Art Every Day

The Garden Child
8 x 10
oil on canvas
$175

 I have not posted in a while, but I have been really busy creating art. I have a lot of paintings in progress but I'm posting one I finished on Saturday. I am also working on several sculptures, working on entering shows, and generally staying really busy.

Olivette and I painting at Chandor Gardens in Weatherford.

Today for example a group of us went out to Chandor Gardens in Weatherford  to paint. It really was not too hot, and it always seems about 10 degrees cooler or less in these gardens. We had a good group turn out to paint, Olivette Hubler, Steve Miller, Allen and Tosca Engish, Dan Spangler, Moira McCarthy, and Linnea (I don't remember her last name.) It was a great day for painting. We also had a great lunch catered by a local restaurant called the Wild Mushroom. It was served in the  room that served as the studio of Douglas Chandor. I sculpted later in the day.

One of Dennis's great landscapes.

Yesterday I went to the Art with Artists critique group. This is a super group that I go to in the summer. They meet once a month at one of the member's homes and have breakfast and then they bring their art to critique and share what they have been working on. This month the group met at Blair and Janelle Curren's home in Aledo.

Four of John's great still lifes

Not all the members were there this time. Those present were, Blair and his wife, a friend of theirs, John Cook, Dennis Farris, Beatriz Welsh, Darnell Jones, Nancy Boren and me. Blair and Janell fixed a great breakfast including fresh Parker County Peaches.

John getting ready to share a larger painting.

There was a lot of really great art to look at. One of the things that makes it so great is that they all have very different styles but they are all very talented. John Cook brought the most paintings, two large partings and four small ones. Nancy brought five, Dennis  brought three, I brought two paintings and a sculpture, and everyone else shared one painting. One of the topics was information on painting from old art books. Nancy told about one from England, that talked about how when an artist goes out to paint they should find a "rustic" to carry their materials when painting outdoors. Blair had a great old book  from his grandfather from the 1920s. It said that  to create a great painting took two artist, one to paint it, and one to "kill him" before he over painted it. This was the author's way of talking about the universal  problem of overworking a painting.

Blair and Janell's patio, it reminds me of a view in New Mexico.

Blair and Janelle live out in the country. We saw several hummingbirds on the patio and a roadrunner in the front yard. There is a great view off the back patio. You feel like you are far away from everything. In fact they had a lot of photos of a mother fox that raised a family of six foxes under their deck. Seeing wildlife up close is one of the treats  of living in the country. At my mom and dad's they have some foxes too, as well as deer, armadillos and cottontail rabbits.

Scout on my patio where I did some of my sculpting and painting.

   
Sunday I worked at home on my sculptures and paintings on my patio, accompanied by my studio assistant Scout. My friend Tosca had told me about an old British mystery called Five Red Herrings by Dorothy Sayers. It is about a  group of plein air painters, one of whom gets murdered,  on a painting trip in Scotland. I had  ordered this from Ebay and started reading it today. I'm also reading a book on the art of Maynard Dixon.  Lastly I did quite a bit of yard work.

Me painting the picture I posted at the top of this blog.

Saturday several of my friends went to paint in the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens.We had a good group show up for painting and later lunch. My friends with us today were Olivette Hubler, T. K. Riddle, Tosca Engish, Candy Clynch, Margie Whittington and her husband, who has started painting more, Hai Chi Lee, Dan Spangler, Moira McCarthy and Linnea.

T.K. painting behind where I was set up.

Tosca painting on a park bench in the gardens.

Candy painting a floral painting

A grazing bison at the Fort Worth Nature Center.

 I'm working on several bison paintings for some shows this fall so earlier in the week I took some more photos at the fort Worth nature Center when I went painting there with my friend Kent Brewer from Waxahachie.

Bison in the shade at the nature center.

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.

Life gets in the way!



                                 A view of part of the rose garden and stonework in the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens.                      This part of the gardens was created as a WPA project.

The view I chose to paint today of the pond and willow.

A  photo of me painting.



Cecilia Robertson painting; she chose an unusual view, and did a great job of it.



Blair Currin, Cecilia Robertson, and Candy Clynch

A very tiny frog passing by my painting location.

Koi in the big pond.

   Today we had a smaller number of artists painting with us in the gardens than we've had over the last few weekends. Sometimes life does get in the way. Most of our friends were doing other activities. Some were working a day job, vacationing, or doing family activities. But for those of us who went out to paint in the gardens today it was a great experience. 
   There is actually a lot color in the gardens right now but most of us have been sticking to the tree line near the big pond below the rose garden. Near the pond in the shade of the trees the temperature was very pleasant  and we even had a great breeze. This was a treat as today we reached our 26th day of triple digit temperatures. We stayed until after 11, but none of us finished. I will go back tomorrow and try to finish it , then add the image to this post. After we left the shade and made it back to our cars we went to La Madeline for lunch. Another enjoyable day creating art with friends.

Another trip to the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens.

The view I chose to paint today.

Cecilia Robertson, Tom Kellie, and I painting near the large pond.

Cecilia, Tom, and Leslie Talty painting.

The painting I began today on my patio, where I worked on it some more this evening.

My finches on the patio. I like to hear them sing as I paint.

My pet dove on the  patio.

Today was a great day for painting. I went to the Botanical Gardens to paint at about 7:15 and was joined by 12 friends, Allen Riddell, David Tripp, Chris Toplyn, Cecilia Robertson, Tom Kellie, Leslie Talty, Chase Almond, Candy Clynch, Blair Curren, Ted Clemens, Tosca Engish, and Hai Chi. The temperature was great, we had shade and a great breeze. Most of us painted until 11:00. Several finished their paintings but I didn't even get halfway on mine. After we finished many of us went out to eat lunch at the Swiss Pastry Shop. We had their famous Black Forest Cake for dessert.
I worked on my painting on my patio a bit more this evening. I really enjoy the light when I work outside. I have some finches and a dove that I keep on my patio and I really enjoy hearing them sing and coo as I work. The environment I work in is very important to me.