Botanical Gardens Painting and the Breckenridge Show

The Girl in the Garden
oil on canvas
11 x 14

 Again it has been a great week of art activities so far. Yesterday morning ten of us went to go paint in the Fort worth Botanical Gardens. It was a super morning, there was a great breeze and we had shade. It could not have been nicer.(For some reason my painting photographed lighter than it is.)

Linda Reedy and Tom Kelley painting in the garden.

The artists who came today were Sheri Jones, Olivet Hubbler, T. K. Riddle, Linda Reedy, Dr. Tom Kelley,Margie Whittington, Connie Michaels, Dan Spangler, and Beatriz Welch.  It was really neat seeing all the work created. Some people painted in oils, one in acrylic, one in water color, one sketched and one took photos.

Dan Spangler, Margie Whittington and Sheri Jones in the garden.

At about 10:30 some of us went over to another artist's (but not a plein air painter) house for lunch. Maryann White had created an incredible lunch for us including sandwiches, guacamole and other dips, chips, brownies, watermelon, and iced tea. It is always a treat seeing her house. You can really tell it is the home of an artist.

Mother and Child
bronze on granite
edition of 25
$2700

Today I had to drive across a few counties to the west, to the town of Breckenridge to drop off one of my sculptures for an art show at their art center. It was a nice drive west. First I passed through Weatherford, the county seat of Parker County. It has a beautiful courthouse with a clock tower. I took a photo but it didn't turn out. I'm not sure how that happens with a digital camera.

The Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells

I continued west to Mineral Wells. One of my favorite sights there is the Old Baker Hotel. This was quite a grand hotel long ago when movie stars and the rich came to enjoy the mineral waters. Many well known people stayed there including the Three Stooges. The hotel has been closed for a long time and is in bad repair. I hope some time it will reopen in some form or other.

One of the old houses in Mineral Wells

Like many of our older Texas towns and cities there are some grand  houses, so it is always worth while to drive around a bit if that sort of thing interests you. There are also some old businesses too like the Crazy Water bottling company.
 I had lunch at the Black Horse Bakery and Deli. I have to really brag on the desserts. I had the French Coconut Pie. It was so good, I bought a slice to bring to my Mom and Dad when I came back to Fort Worth.

Crazy Water Bottling Company

 Past Mineral wells the land changes and becomes rougher with larger hills and Mesas. It is one of the nicer parts of our state I think. There are lots of farms and ranches, but not the really big fancy ones like you see in the hill country west of Austin. You don't see as many cattle, sheep, and goats or exotics as you do down there either.

An old barn I thought would make a nice painting

 The land is big and open. Sometimes it is flat but other times the road goes up and down or is cut through rocky hills.. I was surprised how green it was for this time of year. This area reminds me of some parts of New Mexico. There are lots of cedar trees, prickly pear cacti and yuccas.

Highway 180  Winding Through the Hills

Mesas Along the Highway.

As I continued west I came to the town of Palo Pinto. This is the county seat for Palo Pinto County. It is  a fairly small town. Many of these towns once had beautiful old courthouses with clock towers built in the late 1800s. But, a lot of them tore down these in favor of larger more modern looking court houses. Palo Pinto used some of the stones of their old courthouse in the new one. (Not that it is really new, I think it was a WPA project during the Great Depression.)

The Palo Pinto Court House

 From there I continued west to  Breckenridge the county seat of Stephens County. The town itself like most west Texas towns has a certain feel to it. The people I met at the art center and in the post office where I dropped off a letter, could not have been any nicer. From them, I was left with a very favorable impression of the town.  Sadly like a lot of these older places, many of the local businesses appeared to be closed in Breckenridge.

Breckenridge, Businesses and an Old Oil Well

 The court house is a nice looking building that was built when oil was discovered in the area.Oil was very important to this region and  in fact it looks like there was an old oil well right across the street from the court house.

The Stephens County Court House

The court house at Breckenridge

 One of the neat things they did here was leave a bit of the old courthouse. The new one looks nice but I think I would have liked the old one better. Many of the county seats  around Fort Worth  including Weatherford, Waxahachie, Granbury, Glen Rose, and Hillsboro still have their old court houses and they are very beautiful. Our own Tarrant County court house in Fort Worth is really special. I have shown photos of it and the Waxahachie and Glen Rose court houses on some of my other blogs.

Remains of the Old Stephens County Court House on the Grounds of the New One.

Plein Air Weekend

Blue Adobe
8 x 10
oil on canvas
$200

 I had a very fun weekend of painting outdoors last weekend. First on Saturday I went down to Glen Rose to participate in the Paint the Glen paint out. Glen Rose is one of my favorite small towns in Texas. Several of my friends and fellow painters participatedincluding Sheri Jones, Olivette Hubler, Dan Spangler, and Joyce Thomas. the judge was my good friend Debob Jacob. Olivette won first place.

Me painting in Glen Rose

There are lots of  great places to paint including the river, the town square, the old mill,  and the historic old buildings and houses. I t looks like I am in an alley but I am actually painting a small garden on the edge of the town square. It was a nice place to paint, and I had shade most of the time .

Sunlit Fountain
8x10
oil on canvas
sold

 On Sunday I painted in one of the gardens in Historic Fort Worth's Hidden Garden's tour. Four of my friends painted in the other four gardens including Beatriz Welch, Kent Brewer, Carol Ivey, and T.K. Riddel. I was in a very beautiful garden of a large home built in 1918 in Ryan Place. It was a very peaceful and shady  garden, but it was hard to find a good focal point because I couldn't paint anywhere where I would be blocking foot traffic. It was good practice painting all the greens.

Green Corner
8x10
oil on canvas
sold

Plein Air, French Impressionists, Jaguars, and Horses

Me painting in plein air at Tandy Hills, in east Fort Worth.

    I have had a lot of things going on. Spring continues to be beautiful. The bluebonnets are gone but the Indian Blankets are out in full force now, so plenty of painting opportunities. I have been out painting whenever I get the chance. The temperatures have been great and it hasn't been terribly windy, which I am grateful for. Some of my favorite places have been the Botanical Gardens and Tandy Hills Park.

The beautiful hills and wildflowers at Tandy Hills.

    In addition to painting in Plein Air I have been really enjoying the Impressionist exhibit at the Kimble Art Museum. This exhibit has over 70 paintings. There is a large group of Renoirs as well as paintings by the other great  French Impressionists and artists from other countries including Belgium, Italy, and the USA. My friend Beatriz Welch gave us a tour of it recently, and it was a wonderful experience.

My Arabian Horse Sculpture.

Arabian horse at my friend Sabine's.

  I finally finished my Arabian  Horse sculpture. The final step was going down to the farm where my friend Sabine lives to get her critique. She has two horses, but not Arabians, however there are several very nice ones on the ranch so we had plenty to look at. It was really valuable having an expert look at it for me. I am learning a lot about horses but still have a lot to learn.  I made a few changes and then took it to the foundry. It should be ready in a few weeks.

Me sculpting a jaguar in the Fort Worth Zoo.

    I have been going out to the Fort Worth Zoo which has been a challenge because the nice weather has really been bringing out the crowds. I started a smaller jaguar in the winter and decided  that I was really enjoying it and wanted to make a larger version. This one is going fairly fast. I still have a long way to go but I'm looking  forward to finishing it and having it cast.

My jaguar sculpture as a work in progress.

   People are always so nice and encouraging when I'm out sculpting. They always say things like " That looks really good" or " I could never do that." What is embarrasing is that they say that even when I'm just stating out and it looks like something a five year old would make. Oh well, I know that they mean well, and that's what counts.

To Be Continued

Winter Path
8 x 10
Oil on Canvas

 Here are two works in progress. The first is a painting that I began in the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens in plein air. It looked like one of my regular paintings. Then my friend Beatriz encouraged me to really loosen it up. I like the result a lot although it looks nothing like my regular work. I'll do a bit more with it but probably not much.

Black Bear
Clay

The second wip, (work in progress) is my plein air black  bear sculpture. I've been working on her at the Fort Worth Zoo. I read a book about Rodin recently. He often had his models pace or walk around his studio as he sketched or sculpted them. If it was good enough for Rodin it is good enough for me and the bear. Of course he had the advantage of being able to ask his models to stop or hold a pose so I am using some of my photographic reference material as I refine the sculpture. It has been a fun process and I look forward to casting it in bronze.

Two weekends of art.

Fall Roses
8 x 10
oil on canvas
$150

     I have to go back to last weekend to get caught up on my painting adventures. Last Saturday I painted in the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens with a large group of my friends including Hai Chi Lee, Dan Spangler, Beatriz Welch, Cecilia Robertson, Blair Currin, George De Chiaro, Tom Kellie, and Leslie Talty.

The roses I painted.

     The garden is looking very nice after the  long dry summer we had. All of the blooming roses and other flowers make it look more like spring than fall.

Beatriz working on her second painting of the morning.

      My friend Beatriz has a wonderful painterly style and helped me work on loosening up when I painted my roses. She did two very nice rose paintings.

A hawk on a bat house in the gardens.

Cecilia in the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens.

                                    

       We finished painting around one and then Beatriz, Tom, Cecilia, and I went to lunch at the Swiss Pastry Shop. Sunday I worked on sculpture.


       Friday night Beatriz ,who is a docent at the Kimble Art Museum, gave a group of us a tour of the Caravagio exhibit. Her tours are always incredible. As an artist herself she really is able to give talks that are especially interesting to artists. Caravagio's paintings are amazing. I especially liked his religious paintings of John the Baptist and Mary Magdaline and Martha.

Me with my paintings at Dutch Art.

     Then Saturday morning I went to an estate sale at the home/studio of the Gentling brothers. They were twin brothers and incredible artists. It was very intersting seeing their home and art collection. I bought five books from their huge library of art books and picture framing hardware. Then I drove to Dallas for an art show at the Dutch Art Gallery. This show featured works by The Artists of Texas Group. I have four paintings in the show. Several of my friends also have paintings in this show including Sheri Jones, Joyce Thomas, George De Chiaro  Linda Popple, Cece Turner, and Tina Bohlman. The show looked great and will hang through January.

Joyce Thomas and her paintings at Dutch Art.

Sheri Jones with some of her paintings.

The painting I started in Tandy Hills.
9 x 12
oil on panel

 Then on Sunday morning I went back to paint in the gardens. This morning Hai Chi, Cecilia, George and Dan joined me as well as Chris Toplyn, Claudia Davis, and Janice Weaver. It was a very overcast day. Claudia, Janice, Cecelia, Dan and I went to McKinley's for lunch. Then Cecelia and I went to Tandy Hills Park to paint some more. We stayed until almost sunset.  I didn't finish the one from the Botanical Gardens or the one from Tandy Hills but I'm posting the Tandy Hills painting anyway.

Fall foliage in Tandy Hills.

Cecilia heading to her car after a full day of painting.

Art in the Garden Show

Southwest Garden
8 x 10
0il on canvas
SOLD

    This Saturday was Fall Gallery Night in Fort Worth. I participated in Art in the Garden at the Fort Worth Botanical Gardens. This was the fourth annual show and more people than ever attended. I sold my painting pretty early in the evening.
     I believe this was the best show ever as far as quality. Many of my friends that I paint with were represented in this show including Sheri Jones, Ann Hardy, Olivette Hubler, Beatriz Welch, Darnell Jones, Chase Almond, Carol Ivey, and Jan Bateman. I always enjoy seeing everyone's work together especially when they are similar in subject. It is really great seeing how differently each artist interprets a scene or subject.

Here is my painting and Beatriz's painting.

Here are paintings by Ann, Darnell, two by Olivette, and Jan.

View from the gardens.

More lilies.