BAD

Our computer's hard drive is BAD! Being 'bad' used to be good. But this is bad, so no new posts from me until we have a brand new GOOD hard drive..... very soon, I hope. The photo of this painting was saved and ready to go so here I am at our library on their computer writing it up.

The painting is years old - like nearly 20 years old, painted in the Rocky Mountains back when I thought I had to be a plein aire painter to be an artist. Yet, one of the best things about plein aire painting is the memory cache that's created while the painting's being done ------ the guys who stopped by to tell me their aunt could really paint lilacs ... the great little outside restaurant with tables and comfortable chairs where I sketched while waiting for my lunch ... the gorgeous drive up through Thompson Canyon to get to the little town of Evergreen... the ferns and fog that graced the steep rocky walls along the road. Each time I see a photo of this painting, I remember so much of that day. Plein aire painting DOES have some wonderful benefits.

I hope to be up and running on line soon with some great posts from last week's YUPO workshop in Middletown, Ohio. And, I'll finally be able to catch up on all the blogs I've missed. See you then.

"THISTLES AND RUST" Transparent Watercolor on 140# Arches, maybe 15 x 11" COLLECTED

STUDIO OR PLEIN AIRE?

After really liking the painting I did outdoors in the midst of our flower gardens, (see the last blog post here) and after selling that painting when I really didn't want to part with it, I decided to 'paint it again.' This time I painted it in the studio, relying on memory and imagination.

By using the same techniques and colors, the results were similar. Yet, the first painting, though not as carefully planned, seemed to have more 'life' in it, more emotional impact.... a result of plein aire painting, responding to the moment, painting from life??? Maybe.

I do love these flowers in the spring, and there's a second variety that blooms in the fall, too. The way they swing and sway in the breeze is absolutely poetic.

If I'm ever inspired to paint them again, I think I'd want to have a bouquet right in front of me. Something's gained in the painting by from life whenever it's possible.

Second best is painting from photos that inspired me when I took them. The trick is to remember why I wanted to take the photo in the first place and then leave nearly everything else out.

"ANEMONES" Transparent Watercolor on 140#CP Arches 12 x 9" COLLECTED

EARLY WORK

Here's a painting done plein aire in our old backyard in Kokomo. I grew everything possible - hundreds of varieties of perennials and exotic, unusual dwarf plants. We had no deer to eat our garden like we do here, and the soil was not such a hard packed clay.

These windflowers or anemones danced gracefully in the breeze that May day and begged to be painted. I was a fairly new watercolorist and had to touch up a spot or two with white gouache... should've planned ahead better or used miskit.

"WINDFLOWERS" Transparent Watercolor on 140# Arches about 10 x 7" COLLECTED

PAUSING TO REST

One beautiful day this past September, we'd finished sightseeing on a small island in northern Italy and had about a half an hour to wait before our ride arrived. This older gentleman waited, too, as he leaned into his cane, and I saw a painting waiting to emerge. After a very quick one minute gesture sketch, my brushes were ready to fly.

Plopping some color on the postcard sized paper, I worked on what had first drawn my eye - his demeanor. I'd barely roughed in his clothes and skin shapes and glanced up to see what to adjust. At that moment, he stood up and walked away. WAIT!

So much for painting plein aire. The rest of the painting took about twenty five minutes with a little tweaking added later. One of my cousins has this at her house now, and I must go visit soon.

"LOST IN THOUGHT" Transparent Watercolor on 140#CP Fabriano Artistico 7 x 5" COLLECTED

ON SITE

Painting right on the spot outdoors can be fun, especially in a beautiful area. Carol and I found a cold stone bench near the shores of Lake Como and set up our art studio. We painted for several hours there, enjoying the swans on the lake and the people meandering through the 'shopping district' of Varenna.

This small, postcard sized painting included some pen and ink work to define it a bit more. I can still hear the tourists dragging their suitcases on the cobblestone walkways... clickity clack, clickity clack..... Inspiration was everywhere.

Hopefully someone can explain why my posts don't have the same color intensity as what I see in front of me before I download into the blogger network. Thanks for your help.

"LAKESIDE" Transparent Watercolor on 140#CP Fabriano Artistico, 5 x 7" COLLECTED

GELATO

One afternoon in Italy, we took a ferry over to Bellagio. There was a wonderful outdoor cafe where I sat down to paint while my friends enjoyed another gelato.

This is a pen and ink with watercolor, but I did the watercolor part first and added the ink later. There aren't many value changes here to make the scene dynamic, but it conveys the place.

"GELATO" Transparent Watercolor and Pen & Ink on 140#CP Fabriano Artistico 7 x 5"

POSTING MORE OF ITALY

Here's another view painted from the coastline of Lake Como in northern Italy. You can see how Varenna's promenade extends out over the water, but what's really amazing is how the village is built right up the hill. There's also another smaller village just five minutes above via hairpin turns up the side of the mountain. One day while we were there, the Alps in the distance got a good dusting of snow. Beautiful!

"ITALIAN PROMENADE" Transparent Watercolor on 140#CP Fabriano Artistico, 7 x 5" COLLECTED

MORE ITALY

There's a promenade from the public boat dock around to the main part of the village of Varenna, and this tunneled area along the promenade was ideal to sit in on a windy day and paint. The far sighted city fathers of this Italian town built the promenade almost eighty years ago in order to make it easier for the town people to move along the shore of Lake Como. It's literally fastened to the side of the rock in places, hanging out over the lake.

Hydrangeas and roses line some of the walkway, along with wysteria. It's evident that the town enjoys the beauty around it and enhances it with numerous, colorful plantings.

Taking photos there can be wear down a photographer's shutter finger. There are pictures EVERYWHERE you look, every way you turn. The town's built on the side of a mountain with few roads but lots of walkways and steps that wind up and down.

This was my second visit to Varenna and posted is a picture of Villa Torretta where we stayed this time. I could see the villa from where I sat when I painted Maria's painting. (Another cousin, Maria, ended up with this painting on Friday when we met for lunch. She's been to Lake Como, too.)

Four of our group stayed in the main house, and Carol, Chris and I stayed in the 'gardener's house' off to the right. We painted on the veranda above the entry, overlooking the lake. An artist's paradise! Happy Birthday, Chris!

"MARIA'S" Transparent Watercolor on 140#CP Arches, 9 x 12" COLLECTED

MORE PLEIN AIRE ITALY

We were waiting for our boat to take us back to Stresa, Italy. People were mingling and moving so a quick impulse of each figure was all I could pencil in on the paper before adding paint.

Painting small like this, as well as painting in a looser style, does not come naturally to me. I love the look, though, so the challenge was on.

One of my cousins selected this painting to take home with her. Her older son, Reid, is a budding artist, and when they were here a couple of years ago, he'd head to the studio to paint as soon as he woke up each morning. His artistic talent was obvious even at that young age.

"THE TOUR" Transparent Watercolor on 140CP Fabriano Artistico, 5 x 7" COLLECTED

NORTHERN LAKES - ITALY

An older Italian gentleman selected this painting along with another after he stopped to see what I was doing. We did our best to discuss what the painting was about, using mostly hand signals and some broken Italian and English. He gave the other painting to his friend who was with him.

Painting small, postcard sized pictures is fairly easy to do in a small space, if the wind's not blowing. Soon I'll post a picture of the great travel palette I used.

See the Italian gentleman's thumb in the corner? Once he'd picked up the picture, he didn't want to put it down for me to take a photo. I'm glad he liked the paintings.

"LAKE REGION, ITALY" Transparent Watercolor on 140#CP Fabriano Artistico, 7 x 5" COLLECTED

PLEIN AIRE ITALY

Varenna, Italy is a small Italian village located on Lake Como, and the six of us spent almost a week there in a beautiful golden villa on the lake. It's a perfect place to paint plein aire because inspiration is everywhere.

While sitting on a stone bench along the promenade that winds along the lake, I began painting this one afternoon and completed it the next morning. A Canadian couple took it home with them.

An early evening picnic on the villa's veranda made the day completely wonderful. Cheeses, breads, fruit, tomatoes, wild boar sausage, proscuitto, wine, art friends.....

"ROMANTIC VARENNA" Transparent Watercolor on 140CP Arches 9 x 12" COLLECTED

ITALY IS FOR ARTISTS

Last month, five of us painted together in the little mountainous town of Orta, Italy. Our sixth artist was busy scouting out the nearby shops for some good deals.

The colors in Italy are different than anywhere I have ever been. Maybe it's the sun's angle or maybe the ancient textures reflecting the light in a special way.

It was an excellent trip with some special friends. From left to right, Valerie, Carol, Mary, Shirley, and me. Joan's the one around the corner shopping, and my sister-in-law from Dusseldorf, Germany, took our picture and helped critique the paintings. Thanks, Chris!

Here are two of the paintings - in progress - that Valerie and Shirley were working on in Italy - two unique creations of the same scene. You can refer back to my quick study painting of this scene - blog from Oct. 9.

VILLAS

This is the view we had while sitting on a comfortable park bench on the shoreline of Lake Maggiorie. Can you imagine your sweetheart building you a beautiful Italian villa on an island in a lake? Pretty cool. Some of us had to paint it, postcard size, and some of us had to shop.

This is 'Bella,' which means 'beautiful' in Italian. Later, when I was painting in another location, various people would stop by, peek at my work, and say, "Bella' or 'Complimetre." I always said "Grazie," and smiled. I love trying to communicate in a foriegn country, and it's so surprising how really easy it is to do.

A few days later, an artist/art teacher from Florida bought this little painting. Since I greeted her in Italian, she must have thought I was Italian as she pulled a travel palette out of her purse to show me that she also watercolored. When I exclaimed in English, "You're an artist, too," she surprisingly replied, "Oh, you're American, too." We laughed.

"BELLA" Transparent Watercolor on 140#CP Fabriano Artistico 7 x 5" COLLECTED

QUICK STUDY

Painting outside in Italy was a lot of fun. I think I could do it forever! These potted geraniums were high up above a small shop on a side street in sunny Orta.

Trying to capture the sense of being there is MUCH easier to do right on location than it is from a photo. But the hard part is doing a painting, even though it's small, right on the spot with no pre-planning and little time to make a sketch.

It never bothers me to have someone watch me paint, but what does distract me are all the inconveniences of painting outside, away from the comforts of my studio. But that didn't matter this time since we were in beautiful Italy.

"WELL TENDED" Transparent Watercolor on 140#CP Fabriano Artistico, 7 x 5" COLLECTED

MEMORIES

This sunlit facade near a lake in Italy caught my eye a couple of weeks ago. We were traveling in northern Italy and spent that day on small Lake Orta, in a charming town chock full of paintings ready to be painted. Six of us were on a journey to explore and enjoy one of the most beautiful areas of the world.

We sat down to paint on the back stoop of an old but beautiful building, surrounded by a cobblestone street, and spent over two hours trying to create what we'd been experiencing. Below you can see my interpretation that day of the photo above.

The work in progress here shows the point when I didn't like how the painting was going. It looked too 'coloring bookish,' so I took a one inch brush and washed water over the whole thing. Of course, the darker areas bled a little but the overall effect helped soften and tie the painting together better. I threw some table salt on and let it dry.

At that point, I was thinking the picture was a lost cause even though the day was wonderful. I put it aside. However, that night, pen and ink worked its magic on the painting and really helped it along.

A few days later, I gave the finished pen and ink watercolor to Laura, who owned the villa where we were to stay while we were in Varenna on Lake Como. I think she really liked it.

I plan to paint this scene again, spending more time on the drawing and composition and focus on the things that made me want to paint it in the first place. While we were in Italy, I painted many days, completing about a dozen small paintings. But once we got to Venice, all painting ceased as I immersed myself in the incredible beauty there. I have enough photos to paint from for a couple of lifetimes and memories to last forever.

"LAURA'S GIFT" Transparent Watercolor on 140#CP Arches, 12 x 9" COLLECTED

SIXTEEN YEARS AGO

This was actually painted 'on location,' while I was sitting on a ridge above a lake on a summer day. Our neighbors' cottage had old concrete front steps with a neglected geranium growing beside them. I'd only been painting in watercolor a couple of years and wanted to give plein aire a try.

Painting outside: bugs, heat, wind, sun, uncomfortable seating..... is there any reason to do it? I do have to admit that being in the presence of what I'm painting makes a positive difference in my response with the brush. This painting won the first big award I'd ever gotten, from the Logansport (IN) Art Association's Spring Show, Best of Show! I hadn't even gone to the opening banquet, so they called me with the news. I was astounded.

My husband asked me why I hadn't painted a more flourishing geranium, but I liked the sparseness and resilience this plant had on that hot August day in the sun beside the heated concrete. However, I still avoid plein aire painting if at all possible.

"GRANNY'S GERANIUMS" Transparent Watercolor on 140 CP Arches 22x 15" SOLD

YUPO ON LOCATION

Painted en plein aire, aka 'on location,' forced there by one of my classes .... and painted on YUPO. WHAT was I thinking - or not thinking?

It's always been fun to paint on YUPO (once I got used to it,) but this is a really early one. The paint pretty much told me what it was going to do, and I followed. One thing for sure, colors on YUPO are vivid and lively. Crooked perspective and crazy paint patterns seem to have made friends with each other - could be art --- or not.

"MY COMPLIMENTS TO THE CHEF" Transparent Watercolor on YUPO, approx 19 x 12" SOLD