Late August Light!

"Late August Early Morning Light"

10x8 oil on linen

"River Trees"

8x10 oil on linen

I was out early yesterday morning on the river, what a beautiful morning!  The top piece was done at first light, very early and the second mid morning into noon.  It felt great to be out on the river painting again.  The river's been so high this year that it's been difficult to find a piece of shore line to stand on, it's now finally going down and is lovely! 

Where Has Time Gone? And a Lovely Tribute!

THAT is the question!  It's been a while since I've made a post.  Although, I have not in any way, shape, or form taken a break from living or painting or teaching!  I've been eating up the summer and all that comes with this very busy time of year.  Each spring I have the sense that THIS summer I'm going to 'relax', 'take a break', have some 'time off' . . . .ha!  That's not how it goes.  All the normal things in life still keep on rolling but the days are longer and I for one take full advantage of every minute!  Since checking in last, I've spent 2 weeks in Door County for my 3rd consecutive year as a featured artist for the Peninsula School Plein Air Festival, came back, had a studio open house which turned out to be a wonderful success on many levels, taught part 2 of my summer plein air workshop, and today I had the great honor of spending the day at the Russian Museum and The MIA in MPLS with Painters Camille Przwodek and her incredible and talented husband Dale.  They flew in last night to teach a week long workshop here which starts Monday - Saturday.  The workshop will be based out of my studio and on my favorite stompin' grounds along the St Croix.  I'm really looking forward to the week with them and being completely engrossed in the process of learning and painting!

As for my studio open house:  I'd like to share with you a story that was written about my painting "A Walk In Queen Anne's Lace".  Please take the time to visit this blog by a very inspiring and inspired writer who took my painting home with him the night of the opening.  I'll let him tell his story since I'm much better with paint than I am words.  But I'd just like to say, what an honor to be a part of the inspiration for this piece of writing.  We all serve a purpose with the craft we have devoted our lives to.  This is why I paint! 

Once you go to his blog, click on "Queen Anne's Lace" to find this story, not that you should stop there, there are many wonderful stories, enjoy!  oh, and I'd love to hear what you think! 

http://steverobert.wordpress.com 

"A Walk In Queen Anne's Lace"

12x12 sold

Lyrical Beauties!

"Lyrical Beauties"

20x16 oil on stretched linen

It's 11:00 pm and I JUST finished this painting and thought I might as well post it now, who needs sleep right??  Each year I do what ever it takes to paint my peonies who's lives are oh so short!  With my last weekend's plein air workshop and my peonies deciding to open while I was off teaching, by the time I got to paint them they were getting pretty droopy. However, their heavy droopiness provided a nice "lyrical" composition for me, hence it's name "Lyrical Beauties!"  I did photograph process of this piece but will post that at a later time.  For now, I hope you enjoy my latest piece!  

3 Day Plein Air Workshop

I spent the weekend teaching the first half of my annual 3 day plein air workshop.  This is a consecutive workshop with the second half in August.  We start in June by building on our foundation skills of plein air painting.  The students then have the chance to apply the skills during summer and continue on in August.  It's a very beneficial way to teach and for students to apply what they're learned and hone in on those skills, then come back and move further.  The progress I see is truly remarkable!  The group was a hard working bunch of painters!  I was fun to see all their growth in such a short period of time.  Below is one of my demos and pictures of the gang painting.  

Thanks to all those who attended, I had a great time!

"Sunday Serenity"

8x10 oil on linen panel -sold-

This is my demo from Sunday morning.  

We decided Sunday Serenity would be the perfect title for this painting!

Here's most of the 'gang', 16 total watching my Sunday morning demo.  It was a bit chilly, 53 degrees, so we were all pretty layered in attempt to keep the damp chill out.  They (weather peeps) kept promising sun but we didn't see much of that all weekend, at least we dodged the rain!

Here's the gang working hard on value structure!

A peek over Doug and Angie's should of what we were painting.  Lake Elmo Park Reserve is really a perfect place to paint!  

Painting Spring!

Spring has arrived a bit slow here in Minnesota this year, but it's here and there's way too much to paint!  The Crab Apple trees have already come and gone, the lilacs are going crazy and the green is electric!  This new green of spring for the most part is a bit tough to paint and can be somewhat unpleasing to end up with, however it is what it is and the fact that it's green and not white is a very good thing!  Last week I spent the week painting outside on location at the farm where I grew up.  The little stream piece was done in about an hour and a half in the evening.  I stood on the bridge crossing over the water looking North.  I had my daughter and my dog along with so there were a few distractions but it's life and the fact I was painting 'from life' it seemed pretty fitting!  The added bonus to bringing along a 12 year old and a 6 month old black lab puppy is there is no time to spare!  It forces one to put it down and put it down right!  

Lilacs, gotta love 'em!  And 'gotta paint 'em FAST'!  They don't stay perky for long once cut.  I did this piece in one full day and decided to be finished.  My goal was to use natural light so it would be a bit softer and cooler than the controlled warm lighting I often use in my still lifes.  I like that the shadows are so warm and soft.  There are lots of little temperature notes in the whites that I'm afraid is difficult to view their subtleties due to my horrible photography skills.  The tiny little notes of differences are quite beautiful in their purity.  These delicate degrees of differences are what drive and inspire me to paint flowers from life. It's absolutely incredible the colors that exist!   

"Fresh Cut Lilacs"

14x14 oil on linen panel

"Stream In Spring"

10x8 oil on linen panel

Paint The Hills Of Tuscany With Kami Polzin

Who Wants To Go To Italy?!!!!  Raise your hand!!!

I will be returning to Tuscany Italy in May of 2012 to teach a workshop and mentoring program in
May of 2012. 
For details and registration info visit the link below.  I can't wait to paint the hills of Tuscany again! 

http://www.ilchiostro.com/index.php?action=workshop-details&item=200

Blue Hydrangeas

"Blue Hydrangeas"

16x20 oil on linen

This is my latest studio piece just finished a few days ago.  It was so refreshing to paint live hydrangeas  this time of year around here!  I grow hydrangeas in my garden at home but they're not ready until mid summer to paint so this was a real treat to be able to paint one of my favorite flowers in the first week of May.  I found a potted plant of Endless Summer Hydrangeas in the garden center at Home Depot a few weeks ago that were in FULL beautiful bloom and thought they'd be perfect for painting and better yet after painting I can put the plant in the ground and paint them again and again!  

I painting a lot of flowers from life, and I have to say for ME hydrangeas and peonies (lilacs too) are some of the most difficult flower to paint.  I think it's because each flower has thousands of little petals in each head which makes it easy to get overwhelmed by the 'millions' of sweet little petals in this flower.  I find it crucial when painting these to keep the lights and darks separate and only paint the darks compared to the light, not what the darks look like when you look INTO the darks.  The darks have to be painted in relation to the lights to pull off the correct value and temperature relationship to achieve the saturation of the lights.  

In composing this painting, I was thinking about all the texture in the flowers and the play of the soft elegance of the round glass vase.  I like how it almost disappears into the background.  And then the few little crisp notes in the 3 little fallen petals on the table top!