Peggi Kroll Roberts workshop - days two and three

Boy, I am so behind in my blog! I and I kept putting off adding things I wanted to add, as I wanted to keep this chronological. I had a lot to say about the Peggi Kroll Roberts workshop, but never got around to saying it, so now it's just time to move on. Our second day we went to Stinson Park, a small gem of a park on the river, and worked with live models. It was a hot day for the poor models to be out in the sun.

I think that's why they asked if they could be in the shade for later poses. It was fun, but the park had two drawbacks - a teeny-weeny parking lot - only about 16 spaces, and our class of 18 took up most of them, quite an issue as there was one birthday party going on at the park and another park as well, and everyone jockeying for places to park. The park also had no sanitary facilities, so if you jumped in your car to go to a rest room you knew you would not find a space in the parking lot when you got back.

So the third day a different park with a slightly larger parking lot was suggested for us, but when women in the class found out that it *also* had no sanitary facilities there were grumblings of rebellion, so Peggi made the decision for us to work in the studio on the third day, though using the same two live models.

On this day she wanted us to try practicing some drawing skills, though without the concerns of values that we had on the first and second days.

That came later when she suggested we add color to our drawings. Being in the studio made the day far less stressful than day two had been! Quite an interesting workshop, and I wish I could implement some of Peggi's ideas as effortlessly as she did them.

Peggi Kroll Roberts workshop - Day One

My sister Amy had taken a workshop a couple years ago with Peggi Kroll Roberts and thought it was the best she had ever taken, so when she learned Peggi was doing a workshop in Jacksonville she asked if she could come stay with me so she could take it, and talked me into taking it with her!

Peggi is primarily an oil painter and it was advertised as a workshop for oil painters, so I was not sure if I could use it, but I contacted Peggi and she assured me that much of what she taught applied to any medium.

And so it proved. She spent a lot of time with values the first day, spent in the studio, with tables covered with little mini still lifes all over. We had to look at different ones and do works using ONLY TWO VALUES - seeing only what was in light and what was in shadow. Everything in shadow had to be be dark and everything in light had to be light, and that was it! Later we were allowed to add a hint of a third value if we wanted.

We then got to do a couple short paintings from the still lifes around, but were supposed to concentrate on values.

Lots of concentrating on what was in light, what was in shadow, direct light, reflected light, etc.

After lunch we had to concentrate on values again by doing a painting using a fairly monochromatic palette.

And then when we had the values worked out we were supposed to try the same thing, adding in local color - though I did add in the spoon I had decided to drop from the monochrome version.

That took us right up to 4 PM when the class ended, and thus endth the first day. Lots of fun, and the other women in the class were fun also - but a bit physically and mentally tiring to paint all those hours!

Savannah Sunrise

I've been in a bit of a painting rut lately. Except for the pet portraits I did for my cousin's birthday I've only done two paintings since the pastel workshop I took in February, and both of them were rejected from our upcoming pastel society juried show! So not a very good track record, LOL.

But tonight I went to my friend Leslie's open Studio Club at her home studio to try to shake out of my rut. On my way home from my cousin's birthday weekend I stopped to do some birding at the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge.  I was there early in the morning and enjoyed the lovely light of the early morning sun, so I used one of the photos I took as a reference.

This is my "preliminary" painting. I have to stop and see how it looks in natural daylight, and give myself a chance to think about it a lot, but I'm happy with it so far. It's a 9x112 on Richeson paper, sort of a slatey color.

Three lucky adoptees

 

This weekend I'm invited to a surprise birthday party in Raleigh, NC for my cousin's 65th birthday. Her husband said "no gifts" as her gift was her most recent rescue animal. I felt I should give her a small something though. Recently I was inspired by my friend Carol Clemens who posted photos on FB of two incredible pastel portraits she had done of two other mutual friends. They were both amazing likenesses and captured the other two perfectly. And THEN I found out that they were each only 4x4 inches in size! Wow, how on earth to capture such detail and perfection is such a teeny size?

Anyway, It was an interesting challenge, but I'm not good at portraits.I feel a little more comfortable tackling animals, so decided to try small portraits of my cousin's three rescue animals. Each one of these is only 3x5 inches, to fit into the small triple frame I bought - small enough that she can easily hide it if she doesn't like it! LOL. It was a fun challenge. And working that small IS hard to try to get any sort of detail. My fumble fingers kept getting in the way.

High Island Spoonbill

This is a painting I did from a reference I took in May 2012 when I went to High Island, Texas, at the tail end of the spring migration season. I went on a the last two scheduled walks for the season, and then drove down the coast along the Gulf to Bolivar Flats, and then took the ferry over to Galveston where I was meeting some friends for a cruise. I got 54 species for my Texas list, and added several new birds to my life list.

I love spoonbills, both attractively pink, and yet also ugly and ungainly. And I loved this one sitting in an old dead tree. I had been thinking about doing this for our upcoming spring member show for the First Coast Pastel Society. But then last week I had a crazy fall and cracked or bruised my ribs and was in far too much pain to think about painting.

But now, after 8 days, the pain is easing somewhat and I was able to sit down. Now that I've done it I'm not sure what I think of it - but I've reached a logical stopping point and have to let it sit for a day or two while I think about it. Done on 11x14 sheet of Richeson paper, sort of a creamy yellowing color.

Port Elgin Sunset

I enjoyed working on the black Art Spectrum paper more than I had expected to in the workshop I took last weekend. And in fact I've already sold the Sunrise painting that I did on the black paper. I had some black paper around that came in the sampler packs from Art Spectrum that come in various warm or cool colors. I had never liked the black so hadn't used some of the sheets I had.

But I pulled one of them out tonight and painted this picture of a sunset up in Port Elgin, New Brunswick, when I was coming home one evening from my life drawing session over in Tidnish, Nova Scotia. I think I like my sunrise painting better, but I had fun doing this one also. Sunrises and sunsets seem to be good subjects for the black paper, which was the standard 9x12 size.

Carrot Island

This is the third and final painting I did at the Richard Lundgren workshop, from a photo I took when I was out with my sister and brother-in-law in their boat last summer. This one was a bit of a quickie since I did it near the end of the day, but I still had fun. I only had the one sheet of black Art Spectrum, so this is done on the 9x12 slate blue-gray Richeson paper.

Morehead City sunrise

This is the second painting I did in the Richard Lundgren workshop on Saturday. Richard used black Art Spectrum paper for his demo. I love Art Spectrum but wasn't happy about black, but he made it look interesting so I bought a 9x12 sheet from him for my second painting.

And this is what I did on the black paper - from a reference photo I took early one morning in Morehead City, NC when I was visiting my sister Amy. The black background certainly made the foreground of the painting a lot easier to do! It was fun.

Nova Scotia barn

Today I took a one-day pastel workshop with Richard Lundgren. It was a fun day, with lots of folks I knew also attending, plus other some other folks who had never done pastels before, or had not done any in years.

It was a good day for me, as it gave me the oomph to actually do something, which I have not done much of lately. I actually finished 3 paintings today! This was the first one, done on a sheet of 9x12 Richeson paper, sort of a slatey blue-gray. A variety of pastels as usual.

An Amazement of Eggs

I was at my art guild meeting on Tuesday night and one of the other members brought in a dozen eggs that had been laid by her own small flock of free-range chickens. I just thought they were so incredibly beautiful, so different from supermarket eggs. They were all different sizes and all different colors. I just had to take a photo of them, and then decided I wanted to do a painting of them too, even though it's a rather unusual subject. But I just loved those eggs.

This is a little larger than I've mostly been working, on an 11x14 sheet of Richeson paper, sort of a mustardy color. 

Ravine Gardens

On Saturday I went to Ravine Gardens State Park with the First Coast Pastel Society. Ravine Gardens is a small gem in the state park system, noted for it's beautiful azaleas and an annual azalea festival. This was our regular bi-monthly plein air paint-out, and for the last couple years we've been pretty lucky with our weather, but not so much so on Saturday. The azaleas had only just begun to bloom, but a light splash here r there. But the main problem was that it was chilly, raw and rainy the whole morning. Oh well, as one woman said, "At least we don't have to worry about constantly shifting light and shadows". :-)

Most of us set up under a big covered picnic pavilion and were able to look out at the rain, drizzle, mist, and the foggy views. But it was fun all being together as a group, about 12 of us. The lighting was definitely flat, but it was still fun. Above is the painting I did  - on 9x12 Richeson paper, a sort of light blue-gray color.

Curious Cows

After painting the elephant and flamingos for the Jacksonville Zoo Project I still had the acrylics all over the dining room table. At the monthly art critique on Wednesday several of the women there told me I should try working in acrylics more. So I decided to give it a try, and painted this picture. It's 11x14 on canvas.

I'm still an acrylic newbie, but for fun I submitted it to the Fin, Feather and Fur competition at the Great Hang Ups Gallery.  All the paintings must be of animals, birds or fish, and some of the proceeds from the show will go to support the Safe Animal Shelter.

And if it doesn't get into the show, or does but fails to sell, I'll probably try to enter it in the Clay County Fair, whose theme this year is "Country Roots and Cowboy Boots". What could be more "country" than cows in a field? :-)

Flamingos Reflecting

This is my third and final square for the Jacksonville Zoo Project, also done with acrylics like the previous elephant. I still feel like a kindergarten kid with acrylics, but they are rather fun, and they don't have to be framed under glass like the pastels. Unlike pastels you do still have to wait for sections to dry - but unlike waiting days (as for oils) at least it's usually only minutes to an hour. Still frustrating for someone as impatient as I am.

The Jacksonville Zoo Project

I just have not been doing much pastel painting lately. I still adore pastels but am sort of at a standstill with them. I can't seem to sell any paintings, and I don't have room in my house to keep storing them framed, and I hate to just squish them in drawers or throw them in the trash after spending so much time on them. So my solution lately has been to give up painting. Better not to paint at all than to have to paint and trash or stash. But I recently joined the Jacksonville Artists Guild and they are doing a project for the Jacksonville Zoo as a fundraiser.

Members are allowed to take one or more 8-inch-square wooden boxes to paint, and these will then go to the zoo to be on display, then to the airport, back to the zoo, and then sold as a fundraiser. So no need to worry about storing them in my home. The plain boxes are like the one above, and about 1 1/2 inches deep on the side. So I took three of them to paint, and started by giving them each three coats of gesso.

The problem, of course, is that you can't use pastels on the boxes. They can't be framed under glass. And pastel is the only medium I enjoy or feel comfortable with. I hate watercolor, hate oils, hate acrylics. Pastel is my love! So what to do? I do have lots of zoo photos at least, from trips I have made there with my grandson.  And I took three boxes to work on! So I had to plan something.

So this is my first attempt. I took a photo I had of a giraffe and used photo editing software to play with the colors to make it more "playful" looking rather than just a standard giraffe. I liked the colors in this one and had then planned to paint it. But I decided, heck, the photo was also my own artistic creation, so I just printed it out, and decoupaged the photo to the box. Added some acrylic touches, decoupaged on some sticks and artificial flowers.

Then painted the sides of the box with acrylic, including carrying the giraffe's neck down onto the side of the box, and glazed over the whole thing, and in general I was pretty happy with it, so then was ready to try an actual painting.

So today I tackled this elephant with acrylic. Again, acrylic is not my medium. It's an exercise in frustration and I don't find it fun as I do pastels. But I worked away on it and this is what I accomplished today. I'm not really happy with the elephant's trunk. I've redone it about 3-4 times and touched it up a few more than that but can't seem to get it the way I'd like. But I'm not displeased with the rest of the elephant, and the rest of the painting in general. I'll have to see what I think tomorrow. Annoying thing about acrylic though is that tomorrow I won't be able to mix up exactly the same colors I used today. We'll see. The trunk actually looks a bit better in person than it does in this photograph, so I might just leave it as is.

Still have one more box to paint however!

The Guitar Player (again)

I began working on this painting last week and reached a stopping point which I posted about here. Then I brought the painting to the monthly art critique held at Beth Haizlip's house.  As usual I got some great suggestions on how to make the painting stronger, and I tried to incorporate some of them tonight, and the result is what I have above. I do think I'm happier with it now.

The Guitar Player (so far)

This one is not finished, but I reached a stopping point on it. I'm trying to come up with a painting for the "It's Instrumental" show we are having at Wehner's School of the Arts  in January. The paintings are supposed to fit the theme of musical instruments.

I pulled out this photo I took some years back to see if I could turn it into a painting. It's always fun to paint with company, so I went to Cindy Csalovski's open session "Studio C" this afternoon from 1-4 PM. So that's why this is incomplete - I had to pack up and stop painting at 4 PM! But it's always good to stop and step away at some point.

This is a 9x12 done on Richeson sanded paper, the first time I have used it. It seems to be a pretty decent surface and has a decent amount of tooth.

Ocean Hammock

 Today was the last day of our workshop with Michael Chesley Johnson. We had a glorious day today, and Ocean Hammock Park in St. Augustine Beach is a small gem - primarily a 1700-foot boardwalk walkway at present, but leading through varied habitats of the hammock and the dunes out to the beach. Again we did our color sketches in the morning to create a painting in the studio in the afternoon.

I took lots of photos along the boardwalk. But because I don't like being in direct sunlight I ended up sitting in the parking lot. I have Michael to thank for the idea of the finished painting above. I had done two color sketches during the morning.

One was on the roadway, and one was of an interesting tree. He asked me which I planned to do for the full painting, and I said I wasn't sure as both had elements I liked. So Michael suggested I try to combine the two for a unified whole.

So I looked at them both. I had a unifying central element in the post - that sits on the left of the tree pic, and is the same as the rightmost post in the pathway pic. So I used that to center the two sides of my image, and had to crop off bits on either side to fit on my 9x12 Art Spectrum sheet.

But I did a pencil sketch first, and thought it looked good. So that was what I did. My reference photos were all on my cell phone, and the cell battery died at the end of the morning! So I had only my two color sketches, my memory, and my imagination as references for the finished work. :-)

Vilano Beach

Today was day two of the workshop with Michael Chesley Johnson. We gathered at the fishing pier at Vilano Beach  We were supposed to do small color studies of 2-3 locations in and around the pier. And from those to develop eventually a larger picture. Above is the one I began as my larger picture, before we have had our critique session with Michael.  9x12 Art Spectrum.

And these are the two small color studies I did earlier in the day near the pier. Though I got rained out as I was working on the second one! The two small ones are just on sketchpad paper, each one about 4x6.

Mission Nombre de Dios

Today was day one of the wonderful workshop with Michael Chesley Johnson! Despite a rainy start the sun finally came out, and we got to choose our spots to work at the old Mission Nombre de Dios in St. Augustine.

I chose the bridge, a bit of a challenge, but figured getting advice in a workshop on it would be a great time to attempt it, and I rather like this painting - on 9x12 Art Spectrum

Plein air mystery painting (IDed as Princess Place)

Tomorrow I'll be going to St. Augustine to take a 3-day workshop with Michael Chesley Johnson. I'm really excited about it, and I spent this afternoon going through my stuff to get ready with the things I need to take.

When I cleaned out my plein air cart I found this painting inside a glassine bag. Well I found several paintings actually. But I knew what they all were except this one! This one is a mystery. I have no idea when or where I did it, although it's obviously here in Florida. And I know I did it plein air because it's on an 8x10 Ampersand board, and I only ever use them when I do plein air.

So I figured I'd post it anyway. Maybe if I stare at it long enough I'll remember something about it.

Update Update! I've figured out what this is. It was done at our First Coast Pastel Society plein air get-together at Princess Place.  And I actually see this painting sitting on my easel in one of the photos I posted there. So it's no longer a mystery. And Princess Place is one of my favorite places!

Flyin W pond

One of the members of the Art Guild of Orange Park, Donna Grasso, invited members to join her for a day of plein air painting at the Flyin W Farm in Green Cove Springs. The farm is beautiful and rural , with open fields, horses, sheep, and a lovely little pond.

We had great weather this morning - and I took lots of photos of the horses and sheep, and may use them for reference photos. But for plein air I prefer non-moving targets, LOL. So I set up my easel by the small pond near the barns. I did this on Art Spectrum paper, 9x12, using a variety of pastels.

Camp Chowenwaw

What a lovely day it was today. We are really headed into my favorite part of the year, weatherwise, now. We had our first plein air event of the season for the First Coast Pastel Society, and we had it had Camp Chowenwaw Park, which is just ten minutes down the road from my house. Very convenient for me. :-)

I sat down near the edge of Black Creek, facing upriver towards the fishing pier. The woman I sat next to and I both agreed that we still don't really feel comfortable with plein air, and feel like the works we do with the FCPS look like "kindergarten works". But we both agree we love coming for the enjoyment of the great outdoors, and the camaraderie of the other artists. There were ten of us there today. This is the painting I did today. As usual with my plein air I feel sort of "eh" about it. But it was a wonderful day and lots of fun being out of doors with fellow artists.

Done on 9x12 Art Spectrum as is fairly typical, sort of a cream color.

Afterglow

This is a painting I did with the hope of it being juried into the "Happy Hour" show at the Great Hang Ups Gallery.  But the show was just the impetus to get it done. I'd been planning this painting for a couple months. It's from a photo I took earlier this summer up at our old farmhouse in New Brunswick, Canada. My two sisters were both up there with me, and we were getting ready for dinner. We had bought two bottles of wine, and it was that golden hour when the last light of the afternoon is streaming through the kitchen window over the sink.

The light poured in, hitting the wine bottles with such a glow, that I had to take a photo. And once I took a photo I knew I had to try to paint it, to see if there was anyway I could try to capture that rich glowing light.

This is 12x16, and done on Wallis Belgian Mist. I still love Art Spectrum, but I'm enjoying working bigger than the 9x12 size I usually do with the Art Spectrum. The only problem I have with their paper is that it seems to come in only two sizes, Too Big, and Too Small. The Wallis comes in a 12x18 pad, and it does hurt a bit to cut off that expensive two inches on the bottom. But the 12x16 fits so nicely into the frames I have.

Tidnish life classes

 One-minute poses.

I had a great time again this summer going to the Tidnish Bridge Art Gallery, where once again they had life drawing open studios on Monday evenings. 

Five-minute pose.

I only got to go twice this summer. The first Monday I was there I had just arrived and was too tired, after driving nearly 2000 miles, to go over to Nova Scotia in the evening.

Five-minute pose. 

The second Monday I was there was Canada Day, so the gallery was closed for the holiday for the open studio session. But I finally got to go for the third and fourth Mondays, and then it was time to head home again.

Twenty-minute pose.

But life classes are always a good exercise. Human bodies are far less forgiving than trees! And of course I still struggle with the figure, but I also enjoy getting some practice.

Castaway

Back before the heat of the summer began to get too bad I got together with some of my pastel friends for a plein air session at a place called Castaway Island Preserve located along the intracoastal waterway. It was a lovely spot, and I may go back again as the weather is slowly starting to cool a bit. Still hot during the day, but lately there has been a faint tang in the air when I walk my dog in the morning.

I love my cute new little Heilman box, just the size I had always wanted.  It's perfect for plein air for me!

I had an initial disaster as I was setting up! I accidentally bumped into my tripod, and my tripod, box, and all my pastels went flying off in every direction, many of them breaking into tiny unusable pieces. Sheesh, what a way to start my morning.

But with some help I finally got most of them back under control, and painted the picture above. It was fun, and pretty soon the weather will be nice enough for plein air again. Not something I can happily do during the Florida summers.