"Wisconsin en Plein Air" - Friday Reception

Holy Wisdom Outing

The sun came out right on cue for our outing at Holy Wisdom Monastery.  And the wisdom I received is that if you're painting a green summer scene, invent some color and throw it in.  Which is what I did with this painting after returning home.  Probably could have added even more.

Evening Painting at Holy Wisdom Monastery August 26 - 3:30pm

We will meet around 3:30 pm in the parking area near this pond on the west side of the property.  The prairies will be blooming with many native species.  Please stay on the trails or on places where the lawn is mowed as the monastery has worked very hard to restore and maintain the beautiful prairies and we don't want to damage any native plants that grow there.  The sisters are very generous to open their nature trails to visitors who want to walk and enjoy the peace of the this beautiful place.  Also we should be mindful that some hikers may be spending retreat time at the monastery and we don't want to disturb their peace and quiet.  Not that we are a rowdy bunch by any means!  I have seen deer and mink and many bird species on and around the pond and once watched a mink "collect" at least a dozen turtles in about 5 min.  Poor turtles!  

Painting from Indian Lake outing on Aug. 11, 2015 (Doug Haynes)

Indian Lake Outing

We had some good weather and good participation at our outing yesterday at Indian lake.  I suppose this view of the lake from the parking lot has been painted quite often but that's what I did again, of course, the light and clouds are always unique.  I did two paintings, the first in the evening with the sun behind the clouds and the second was painted quickly after the sun was below the horizon.

I also want to mention that Jan Norsetter won an "honorable mention" prize at the Mineral Point Paint Out last weekend.  This event attracted some exceptional painters from seven states and winning any prize there is a considerable accomplishment.  So congrats to Jan.

Memory & Painting

Many of you may be familiar with James Gurney's blog where many interesting posts about plein air painting can be found.  Mr. Gurney is the author of the famous Dinotopia books and regularly paints outdoors using watercolor, gouache and oil.  He has at least a couple DVD downloads on plein air painting with watercolor and gouache and wrote an excellent book "Color and Light - A Guide for the Realist Painter".  One recent blog post was a commentary on "Visual Memory" from Harold Speed's 1917 classic  The Practice and Science of Drawing.  I found the remarks about memory and plein air painting especially interesting and worth pondering.  You can read the post at the link below.

http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2015/08/gj-book-club-chapter-18-visual-memory.html

August 11th - Evening Painting at Indian Lake County Park

July Evening at Indian Lake

We will meet @ 4:30 pm for an evening painting session on August 11th at Indian Lake County Park (see Events Calendar).  I painted the pastel above one evening last month.  The prairie flowers are blooming and there are Great Blue Herons and Sandhill Cranes to be seen (and heard) along the lake shore.  In July I also painted the 2 pastels below near the picnic shelter that is on the left as you enter the park just before the main parking lot.

Cloudy afternoon view from the picnic shelter

Evening near the picnic shelter

Wisconsin Trails / Pope Farm

Last Wednesday a reporter from the Wisconsin Trails web site http://www.wisconsintrails.com/outdoors/sunflowers-dazzle-at-pope-farm-conservancy-b99547086z1-320291721.html was doing a story on Pope Farm and stopped to speak with some of our group and included a couple nice photos in their article. (See Below)

Doug Hayes

Tracy Wiklund and Mary McCormick

It was a very windy sunny day but at least 9 painters showed up and and 4 of us had a nice lunch at a nearby restaurant (Oliva.)  Very few sunflowers that day but they are probably gorgeous right now.  The prairie flowers were also beautiful.