Critiques: Work well spent.

In January I requested a critique from the local art museum director, second time in a couple of years. It always takes a bit of prep to get the work organized and limited to a reasonable body which can be seen in the half hour/hour we have. This time I took in old work and new work. Six large-ish pieces that I call my swamp trees and about that many new pieces also large-ish.

The earlier work was on black and the new work done in my usual technique of gouache underpainting on sandpaper. "Spooky" and "alive" were the first comments to come out of the curator and the director's mouths seeing the first, black background, early work.

The second body of work was all about the magic of a particular place, discovered last fall while we sipped up an extended Indian Summer.

Neither body of work has yet made the gallery rounds, so this was a test balloon sort of critique.

I had so much fun with this one, except that the hauling of 20x24 inches work needs to be refined, every new expansion requires a refinement in my technique, schedule, hardware or supplies. The critique was a great way to move this all forward into new territory.

More soon.

Featured in Pastel Journal Magazine, May/June 2010. The issue is on the stands and includes the new feature with my representing Michigan and a little info on painting and art in the state. Here's a link to the publisher Pastel Journal Magazine May/June 2010

Here's the frozen underpainting, even the brush froze after a few splashes and behaved more like a twiggy weed than bristles. After 30 minutes wandering around to photograph and drink coffee while waiting for the underpainting to thaw, I broke down the easel and walked over to where my painting buddy for the day was located. They weren't painting with ice cubes and were working in water colors. So it's all about location, location, location.

"Painting With Ice Cubes"

The usual gouache underpainting was not a good approach on this day and after the sun came up the temps dropped further. The top of the pond had ice and even the dribbles from my rinse container froze instantly.

Go to the Driftless6/10.blogspot site where I posted about some nice wool, fingerless mits a friend made for me. Tomorrow promises to be a good morning for painting with them and I'll photograph them.

She made them from felted old sweaters.

Tomorrow I paint a new site in town. It's near one I was working on last weekend. Both were passed along to me by a new painting bud, Doug D who I'll be joining tomorrow morning.

Last weekend, those funny spectators were out. The park has a well established frisbee golf course and regular players even at 8 in the morning. So I positioned myself in the middle of a lovely field and painted dead pines against the light.

After an hour and a half, a woman came trudging with her dog across the field, shouting "what are you doing?" I thought she was calling to the dog who could have used some management. But her discipline the dog voice was directed at me:

"What are you doing?"

"Painting."

"It's so ugly now, you should have been here in Oct...those trees over there were yellow ..."

And so it went for a while. She had posed herself in front of my view and the dog was yelping and lunging at me. I asked if she wanted to look at the painting.

"Oh, you added color that isn't there. Those trees are ugly."

And so on for a little while more until I asked if she'd like my card.

"Yes, then I can call you and tell you when it's pretty out."

Funny.

Photos tomorrow.

"Roaming Apple Tree" 8x10 inches, pastel over gouache on Uart.


Four painters roamed for four days over the Door Peninsula the third week of October this year finding it cold, cloudy and often wet. Fortunately there are many ways to find shelter and this painting was from within a row a trees against which the wind buffeted. 


The first morning I didn't set up due to continual rain that became increasingly dense. But the oil painters continued to work, some without cover, so it'll be interesting to see how that turns out. Being the only person working in pastels, I can't say if that was an advantage or no. 

That was the only day that I couldn't get going. After that, these wild apple trees continued to get my attention, seems like I did four or five paintings of various groups ... it says a lot about the former orcharding going on in the area.

This sample of Uart brand sandpaper worked well enough for me to want to try it again soon. The paper was mounted and nicely flat, a light tone to it to start, took the washes well and dried at least as well as Wallis which was slow only because of the really high humidity.


These old apple trees were a persistent source of sculptural forms, even holding their fruits which ranged from brilliant yellows with carmine tints to deep lipstick reds which had even darker blushes of burgundy.


I also need to announce that the group of painters on this trip and I have launched a blog for the group. Please give us a few days and then see what happens ... there is a lot of energy and with everyone so attracted to the Driftless area, or from that region, we've named the site after it. See the links to the right for the Driftless 6/10 Blog.

Wisconsin painting.
Mid October presents another painting week in Door County with my painting buddies, yahoo! It will be beautiful though I haven't painted there so late in the year. This also presents a chance to work with the GPS markers I've planted over the last six months as painting sites.

I'm particularly interested in the sites I marked after the competition in July, when one of my new friends there walked me around and pointed out likely places. Many of the other sites are terrific and well tested.

The group will be dynamic and interesting as the range of talent is broad. Paint, paint, paint, crit, art talk and the next chorus is the same.