Plein Air North Texas Show at DFW

   I went out to see our show again today at DFW, I trully enjoy seeing the great variety of paintings in different media, subject matter, and style hanging together. I took some more photos to share .

One of my spring plein airs in the show.

A colorful Texas landscape by Sheri Jones.

A striking painting by Linda Popple.

A Colorado plein air by Cecy Turner.

One of Blair Currin's Texas landscapes.

A beautiful water color by Tina Bohlman from Palo Duro Canyon.

A large Texas landscape by Olivette Hubler.

A great floral by Margie Whittington.

A very Texas landscape by Cecilia Robertson.

Grand Champion Limousin Bull

Two and a half hours work on a sculpture

 After Church today, which lasted longer because our annual parish meeting followed the service, I went back to the Stock Show to sculpt.  There is only one more week left of the show. I have sculpted several longhorns but I wanted to sculpt a different breed of cattle. I walked around the cattle barns for a bit and right away, one bull stood out. It was a large black limousin bulll. He was magnificent looking.

 I came in today with nothing but a blob of clay and a wire armature from a previous sculpture. It didn't take long before I realized that I did not have nearly enough clay. I decided that I would try to sculpt half of the bull  in profile so I could capture as much of the important information as I could.

Xyloid, the Grand Champion Limousin Bull

 The bull I sculpted is from the Magness Land and Cattle Company in Colorado. His nickname is Bob ( I think his registered name is Xyloid ) I found out that he was selected as the Grand Champion Bull. I guess I know my cattle, because this one actually stood out as being special without knowing beforehand that he had won anything. (My cousins did  raise and show hereford cattle and I had a pet angus cross calf that I raised when I was about seven or eight.)

 Bob was very docile as he was lead outside to wait to be loaded into  his trailer. I took a lot of photographs, so hopefully I will have enough reference material to finish sculpting him.

Me sculpting next to Bob and some of the other cattle from the Magness Land and Cattle Company.

 While he was tied up outside I pulled up a stool and sat down beside him to sculpt. I had a lot of people come up to talk to me as I sculpted, and I never mind that. It was a warm day and a pleasant way to spend several hours creating art. I've got a long way to go before I am finished, but I do feel I got a good start today and met some very nice people while I worked.

Me sculpting outside.

Outdoor Painters Society Grapevine Paintout

Onions
8 x 10
oil on canvas
$300

Today was the Outdoor Painters Society's annual paintout in Grapevine, Texas. Grapevine is located just north of Fort Worth so it draws a good crowd of members from Fort worth and Dallas as well as the surrounding cities and towns. Of course it just figures that it would get cold again today, our coldest day this week in fact. But luckily Randy Saffle, our member from Grapevine thought of everything.

Me painting my still life.

 Randy and his wife set up four still lifes as well as arranging to have two models to paint. They were so organized that they set up the still lifes the day before and photographed them so that this morning they were able to quickly set up the still lifes before everyone arrived. Of course several artists braved the cold and wind to paint out. But many of us took advantage of Randy's hard work and planning and started the morning indoors.

My easel set up beside Ann Hardy.

   

 About twenty of us set up indoors. I painted a group of onions and silver pitcher next to my wonderful friend Ann Hardy. It is always fun getting together to paint with friends and besides Randy and Ann many of mine were there today including Sheri Jones, Olivette Hubler, Sabine Higgins, Tina Bohlman, Steve Miller, Ted Clemens, Leslie Talty and probably many others that I never saw because we were scattered across the town.

My easel and Olivette with hers in front of the train station.

After our first paintings were completed indoors, many of us moved outdoors to paint. It was still cold and breezy but right outside our doors were several great places to paint. Olivette and I both painted the old train station. I haven't posted mine yet because I need to do some more work on it.

Olivette painting the old truck in front of the blacksmiths shop.

 Olivette moved down the parking lot and painted an old truck in front of the blacksmith shop. There is so much to paint here and if it was warmer I would have stayed to paint more but I was just to cold so after warming up by the blacksmiths forge I headed back home.

A great old truck that Randy had for us to paint.

Plein Air North Texas

 Today I helped install an art show at DFW Airport featuring almost 80 paintings by  20 artists from all across North Texas, including Fort Worth, Dallas, Granbury, Keller, Aledo, Mansfield,  Weatherford, Waxahachie, and Colleyville. These artists are Darnell Jones, Beatriz Welch, Cecilia Robertson, Blair Currin, Tina Bohlman, Olivette Hubler, Cecy Turner, Sheri Jones, Margie Whittington, Sabine Higgins, Jan Bateman, Claudia Davis, Leslie Talty, Maryann Brummer, Sara Ward, Carol Ivey, Linda Reedy, Linda Popple, Ann Hardy, and myself. The majority of us are members of the Outdoor Painters Society. I have known all of these artists for many years and have had the pleasure of painting with them across North Texas at informal paint outs at areas like the Fort Worth Stock Yards, Dallas Arboretum, Lake Granbury, the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens, and back roads across the entire area and plein air events like Prairie Fest, Paint Historic Waxahachie, and the Outdoor Painters Society's paint outs. All work is for sale and may be purchased by contacting the artist.

I want to give special thanks to my friend Guy Bruggeman who spent his day off hanging the show. He is the curator of DFW's art collection. The show will hang until March 2nd. It is located in the car rental facility at the south entrance to the airport on the second floor. I will be going back several times to look at the work when I have time to really study it. It is a pleasure seeing every one's work hanging together and seeing how different artists interpret the same region.

Paintings by Sara Ward and Beatriz Welch

One of my paintings and two of Olivette Hubler's paintings.

Paintings by Sara Ward and Cecy Turner

Paintings by Sabine Higgins and Maryann Brummer

Paintings by Linda Reedy and Sheri Jones.

Painting by Darnell Jones

Paintings by me and Claudia Davis.

Painting by Ann Hardy.

One of my paintings.

One of my paintings.

Paintings by Claudia Davis and Jan Bateman.

More from Fort Worth

Fort Worth Livestock Exchange
8 x 10
oil on canvas
$350

 On Sunday I went to the Stock Yards to paint with my friend Olivette Hubler. It was a very nice day, sometimes cloudy but wonderful for January. I began by painting the Fort worth Livestock Exchange building.

My painting and the subject.

 There were many tourists as usual. People come from all over the world to Texas to see and experience the Old West and this is one of the best places I know of to experience remnants of that period of history which is gone but not forgotten.

Me, painting on Exchange Street.

The livestock exchange is one of the most beautiful buildings in the stock yards. Once it was a great place of business and commerce. Now I think a museum is in it and some offices. During the summer various demonstrations and events (like armadillo races) are held on its lawn.

Stage coach on Exchange Street

Every weekend there are stage coach rides, cattle drives and other events. It is an experience meant to be a pleasure for the entire family. I truly enjoy painting here and although this is my home always feel like a bit of a tourist myself while I am here.

The colors of Winter
8 x 10
oil on panel
$300

 After painting on Exchange Street, Olivette and I had lunch at Riskys and then walked over a street to a totally different view. This is an area near the train tracks for the steam locomotive that comes into the stock yards. There is an old house, windmill, and great clumps of sage and cactus.

Olivette on the other side of the tracks.

 These photos were taken when the sky was clearer and there was more color. But while I painted my painting it was very overcast and everything was shades of gray and pale blue greens, except for the winter grasses which were a bright and beautiful green.

The old house and cacti.

 I had driven by this site many times and always desired to paint it. I am very glad that we painted here today. This is a small site but it has the feel and look of being far from the city. I will be sure to come back again and perhaps try painting a scene of the house and windmill as Olivette did.

A young longhorn cow with her first calf.

On Tuesday evening I went to the Fort Worth Stock Show. I've always enjoyed this from my childhood when I used to go and watch my cousins show their Hereford cattle.This event lasts several weeks. Every few days new breeds of animals are brought  to the show. The longhorns were going out today so I made a point of going to work on my longhorn sculpture while they were still there. The great thing about sculpting at the stock show was being able to work right up close to the animals. I was able to make some very important changes to my sculpture. I may go back and sculpt a Hereford  or Angus before the show ends. (I had a pet Angus calf that my grandmother bought me when I was about eight.)

Me sculpting, using a  young longhorn as my model.