Circus Exhibition

Having hibernated all winter it was time to get back into the world. One way has been plein air painting in my yard, another way was to enter  Lowell ! Arts '"Circus!"themed exhibition.  I was accepted and today participated in an opportunity for the public to meet the artists and chat. The exhibition started May 31 and runs until Aug . 15. Gallery hours are Tues-Fri-10am-6pm and Sat. 1-4pm, 149 S. Hudson St. Lowell, MI. This link   http://www.lowellartsmi.org/. will take you to Lowell!Arts and from there you can go into the Circus! exhibition information where you can find a list of artists and some of the entries. Of course, seeing the entries in person is even better .................

What I like about a themed exhibition is the  variety of interpretations. It's fun to see how each artist approached the theme and how they carried out their idea.  There was a lot of variety in this exhibit:
sculpture, paintings (oil, watercolor and acrylic), photography, mosaic, pastel, pencil  and collage'. Most
 of the exhibits had cheerful colors, but not all. One unique entry was a carved carousel  from a gourd. I entered an oil painting "Family Legacy".

Artist are from Wyoming, Mt. Pleasant, Ionia,  Pewamo, Ada, Grand Rapids, and  more places
 than I can remember. There are big pieces and small pieces. Some are for sale, others are not.

A fun aspect of this exhibit is the inclusion of students as well as adults. Two young women entered
and I had a lovely time chatting with one of them. She entered a photograph and the other gal painted
 a watercolor. Sadly, I did not get to meet her.  It was interesting to see the theme through a young person's eyes and to see the differences, but also the similarities in their approach-not material wise, but intellectually or maybe emotionally. Both are very talented.

And what would a "meet and greet" be without food? Yes, they had punch, crackers, deli meat etc., but
 the best snack was the "circus peanuts". How could one celebrate the circus if one didn't serve "circus  peanuts"? I would like to know why the originator of the candy chose to flavor them banana instead of orange like their color............

Thank you Lowell!Arts for this exhibition opportunity!

apologies

I apologize for making it sound in the blurb thingy that Malcom T. Liepke is coming to LFPC-he is NOT, I should have been better with my punctuation and grammar.

Sorry it has been so long-I promised to be consistent, but Thanksgiving, then Christmas preparations have taken time, not to mention I rearranged my studio -but that is another blog.
The next three artists I want to highlight for the Lowell Franciscan Life Process Center are Jennifer Balkan, Edee Joppich, and Aline E. Ordman.. Jennifer Balkan  will be there April 1-3. What I like about Jennifer's paintings are her bright colors and that her figures are in unconventional poses. I would love to take a workshop with Malcom T.  Liepke, but he doesn't give them, so I am considering Jennifer's workshop(April 1-3 2016)

This  is one of Malcolm T. Liepke's.
Here is one of Jennifer Balkan-"Blue Moon II "

Her's are not as refined-if that is the correct word-and seem a little more of a caricature, but she uses a lot of color in her skin tones like he does, and her figures are close to the viewer like his although not quite as close.
The next workshop that appeals to me is by Edee Joppich (April 21-24 2016). Notice it is one day longer.Most of the workshops are for three days, but she is  giving a four day one. Edee is from Detroit Michigan and is primarily watercolor and collage. She owns Jopich's Bay Street Gallery gallery in Northport , Michigan. http://www.edeejoppich.com/gallery.html .

I think her workshop would be interesting to find out how she constructs her images and what kinds of  materials she uses and if she alters them and how . Also,  how hard it is to find buyers-people are cautious to spend money on oil paintings which if painted correctly can last hundreds of years-how do you convince them to spend money on an image made of unconventional (so to speak)materials?Maybe her materials are all archival. This will take more research, but this is what struck me when I perused the list of teachers at FLPC. Her style is very different from the other artists I really like ( and will  feature in future posts) so it could be a really big stretching and learning curve for me.
The last artist I will highlight today is Aline Ordman (May 13-15 2016). She works in oils and pastels and the feature of her workshop is painting from photos. This appeals to me because much of what I want to paint is from my walks-and the highway department frowns on me setting up in the road to paint plein air so photos I must take.(Because I wear braces I cannot take trek over uneven ground so getting off the road to paint that view is seldom possible.) She is an impressionist painter.

This painting is called "Frolic". Her colors appeal to me and I like "happy" paintings. This is interesting because the figures are so close to the right edge. Of course MOST people read a painting(at least in the West) from left to right. I am not one of them.I tend to enter a painting from the right. Painter Ian Roberts says you should design a painting so it is "entered" with the viewer in mind as if  he is standing directly in front of it. That seems fairly logical, when you think about it.

I would love to take one of his workshops. This is one of his paintings "Dogwoods at Kalopore". Sadly, he is NOT giving a workshop at FLPC.At least, not in 2016

Collie Whisson and Jon Redmond hold Artist Workshops at FLPC in Lowell Michigan for 2016

My wish book arrived via e-mail with all the workshops available in 2016 at the Franciscan Life Process Center in Lowell Michigan. I need to buy some winning lottery tickets to avail myself of all the wonderful artists Art Director Kathy Bechtal has lined up ! I have a process for elimination, and money is not the first criteria;what fun would there be in that?
The first thing I do is read through the line up and see who is coming, the artists particular media, and the thrust of their workshop. Then I sigh,  because they all sound good, and I can't take them all, money aside, because my husband would feel neglected. Then, I write down all their names and look up their websites, read their bios and artist statements  and then look at images of their work. This takes some time-and is very enlightening. 
Then I start crossing off workshops. The first ones I cross off are any I have previously taken-that usually eliminates-one to.... none. oh well. Then it's media I am not using or don't want to learn.Let's face it art supplies are expensive and to keep trying new media requires usually quite an investment. This actually is somewhat relieving, because it narrows my choices. After that it is the focus of the workshops, for instance -I don't like to paint still lifes so those are dismissed, then the artist's style. They are a wonderful artist, but I am not interested in hyper realism or whatever.Then after the first of the year, I get the dates for my husband's vacations, and that eliminates more, and the Mary Free Bed Art Exhibit weekend is also eliminated and Grand Rapids Art Prize-if I am entering.  But, I don't have those dates yet (except for Art Prize), so I have gone from a list of  twenty to eight. I am still not looking at finances. That comes after the final elimination of dates. I need to sell more paintings so I can take more workshops!
Here is a link to all of the workshops so you can see the variety Kathy has engaged. List of workshps and images of the artist's work
I am so blessed that this facility is so close to where I live. It is close enough I  can drive daily to the workshop which saves me travel expenses as an overnight guest or flying expenses.
There is one other criteria which eliminates my attending a workshop-sadly that is is if not enough students sign up for the lessons. Classes are small-fifteen is the most I have seen.  Wouldn't it be nice to be wealthy enough to sign up, and if there weren't enough students I could just give some scholarships and fill the class or just make up the difference and still have the instructor come for fewer students. One can fantasize.
One really cool artist coming is Collie Whisson (Sep 2-5)-all the way from Australia!

English-Rooftops by Whisson
His art book -"Creating Impressionist Landscapes in Oils one of the first art books I purchased. Perhaps, that isn't something I should mention-I've had it awhile and he might wonder why I am not at this point teaching a class myself.............(yes, his is one I want to attend-along with Jon Redmond (July8-10)

,This is by Jon Redmond titled Penobscott -Bay
Other artists I am interested in attending their workshops are(and I will be uploading an image of their work in my next blog:
Jennifer Balkan (April 1-3), Catherine Kehoe, (Aug17-20), Eric Bowman(June24-26),
Zoey Frank(May 27-29), Edee Joppich(April 21-24) and Aline Ordman (May 13-15)

plein air experiment

Monday I got up early to conduct my painting experiment. Okay, so it wasn't all that early, but it was before noon-8:30 AM to be exact when I got outside.  My goal was to capture color and values to compare with the same scene from inside the house so I didn't worry about composition, just some contrast. Initially I was just going to paint color planes, but I did a bit more...........although it is still a quick study.
My choices were limited. I wanted a view from the house that wasn't all tree leaves, and was on the first floor. I didn't know how fast the sun would change and going upstairs is not a fast procedure for me so the ground floor it had to be. And then I wanted something kind of interesting or pretty. I also wanted a counter
or table available so I didn't have to try and rush in with my easel. Of course had I been really prepared I would have set my easel up inside the night before, I did not think of that.  Now, you  know why I was not a science major...........
Outdoor considerations revolved around ease of access back into the house, not facing directly into the sun, a shadow to set up in would be preferable and flat ground . That left out most of the yard, not because it is excessively hilly, but because my husband hadn't been able to mow it, and the grass and leaves were too high for me to walk safely. So I ended up in our driveway, about 15 feet from our side door, below the kitchen windows.
I divided my canvas in two horizontally, deciding to paint the top the outside view, and the bottom the inside view.  The same view except for the vantage point, but not as drastic as if I had been upstairs. I painted my neighbor's field and his out buildings.  Here they are:

The inside one is darker, but not by a great deal-one or two values. I tend to paint  my values too dark outside -I'm working on that so it may have been lighter than what I painted it .It looks like I messed up the tree inside or the sun changed enough that it wasn't as dark as the outside one when it should have been darker,. One other consideration may be the distance of the subject matter. The farther away something is the less contrast, and this view was about 1/8 of a mile away . Corot advised "Begin you foreground fifty feet away."(from Carlson's Guide to landscape Painting by John F. Carlson).
 Today I also sent a dozen  paintings to Lyons District Library , 240 E. Bridge St., Lyons, MI. My paintings will be on display until the Wed . before Thanksgiving. Their hours are Mon: Noon-7:30,   Tues/Wed/Thurs:10am-6:30pm, Fri&Sat:10am-2pm-, and Sun-closed.

Plein air or not?

Last week I was preparing some panels and I noticed out the window that the sun was shining on the silos to the north. There were great shadow against the grain where some of the corn had been harvested and some was still standing(actually quite a few acres). So I hurried and set up my easel, grabbed a palette with paint globs and painted the scene. I found out with a brilliant day outside and a dark inside, it was very hard to even see the paint I mixed. I felt like I was painting blindly, but I didn't want to turn on the lights because I don't know if the bulbs are warm or cool. This was not my studio room. I finished the painting and it's okay. Somehow , I lost my darks and if I was to paint it  on a larger canvas would have to make some changes . So, did I really paint plein air , since I was inside looking out, or did I do a "studio painting"? or did I do a studio plein air?
I have read other painters doing the same scene over a length of time-a month, a year etc. A scene they see out their studio window-and I assumed they painted it from inside, but  maybe they still went outside and set up under/in front of their window...........because if you paint from inside you do have the glass to consider-it alters the color because the light/color has to pass through it, but how much? And does it alter the tone passing through glass-it must be a little darker. And also our windows have permanent screens, so of course that causes a value shift from the actual tone and would grey down the color also.
If there are any more nice days I think I will experiment. I'll prepare 2 canvases for the same scene-one from a first story window and paint the scene from the inside and then paint the scene outside and hope the sun doesn't change drastically before I can get out and set up. Of course, if I pick a typical Michigan day it'll be cloudy as we advance into November so there shouldn't be too much altering in contrast between painting inside and getting outside. That is the downside of living near the Great Lakes. Many, many, cloudy days.
A reminder-when you go plein air painting have a check list . I did not and congratulated myself on packing everything and not needing one. I scouted the site-my friend's farm yard, taking reference photos, deciding on the best place to set up  -an interesting view with contrast, and an area I could set up in the shade. Yes, I had it all, ......................except odorless mineral spirits. The last thing I was  going to pack and what I left behind. ......so I did not paint, and haven't had the combination of weather, the right time etc to get back.
But first, I need to find the time to make that checklist..........................

Tery Mieura's Notes on Color

A sunny day in Michigan and a good day to do some plein air painting-this afternoon which is a good reason to review some of Terry's color notes.
Going along with the color is his mantra of do not copy value but organize your values-so you have 3-5 in a painting and ave large connecting areas of the same value. Also if you tend to paint to dark-as a reminder use a white canvas , and if you paint to light-use a mid toned canvas
Paint colors he uses are:Titanium white, cad re light or medium,alizarin, Transparent red earth (or transparent oxide red  referred to by some artists as TOR, cad. lemon, cad yellow deep, yellow ochre . The yellow ochre should be mid value not a dark one. These vary from paint company to paint company. he uses a lot of Gamblin paints as do I.

These paint mixes are general, of course, the daylight circumstances  may call for the colors to be tweaked.

 Remember-color hue gives you the direction of the color only

1. To lay in darks-he uses ultra marine blue, and TOR. This makes for cleaner more  intense  transparent dark and you want your darks thin and transparent. I also added Alizarin to the mix by  mistake (see why you always need to put your paint in the exact spot on your palette?) and it worked okay but had a more purplish hue.

2. To paint a road he starts with-TOR, grey and white. You can mix your grey with complements or black and white.

3. Dark green-Cad Lemon,Cad Red and either Uultra Marine Blue or black

4. Warm green- Ochre, black or Ultra Marine Blue and just a tad of Cad Red

5. Mid green-add more yellow to cool the green . If you just add white to change the dark green to a mid green it could get too chalky-so add the yellow first then a little white if you still need to lighten.

6. The color of the sky is relative to colors around it-add a little of the environments colors into the sky

7. White in sunlight is the color of "vanilla ice cream"-so if you need to go have a cone to get that down-go right ahead. He makes it with - Titanium White, a touch of Cad Lemon and adds a little Ultra Marine  Blue  to grey it down . Not too much of either or you'll have a pale green instead  (anyone for mint choc chip ice cream without the chips?)

8. Do muted colors last -you can't get them down without some context.

9. For a green color in foreground, midground and background-he mixed his foreground color first, adds blue for the midground so it moves further back,and then just a tad more blue and white to move it even further  back . He makes the three piles at one time.

10. Brightest green -Cad Lemon and Cerulean Blue

11. Do not let under colors mix with top colors you will get MUD

12. Make sure your color is right on your palette -spend as much time as you need getting it right-you can't change it /alter it once it's on  the canvas-it'll be wrong or you will have to scrape it off.Ask yourself-what is the hue-then is my puddle  cooler, warmer, darker, lighter etc.  I had a yellow that was the right color family  but it was too bright and did not recede-I had to add the complement to grey it down(which was a grey from Ultra marine Blue and Alizarin). Terry  mixes his grey first- he gets the value right with his grey then adds the color to it. Much easier than trying to grey down the color and then trying to adjust the value .And you waste less paint.