Prairiefest 2013

Prairie Fest 2013
Oil on Canvas
8 x 10
$100

Last weekend a group of us went to paint at Prairie Fest at Tandy Hills Park in East Fort Worth. The weather was super, with very little wind, which is a treat at Tandy Hills. This park has plants that are now very rare in this part of Texas including wild foxgloves. ( My friend Sheri Jones painted them.) Other friends there were T.K. Riddle, Olivette Hubler, Hai Chi Lee, Linnea McKinnie, and David Tripp.

Wild Foxglove

Paint Historic Waxahachie

Waxahachie Gold
8 x 10
oil on canvas
$200

This weekend was the start of a week that I look forward to all year., The Paint Historic Waxahachie Paint Out. It began last Friday and I went down after work to sign in and get started painting. I met T. K. Riddle and Olivette Hubler on the square painting. They finished two paintings and then  headed home.. I didn't finish mine but was at a stopping point so I quit and went to Oma's Jiffy Burger with my friend Kent Brewer who had been painting down near the feed store. ( One of the greatest things about this paintout is getting to hang out and paint with some really terrific artists.) I had always heard about Oma's and I have to say it was pretty good and the coconut cream pie was great.

Sunflowers outside town

Saturday morning I got up early and drove down for the quick draw event. This is where you have two hours to produce a painting. I saw  so many of  my friends there including Kent, Olivette, Sheri Jones, Allen Riddell, Steve Miller, Debob Jacob, Ted Clemens,Tina Bohlman, Betty King, Mary Rabien, and many others. We met at the Farmers Market and spread out in a several block area to paint. We started at 8:00 and had to turn them in at 10:00. I painted the statue of the Confederate soldier in front of the court house. A lot of great paintings were produced and I purchased three to add to my collection. I bought oil paintings from Ted and Olivette and a watercolor from Tina.

Me painting in the field where I painted with my friends Olivette, Debob, and Kent.

 Many of us went to Oma's for lunch and were joined by my friend and fellow artist Maryanne Brummer and her nephew Austin. Then Olivette, Debob and I drove out to a field of sunflowers that Debob had found. It was a really great place to paint. The temperature was not too hot and we had a great breeze. Kent drove out and joined us. Everyone  produced great paintings there. I painted two sunflower paintings and have to admit that I am pretty pleased with them. After painting we  had dinner at the Tuscan Slice, a great pizza restaurant. It was probably one of the best pizzas I ever had.

Waxahachie Gold #2
oil on canvas
8 x 10
$200

    Today, Sunday, I went back down to Waxahachie around 1:00 to paint. I met Olivette and we both turned in some paintings we had finished and framed, then we went to the square to paint. I saw Allen there and Chris Galvan, another Artist friend. We all painted around the square. They did new paintings and I finished mine from the first day. Then I went over a block and painted the Rios Barber Shop. Kent painted it too. It is always very cool seeing how different artists paint the same thing, and with 30+ artists painting in a fairly small area there are a lot of paintings of the same subjects. Another great thing about painting with others is being able to get instant input and critiques on ones art. It really makes a difference.When we finished painting Kent gave me a sketch that he drew last year of me painting in front of one of the houses on The Gingerbread Home Tour. So, I have another great  piece of art to add to my collection.
     The paintout will continue this week and end with a sale of the art next weekend.

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

Oil and Water Do Mix

The Dallas Arboretum
8 x10
oil on canvas
$200

Me painting in the garden.

Today I went to the Dallas Arboretum with a group of oil and water color painters, hence the title.Sheri Jones, Joyce Thomas, Cecy Turner, David Tripp and Chris Toplyn were some of the painters there today. The day started out very cloudy and in fact some of my friends did not come because it was actually raining where they lived.

The view I painted.

However, those of us who made it were rewarded by a beautiful day of painting. The clouds went away and we were rewarded with blue skies and sunshine. The flowers were incredible.

My painting in front of the view I painted.

The only bad thing about the day were the crowds. I don't mind talking to people while working, but it was almost crazy how many people came up and asked to see what I was painting. I finished my first painting and started a second but I didn't finish it because by that time the interruptions were just too much. I actually had people bumping into my easel and me  in their efforts to see my canvas.

Clumps of spring flowers.

In spite of that I had a great day. It is such a beautiful place and I can not wait to go back.

Red and yellow tulips massed in huge beds.

Flowers around the big lawn.



Pastel Flowers



The Restaurant in the Garden

Beautiful Spring Flowers

This was the subject of my second painting, the one I didn't finish.

Two Weekends of Plein Air

A Winters Afternoon
oil on canvas
8 x 10
$250

   I have had two very nice weekends of plein air painting. Today I went to church and then lunch with my parents before going to paint with my friends Sheri Jones and Joyce Thomas. We painted near Lake Benbrook.     
                                  

Putting the final touches on my painting.

                                     
    It was cold, windy, and rainy yesterday. But today, the wind and rain were gone and the sun was out. It was a beautiful day to be out and a great place to paint. We were not the only ones out enjoying the day. As we painted,  we were passed by joggers, walkers and a multitude of bicyclists.

Joyce and Sheri working on their paintings.

                                     

View along the creek where we painted.

Winter woods
oil on canvas
8 x 10
$250

   Last Saturday it was cold, it didn't get out of the 30s. But it wasn't windy and mostly it was sunny, so ten of us went down to Granbury to paint at Campfire's Camp El Tesoro. The camp is open one weekend a month during the winter and this was the weekend, so despite the cold some of us  went.

Me painting, with Sheri in the background.

   El Tesoro is a beautiful place,  the Brazos River flows through it as does Fall Creek. If the weather had been nicer we would have had over 20 artists but most cancelled and I have to admit I came very close to cancelling as well, but I was glad that I didn't, once I had a look around and began painting.

Dan and Robbie painting the river.

  The group consisted of myself, Tina Bohlman, Debbie Box, Sabine Higgins, Sheri Jones, Robbie Clemmer, Maryann Brummer, and her nephew Austin, Claudia Davis, and Dan Spangler. We spread out along the creek. There are so many great spots to paint.

Our group dressed for the cold and painting too.

   The creek was such a tempting subject with its falls and that is what I started with. But, my painting just wasn't working out so I wiped it down and started over painting the view across the creek, leaving the water out of it altogether. I was drawn to the back lit trees and the pale green fields beyond them.

One of the falls along the creek.

   I was much more pleased with this painting. By this time several of our group had left. I thought about starting a second painting but decided that I had had quite enough of the cold. So instead Robbie and I went to a Mexican restaurant in town. Painting was great but enchiladas, chips and salsa in a warm restaurant were even better.

The white cliffs along Fall Creek.

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.

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.

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.