Daily Painter Week One

On April 13th I began what is to be a year long adventure.  I committed to creating and posting on flickr's Daily Painters, a private ArtisTree sponsored site, one piece of artwork each day for the next year.  It can be a drawing, a painting, a collage, a photograph or whatever I feel inspired to do.  In my first week of work I decided to used gessoed paper and soft Ticonderoga black pencil.  The first three drawings are studies of little still life objects...

Pear

Apple

Morning Coffee

The next drawings focus on sap buckets, trying to capture the endless variety of values the winter and mud season landscape requires....

Sap Buckets I

Sap Buckets II

"Sap Buckets #1"

5 1/2" x 7 1/2" - soft pencil on gessoed paper

"Sap Buckets #3"
5 1/2" x 7 1/2" - soft pencil on gessoed paper

It has been an interesting challenge, working quickly and intuitively, sometimes starting with a focal point and building outward from there, cropping paper when it looked to be necessary, sometimes being a bit more planned in approach.  I'm enjoying the process so far.  And I'm trying not to think too much about the fifty-one weeks to go.

An Experiment

Yesterday I started an experimental drawing with soft carbon sketch pencils on gessoed watercolor paper.  The quote I did at Artistree last month used basically the same materials, but doing a rather realistic drawing was a larger challenge  It quickly became clear that I needed to work from left to right since the pencil smudges so easily.  Smudging is fun when and where you want it but not so much when  and where you don't!

"Sap Bucket Drawing"

carbon pencil on gessoed paper - 9" x 12"

A kneaded eraser and blender came in handy.  I just finished it and sprayed it with fixative so it won't smudge anymore.  Hopefully....

"Oil and Water"

Yesterday, Sandy Waldo and I hung our exhibit of plein aire paintings in the Mezzanine Gallery at the Norman Williams Library in Woodstock, VT.  Sandy and I have been painting outdoors together for six years.  She paints in watercolor and I in oil--hence the title of the show, "Oil and Water".  Fortunately, we get along really well although the title implies some sort of difficulty!

Come to the library to see the exhibit during library hours and please plan to come to the Artist Reception April 25th from 4 to 6 pm.  The idea behind the show is that since we paint in the same place at the same time, we could show two different versions of the same scene--one in watercolor and the other in oil and here's an example.

The first is Sandy's watercolor of the view from Church Hill Road looking south into the South Woodstock hills...

“Early Spring”

watercolor - 9” x 12” 

And this is my oil painting of the same view...

“Early Spring, South Woodstock”

oil - 11” x 14”

Not all of our painting match so neatly--some are of different views from the same spot and some are completely different paintings since one came out well and the other didn't!

Here are two more that we painted side by side at Silver Lake in Barnard....

“Silver Lake Reflection”

watercolor - 12” x 15”

"Sailboat on Silver Lake"

oil - 9" x 12"

We hope that our delight in the lovely, verdant landscape of Vermont will be enjoyed by all who visit the show.

It's finished....

I went back to ArtisTree and finished what I started last Monday at Pot Luck and Studio Fever night.  My section of papered wall was just painted with gesso when I left.  I brought with me, carbon sketch pencils, masking tape, templates, curves, a straight edge, alphabet stamps and a long list of quotes I've been collecting for ages....

I chose a quotation from Carl Jung and got to work.  Some of the letters were missing from one of the alphabets so I started to do a mix and match and now the lettering looks a bit like a ransom note which I like.  It was fun playing with the soft pencils and designing the space.  I forgot the kneaded eraser which would have come in handy.  Perhaps I'll go back....

Caution: Artists at Work

Yesterday's email from Adrian read: "Studio Fever- TONIGHT AT 6:30!  Pick up a fork then pick up a brush.  Bring along a friend, a dish, a drink and maybe a medium of your choice...  Spend some time decorating the walls of the gallery for Studio Fever - time to get OUT of the studio!  See you at 6:30 at ArtisTree Gallery....
After a yummy smorgasbord of goodies, artists chose a section of wall, covered with either paper for drawing or canvas for painting, and this is what it looked like as they worked....

Artists have time to work on their pieces before the Closing Reception on March 14th from 5 to 7 pm.  And it's a good thing there is more time to work.  Below is the paper section I chose.  

And this is as far as I got since the gesso I painted on the paper never dried enough for me to draw on last night.  But I'll be back at work soon....

The Flurry Part Three

By Saturday night,  the Green was resplendent with work and had become a mecca for tourists and townsfolk alike.  A fire burned in the fire pit and folks strolled by after dinner.  The snow sculptures were lit and the sculptors were still working.

Here's Brooke's "Imagine Magic"....

Tony and Dj fashioned "The Great Escape"....

On Sunday, first prize would go to Katie's sculpture, "The Walrus"....

Fiona, Gavin and Hali's sculpture, "Athena", a giant owl, would take second place and win the popular vote....

Third place would go to the Green Mountain Boys and their abstract sculpture entitled, "Everything is (K)not Impossible"....

All in all, the 2014 Flurry was a great success.  On Tuesday morning as new snow fell on Woodstock, people were still stopping by to see the sculptures.  It was an exciting, fun, five days of work and play.

The Flurry Part Two

On Saturday, sculptors worked hard for many hours creating their masterpieces....

Our grand daughters, Addison and Avery decided to take a break and make snow angels....

Hard to know who had the most fun!