Back From Door. . . .and a tour of Master Framers

I'm back from Door County and very behind of my blogging. The trip was amazing, full of painting and meeting new and old friends. My intent was to make a post at least every other day of the progress but my laptop went dead and that was that. I will be posting later on today all my paintings and photos of the paintout but for now, I'm going to share my day yesterday.
I was fortunate enough to go with a dear friend and collector to Master Framers in St Paul to get a tour of their frame shop and watch part of the process of designing, cutting, carving, molding, guilding, leafing, and finishing off a frame. Frames are so readily available to us (and cheap) painters these days that I think we often times forget what a beautiful art this very old process of creating a frame truly is, a true art in itself and the ones creating them are Masters of their craft!

I don't know about you but I am never quite satisfied with my finish when I get my frames and usually end up toning them or not even using them. So, yesterday was a dream day of thinking of all the possibilities with frames for my paintings. The problem is the cost, can an artist afford to put a gold guilded frame on each piece, probably not. The hope is that the collector will realize that most artists do not charge extra for the frame, that it's a way to display the painting and the collector has the option to keep the frame the artist chose or take it somewhere like Master Framers to customize a piece for their piece of art.

just thinking out loud here. . . . . curious what other artists think about this. . ..

Im In Door County!

I'm in Door County! It's so beautiful here, it just feels good. Lots and lots to paint. I came over early this year to get acclimated to the area before painting for the Plein Air Festival which starts this coming Monday the 19th. We check in on Sunday to have our panels stamped for the week. I got out and did one 11x14 yesterday (below) at Cave Point and today I painted on the docks in Fish Creek, well I should say I ended up talking more than painting. . .lots of spectators! All nice people though, they just like art! :) Tomorrow I'll find myself a nice quiet place inland, maybe a farm scene. I'll hang out with the cows, I like cows, they don't talk much! AND they don't ask me what I'm painting! ;)

Not a great photo below but it gives you an idea.

Door County 2010

"Door County Bales"

11x14 oil on linen panel

painted at the Door County Plein Air Festival in 2009. sold.

I'm heading off to Door County for the Plein Air Festival put on by the Peninsula School of Art. Ths will be the second year I've been invited to be one of the featured artists for their festival. I love Door County and am so excited to be going back to paint for a full week plus!

"Door County Bales" was one of the pieces I did last year during the week we had to paint.

Check out there site to see more on this amazing week in July!

www.doorcountypleinair.com

Pond Painting!

"Morning Light At The Pond"

8x10 oil on linen panel

"Lily Pads"

8x10 oil on linen panel

These are my latest 2 plein air pieces done at the pond where I spend a great deal of time painting. The summer has been off to a busy start and I've been meaning to post these for almost a week now and since it's almost midnight when I'm putting these up I'll keep it brief.
I will say, I'm falling more in love with this pond by the day. It's interesting to me, even though I spent my entire childhood playing here, that I see the beauty with so much more depth now than I ever have before. I appreciate all it has to offer and am finding myself wanting to paint it every day. The "Lily Pads" piece is the same rooted bunch that I painted last year and I was curious to see the difference in it's growth from last year to this year. It is interesting. I'll post the one I did last year in a few days. It's neat to see.
Thanks for checking in!

"A Greater Presence"

"A Greater Presence"

20x30 oil on linen

I've been working on a project the past couple of months for a fine arts festival called White Pine Festival. Check out their site to see what they are all about, incredible! www.whitepinefestival.org

Late winter there was a call to visual artists to submit samples of their work for the opportunity to be selected as one of the painters to create a painting inspired by a piece of poetry. I, along with 8 other painters were selected for this incredible experience. The idea was to see what imagery we would come up with inspired by the poetry. (i'll post the poetry later, I don't have it with me at the moment) "A Greater Presence" is my painting inspired by this piece. It's been finished for a while but I have not been able to share it until now.

The opening for this show "Painters Paint Poetry" is this Thursday, June 17 at Alesci Gallery on Main Street in Stillwater from 6-9. All are welcome to see this variety of incredible works by 9 different painters. I'll post more on the process once the show is going. Along with the paintings we've all written our experience and inspiration for the paintings.

3 Day Plein Air Workshop!

Yesterday was the kick off to my 3 day plein air workshop that I teach here on the St Croix River. Below are pictures of my hardy painting gang! The weather has been a bit rainy but they are troopers and haven't heard any complaints! I will tell you the COLOR has been incredibly rich with the overcast sky and wet greens! No complaints here! A far cry from where a was one week ago today in Sarasota Florida for my show at M Gallery where it was in the high 90s and humidity of 90%. This is refreshing! One more day to go, what a great group of painters!

Peonies From Mary's Garden

"Peonies From Mary's Garden"

20x16 Oil On Linen

Painted last week in the studio and just now got a good photograph of this piece!