The first winter paint-out

Weather: Although it was overcast, the sun was out as a hazy orb and the temperatures were about -2C.

On Monday just after lunch, I left the church where the Charleswood Art Group meets. The weather was absolutely beautiful outside. No wind and the sky was bright blue and sunny. What a perfect day to be out painting and I was inside instead. That afternoon I emailed one of my painting buddies Angela and suggested we go out on Tuesday as this was supposed to be the best day this week temperature wise with a high of 2C.

We headed out to Assiniboine Forest and got set up around 9:30am. We set up at the junction of a few different walking paths that you soon realize are equally busy in the winter time with people out walking their mostly large dogs.

I chose one pathway looking into the sun. I liked the haziness of the still visible sun in the sky above the forest. Angela chose a different path view with lots of leaning trees. We worked for approximately an hour and found that we were dressed well enough except for our boots and mitts. Next time I will wear my big Sorel boots and my new down gloves with some rubber gloves over top. The new hat that I bought at Cabela's was absolutely perfect. It kept my whole head warm.

This first time out during "winter" was for me as much a test about the problems I'm going to face if we continue to paint throughout the winter. The obvious problem of wearing the right clothing is problem number one. I had thought that I needed gloves but Angela wore mitts which I think will work equally well if not better. This is because painters generally don't hold a brush like a pencil which means you don't really need great dexterity for the actual painting. Of course, you do need some dexterity for setting up your box/easel, squeezing out paint tubes if you haven't done this beforehand and other little tasks.  I still intend to try my new downfilled gloves with the appropriately sized rubber gloves over top. I don't intend to muck up my expensive gloves if I can help it!

I recorded the temperature at the start of this post as this is important information to have so we can gauge just how low the temperature and wind-chill gets before we just can't work this way outside. Of course there are other ways to paint the outdoors without painting outside which I would like to explore; one of them being to paint in your car. Liz Haywood-Sullivan, the pastel artist I studied with this fall, let us know that she has a few new DVDs out; one of them on painting in inclement weather. She mentioned that you can go out for 10 minutes and do a quick sketch/value study, take some color notes and then go home and do your painting in the studio. I am waiting and watching for the release of this video.

Until next time and I do hope there is a next time!

Angela taking a photo of her view

My setup and view

My new warm hat



My finished painting

Painting Manitoba Sunflowers

Who doesn't love sunflowers.  One of my plein-air painting friends met a farmer just the week previous who had sunflowers and was willing to have us on the property to paint. It was meant to be! We decided to do an evening session so we left Winnipeg at 6:00pm and headed out to a farm just past the perimeter highway on number six highway. This was a very large, well kept farm and the sunflowers were gorgeous and at their prime. It was hard to decide just what view to paint ... should we paint individual flowers or try to capture a portion of the field. Angela settled on doing a "portrait" of the sunflowers while I took a longer view.

I did my painting on a piece of Arches oil paper and toned the paper first with a mixture of colors on my palette leftover from a previous painting session. Angela chose to do her painting on a textured ground and used a palette knife. We worked for about an hour and a half when we started to feel a few drops of rain. We packed up and went back to thank Bruce for allowing us to paint his field. He suggested that we might want to look out back which we decided to do. By this time, the sun was a brilliant orange red ball of fire that had almost set. A very large piece of farm equipment was silloutted against the sky with the backdrop being the sunflower field. We both agreed that we had to come out again to paint these sunflowers. We both took photos but they just don't do justice to the incredible sky we had on the way home. Thankyou very much to Bruce and we hope to have the opportunity to paint again at your farm.

Sunflowers painted with oils on Arches oil paper

 

How many times can you get lost?

I'm a little slow at posting about our most recent plein-air adventure. Diane and I went out together this past holiday Monday. It was one of those really glorious days where the sun is shining but it wasn't too hot. Also, most importantly, it wasn't windy. Wind can cause real problems with tripods, easels and canvases.

The first part of my journey was to get to Diane's house. I put the address into my GPS and soon figured out somewhere off of Bishop Grandin, that I was not heading to her house. I called on my cell phone and got directions. That's "getting lost" number one. Once I arrived at Diane's house, we set out looking for a prairie crop scene. As we were heading down the highway along the Red River floodway, I noticed all these nice round bales and a piece of farm equipment. Fortunately, there was a nice access road right beside us so we turned onto it and went back towards the view we had seen. It was just a perfect painting; a beautifully shaped lone tree in a field with a nice red combine sitting on the hill. There were just a few grey wisps of clouds close to the horizon. We set up right behind the car which makes it much easier when you don't have to haul your gear too far away. After painting a few hours, my stomach was telling me that it was time for a break. I hadn't brought lunch but gratefully Diane shared her lunch with me.

We both had the whole day free so we decided to head to Pineridge Hollow. On our way we got confused about which way to go which is getting lost number two. Once we got to Pineridge, Diane requested permission to paint on their grounds. We chose to set up in front of a large white tent canopy with a nice background of flowers. We were out of the way of the main path so not too many people stopped by to see what we were doing. Following completion of our second paintings for the day, we took a well deserved break by having coffee and sharing a cinnamon bun in the restaurant. What a nice way to end a very productive and wonderful day.

Getting lost number three happened when we left Pineridge ... neither one of us could remember which direction to turn. After getting turned around and headed in the right direction, I dropped Diane off at home. Do you think I could remember how to get out of her condo complex? No, I headed the wrong direction and took a big loop around which makes it four times that I got lost in one day. I'm really pretty useless without my GPS when I'm in unknown territory.

Diane and I agreed that we must do this again so the plan is to go out another time this week.

Harvest time near Birds Hill

 

 

Wedding tent at Pineridge Hollow

Painting away from Winnipeg on Madeline Island

It has been a long time since I posted in this blog. Of course I have all kinds of reasons such as one of my plein-air painting friends is away all summer, helping my father move, blah, blah, blah. My most recent excuse which is the reason for this post is that I went to a painting workshop on Madeline Island, Wisconsin. The course was entitled "From Field to Studio" with artist Marc Hanson. The medium was oil or pastel. I made the decision to work in oil but took my pastels along just in case I wanted to try using them.

I had not been to Madeline Island before but had heard good things about it. I was not disappointed. I liked everything about Madeline Island. I enjoyed the relative quiet and remoteness of the place and the small size which made it easy to get around to different places. The Madeline Island School of Art was a beautiful facility and Marc Hanson was a good instructor. My husband came with me and we chose to stay in one of the school cottages and to have the meal plan which included breakfast, lunch and snacks each day.

The objective of the course was to venture out for the first two days and paint small field studies. On the third day, we were to take the field study which interested us the most and do a larger mid-size painting. The last two studio days were to be used to work on a large painting based on our small and mid-size study/painting. The very first day we started by doing field studies using only black and white to focus on value studies.

One of the measures of how successful a course is for me is whether I was able to complete the work that the instructor requests of the group. I'm happy to say that I did complete the work required in the course and went a little beyond on the last day by painting with one of the other participants after the formal end of the course. Marc saw us painting and said he gave us A+. Yes ... who doesn't like to get A+! The other personal successes were that I did tackle a large painting, 22 x 28 inches and also did a pastel study of another compelling scene I found downtown. Besides this experience, the most fun I had painting was downtown LaPointe.  While painting on the main street, I had several people drop by to see what I was doing. I particularly enjoyed a visit with Vanessa, a young girl who was spending the summer on Madeline Island.

Below are several photos of scenes from my time on Madeline Island and the paintings that I did.

Pastel study

Old Town Park Oil Painting 22x28 - started but not finished

Oil study painted in downtown LaPointe

Quick oil study done in Old Town Park

Oil study of Madeline Island School cottages and red umbrella

Oil study of red umbrella and meadow on Madeline School property

Marc Hanson doing demo in Old Town Park

Madeline Island School of Art - Barn studio building

Talking to Vanessa while painting downtown

An afternoon of painting bliss

Hard working husband

Today I stayed around home and decided I had time to do a quick oil sketch. My husband was busy placing gravel and rocks back into the pond; preparing it to fill again. Over the wheelbarrow he was "sifting" the gravel through a screen. Because he was working, I wasn't able to get him to stop and pose for me for more than a few seconds. I enjoy the challenge of trying to capture figures that are moving. You need to make a lot of quick observations and use your memory in order to try and accurately suggest a figure.

I'm reasonably happy with this quick portrait. I much prefer portraits of people in action; they are so much more natural and realistic looking rather than a posed, stiff portrait. This portrait was done on canvas board which was first stained with transparent red oxide.

Labarriere Park - No sheep but lovely trees!

This Tuesday was sunny and warm with just a few clouds in the sky. We headed out after my morning piano student. Our initial thought was to go back and see if we could paint the sheep that we had seen on our way to Labarrier Park. The sheep were in yet a different pasture area and too far away for a good viewpoint. Angela suggested we talk to the owner and find out when they were moving the sheep to the front pasture which would be a perfect vantage point. This was an interesting stop as we appeared to have interrupted a "sheep dog" training event. There were several people with dogs waiting their turn to go through the course set up in a paddock. The owner is Faye and she took Angela's phone number and said she would call when the sheep got moved to the front.

We went on to the park and this time we chose to set up right in front of our car on a shady grassy boulevard. The row of trees that interested both of us included a nice variety of trees but what was of most interest was the trees that were dead or dying. They provided a nice contrast of rusty, pinky colors against the primarily green backdrop. I chose to use a very small wide and narrow support today which was perfect for this subject. Following completion of the first painting, I chose to do a quick cloud study on one of my small carton supports. I found the color of the support provided a nice hint through the cloud and also the use of "turpy" washes of white seemed to work well to render the clouds.

When we first set up, a group of several people arrived and spent the lunch hour playing baseball nearby. Just as we finished painting, one of the women dropped by and looked at our paintings. She asked what we charged for them but neither Angela and I had thought about what we might want to charge so Angela gave her one of her cards. I guess we had better think about pricing for these little sketches. People might continue to be interested in buying one of these on the spot!

Our next idea for an outing is to capture a sunset ... hopefully this Thursday evening.

Cloud study

Labarrier Park

Pears Still Life

Our planned outing on Friday to Labarrier Park will have to wait. At 7:30am, the rain was starting to fall and we made the decision to paint a still life indoors. Angela had purchased some particularly lovely shaped pears with a strong red color on them. She nicely set them up on her kitchen counter.

My experience with these pears started the same way as the onions we had painted; not well! I made the smart decision to wipe off the board and lo and behold, I had a beautiful soft underpainting of the still life. I then took a flat bristle brush and dabbed the paint on; using the side of the brush. I thought this worked particularly well for blending the colors in a way that also suggested the freckling of the pear. After finishing this painting, I became attracted by the spotlight itself that she used to light our still life. I chose to do a really fast oil sketch of our still life scene taking in the light and a suggestion of the dining room behind. This painting took me no more than 30 minutes and other than the fact that the light itself is out of scale to the scene, I was pleased with this effort. Because the light was what interested me in the first place, I was not bothered by the fact that I got it too large in relation to the rest of the scene.

Pear Still Life

Interior Oil Sketch - Pear Still Life Setup

Open door - morning light patterns

It's a lovely sunny day outside and I still have lots of paint on my palette left from yesterday's painting outing. My piano student cancelled this morning so I took advantage of the free window of time to get outdoors and do some painting. I started reading my new book on oil painting with David Curtis so I thought I would try and incorporate some of the lessons from David that I just read. He observes that people tend to use too much solvent and mediums when painting. He also suggested avoiding white initially and don't include it in your color mixes until later in the painting. These are some of the things I was thinking about as I painted. My digital version of my plein-air magazine also came and there's a profile of Marc Hanson who is the painter I'm going to be studying with in July on Madeline Island. Detail from one of Marc Hanson's paintings is also featured on the cover.

I started with a board that was gessoed with Daniel Smith Venetian Red. This is a very intense color but I decided to work with it for this scene. I call this painting "Open Door" as this is what interested me in the scene. There were very interesting light patterns on the dormer of the building to the right which I think I gave too much interest to. It does take away from the focus of the painting which is the open door of the shed. I had a lot of fun doing this ... not worrying about what a mess it looked like when I started. I kept thinking about keeping it simple and to use big brushes to put the color on.

Open Door - morning light on my backyard shed

Dandelions can be beautiful!

We decided to go back to Labarrier Park today ... I was driving and because I was on automatic pilot, I started out the wrong direction so we went on a long roundabout drive to get there. The road was still closed so we had to go out hwy 59 and right on 247 again to get there. We both had our rubber boots on as we expected the grass to be quite wet given all the rain we had recently.

When we arrived, we first headed down towards this gulley which looked appealing with trees still submerged up to their ankles with some lovely reflections on the water. We kept walking and this beautiful scene opened up in front of us. At the park the bank is long and sweeping down towards the river. The undulating curves of this grassy area was covered in a blanket of bright yellow dandelions. Normally, we are never happy to see so many dandelions in the city but out here on this hill, they were spectacular. We both agreed that this is the scene we wanted to paint.

On our way back to the car to get our gear, we noticed a helicopter that kept crisscrossing over the area. Angela suggested that it might be spraying and she was right; all of sudden we got a whiff of some very chemically smelling spray. I expected to always experience some minor hazards with plein-air painting but did not expect to get "gassed". It was also a reminder that this might also be the first time we have to deal with mosquitoes. We got our gear and headed down to our waiting scene.

I again vowed I was going to take more time so I started with an ink and water sketch. The full scene would have required a very wide and narrow landscape format which neither of us had. I made the decision to not crowd the scene into something smaller but choose a more narrow view. What was of most interest was the curves and shapes of the small sloping hills and of course the color; brilliant yellow dandelions against the many greens of the grass. The myriad of greens to mix was the most challenging to me plus the waiting to put the dandelions in.  This was another good painting day ... it's hard to put into words how great it feels to be out where all you hear are the birds singing and the squirrels chattering at us.

A carpet of dandelions - our subject

Setting up and getting ready to paint

Today`s finished painting

When it rains, paint still life indoors

The weather wasn't cooperating for our plein-air painting day this week so Angela suggested that we could paint still life at her house. She set up a really nicely composed still life of onions and shallots. I thought that onions shouldn't be such a hard subject to paint ... I have since changed my mind. I thought that I was taking my time and not rushing but I got through doing two paintings and Angela didn't finish one. The results certainly showed that I was rushing as neither of my efforts were great and Angela came up with quite a nice painting. She worked on a board that was prepared with pastel ground so her surface was quite textured. I was working on a board that had been gessoed with Daniel Smith Venetian Red which is really intense. For  my first painting, I chose to put out a naples yellow instead of a cad yellow which was probably a mistake. What I learned from this session is that I need a lot more practice mixing colors. Below are a few photos; one with me painting and a good view of the still life setup. The second photo is of Angela's painting.

Shirley painting the onion still life

Angela's still life

Labarrier Park

The sky was overcast but not so dark that you were afraid rain was imminent. Angela picked me up just shortly after 7:30am and we headed to Labarrier Park which is not too far outside of Winnipeg.  As we passed over the perimeter, we spotted a sign saying that the bridge at Labarrier Park was closed so we headed to Pembina Highway and went as far as Provincial Road 247 which was the exit we needed to take to get to the Park.

When we arrived, we were one of only two or three cars there. We headed down to the river and walked along until we came to the little foot bridge which took us back closer to the parking lot again. As we walked along the river, we spotted a small animal swimming. It looked like a young beaver. As I got closer to take a look, he took a dive down so I wasn't able to get a really close look at him. We crossed the foot bridge and took a path that led to a field that had some type of crop just coming up. Behind the field was a row of willows with one larger tree in front. The wooded area behind us provided complete shelter from the wind. We decided on this location and went back for our painting gear.

Today, I decided I was going to take more time with my painting and paint with larger brushes. I chose one of my small carton panels to begin my first painting. I chose to paint the trees way off in the distance with farm buildings. The middle ground was the field just coming up and the foreground was the edge of the field. I very quickly laid down the bands of color I could see; the overcast sky, the more distant green fields and the more near fields where you could see the crop just barely up. Details in the painting were kept to the suggestion of farm buildings and sprouting crops and debris in the foreground.

A second painting was completed in approximately 40 minutes. I looked more to my right where there was a nice row of willow trees following a road and one larger tree in front with some scrubby bushes. For this painting I decided to try and keep it very simple and not get too calligraphic with details. I was relatively pleased with both oil sketches today. Practice certainly seems to help.

I'm still uncertain what to use to haul all my equipment for painting. Today I used a smaller bag for my box but had to carry a small backpack and my tripod separately. This worked alright until I had to carry my equipment plus two small wet paintings back to the car. I will have to think about using my larger backpack again and having a lighter wet painting carrier . Unfortunately, we can't always count on being only steps away from our vehicle.

Our plans are to go out again Thursday or Friday depending on which day is better weather wise. We may also consider taking our bikes out and head to a park with our watercolor paints.

First Painting

Second Painting

Painting at Beaudry Park

We went to a different spot today; Beaudry Park which is just west of Headingley. The weather was perfect. The sky was clear and sunny. The temperatures were quite cool to begin with but gradually warmed while we were out. I picked up Angela for 8:00am and by the time we drove out there, got set up and began painting, it was probably after 9:00am. Angela chose a line of trees along the river to paint and I went for the long grasses against one tree along the riverbank. We were both working with our oil paints.

Angela's painting was quite impressionistic and reminded me of Monet's Poplar paintings. My paintings were less successful. The first one was too busy and overworked. For my second painting, I chose to do the same scene but zoomed in on what I was most interested in. I will need to be more careful about my palette. It included Winsor blue which is way too strong for an outdoor landscape. I also had a lot of trouble getting the right color for the lightest grasses.

There were some lessons from this outing:
Work larger ... my supports seem to small for these outdoor landscapes
Pick your palette carefully ... Winsor blue just doesn't seem right for the outdoor landscape
Don't paint into the sun .... It was very difficult to see the colors as they were going on to the canvas; at the end I started to turn my back on the sun just so I could see what I was putting on
Bring a snack ... We stayed until about 12:30; by that time I was starving!

Sweeping grasses along the River

Reminiscent of Monet's Poplars


 

Marsh Marigolds - here for a short while only

I had one hour to squeeze in some painting before heading off to play ukulele in the afternoon. My choice of subject today was a Marsh Marigold next to our pond in the backyard. These are one of the first flowers to bloom in spring and last only a very short time. It was a somewhat challenging subject as there was lots going on with all the leaves, flowers, rocks and the piece of driftwood lying beside it. This plant is near the base of the waterfall on our hill that flows into the pond. Given I only had an hour, I was relatively pleased with my effort. I think for anyone looking at this painting, it may not be obvious what the subject is. The log in particular isn't all that convincing. What works is the abstract pattern of colors and shapes in this painting.

Tomorrow, my painting partner and I plan to go out but the location has not yet been decided. It's my turn to pick so I may cycle through Assiniboine Forest and check it out as  a location for painting.

Marsh Marigolds

A happier African Violet

I am not all that good with plants. Occasionally I bring home a beautiful, healthy plant thinking that this time I will care for it continually. This African Violet has been sitting in my north facing front window for some time without blooms. When I was doing some tidying up, I decided to move it and an orchid to my south facing kitchen window. Since they are now sitting above my sink, they are receiving regular watering and I have been rewarded with beautiful magenta blooms on the violet and the orchid plant is starting to put out a flower stock.

Today I decided to paint my African Violet. The support I used was a Judson carton which is a card impregnated with resin. The support had a coat of clear acrylic gesso on it which meant I was working with a toned surface. This is painted in oils and includes my first time use of Michael Harding Magenta oil paint. I had some difficulty getting the bright magenta I was looking for. Even though the magenta highlights are not exactly the correct color, the important thing is I achieved the appropriate value balance between the lights and darks of the flowers.

African Violet

Plein-Air Painting in Winnipeg

I became very interested in plein-air painting after attending the Door County Plein-Air Festival in Door County Michigan. On that same trip, I purchased a Judson's painting box and tripod along with some oil paints. Last fall, I took an online plein-air painting course with a friend which was a great way to get introduced to painting plein-air and in oils. Homework was three to four sketches for the duration of the course which forced us to get out and get painting.

This winter, I registered for a plein-air painting course with Marc Hanson. The course is scheduled for this coming July on Madeline Island. I'm feeling the pressure of needing to get lots of plein-air painting practice in before going on this course. The course description said it was for intermediate to advanced plein-air painters and I'm still at the stage where I'm struggling with how to get my pochade box mounted on its tripod. I have also found a second person who is interested in plein-air painting and the really great thing is that she lives close by.

To date, I have gone out twice with my box and paints. The late start is due to the unseasonably cold weather that Winnipeg has received. My first outing was just my backyard. There's comfort in knowing that if you've forgotten something, you can quickly duck back inside to retrieve whatever you're missing. My subject for this painting was the bags of mulch lying near our apple tree. I wanted to take what might seem like a boring subject and see if I could make it interesting. I was particularly interested in the lovely lines of the still bare apple tree with the lights and darks on the branches.

The second outing was with my new plein-air painting partner Angela. We chose to go out last evening to Omand Creek. We had been there before with our sketchbooks so this was our second time to this location. The weather was absolutely perfect. The sun came out just for us and created those long shadows that we artists love. There was no wind to speak of and it was comfortable without a sweater or jacket. We weren't alone;  there were a few people fishing in the creek. After we had been painting for awhile, an older woman stopped and spent a few minutes looking at Angela's painting. Based on the comments she was making, she had obviously done some painting herself. I guess I was just far enough away that she didn't come to look at what I was doing. It was a very successful evening and makes me look forward to going out again. I'm feeling relatively organized as I had spent a great deal of time adjusting an old backpack and making sure I had all the supplies I needed.

We will hopefully be out again early next week ... I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we get some good weather.

All set up and ready to go at Omand Creek

Omand Creek - Too much going on in painting

Above Painting - Detail of (should have focused on just this)

Bags of Mulch in my backyard

Painting based on Watercolor Sketch at BeaverDam Creek