied it to paper thinking the motion would warm it up. It just created ice shapes. There was no controlling what I put on paper. Sigh. My brushes became very stiff and frozen. When I rinsed them they became pliable for a few more seconds. But just to manipulate the

slush. Deeper sigh. Defeated, I decided to snap some phone photos and tackle painting again - later at home. My entire painting was frozen. I tried to show this in the photo. You can see light bouncing off of the icy composition. I wish it would laste - it’s kind of a neat effect.

So where the heck was Stuart in all of this (the shiester who talked me into this adventure)? Was he or his paints literally freezing? He, as an oil painter, was like a kid in a candy shop and cranked out like 3 paintings that afternoon. Oil paints don’t freeze as easily as watercolors. After I packed it in, I found him in the middle of a field – madly painting away. He had to laugh out loud watching me walk the ¼ mile across the meadow in knee-deep snow. I kinda liked struggling along tho. Woman vs. the elements! When I finally reached him, he was painting one of the animal barns. It looked almost church-like in the glowing, setting sun. It was an inspiration to watch him work and also very educational.

Two big snaps to my twin sister, Sally, for sending me her super-insulated (and 2 sizes too big) Sorel Ice Fishing boots. My feet weren’t cold all day. That was a first! Too bad my painting couldn’t follow suit with my comfortable body temperature.

My paintings defrosted in the car ride home. Some of the crystal funky textures remained -- that’s the romantic version of this adventure. The truth is that my paintings were a drippy mess (more so than usual, all you haters).

I’m not giving up watercolor painting outside in the winter It can work and it can be awesome. There is something cool (pun intended) to glean from this experience. A texture one can only achieve when painting in cold weather – outside perhaps. Or maybe, just a neat story. Stay tuned everyone – success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Yeah, whatever. I think Stuart’s comment sums it up best: “When are you gonna switch to oils…” (he kindly left out “dumbass” sidebar: he would never say the last bit).