Wisconsin River October 29th

The Wisconsin River at Prairie du Sac


Tom said he wanted some fall color so here's a pastel painting I did on Saturday late in the afternoon in a tiny park on the main drag.  It was pleasant even with the traffic noise.  The oaks were all turning dark red and I noticed alot of gold in the leaves on the way home.  Hopefully it will pretty colorful at Indian Lake on Wednesday.

Darya Vassina Paintings

Darya currently has some of her paintings on display at the Ancora Coffee shop on University Avenue.  The show runs through November.  Here's two of the paintings being shown.  I really like the rich textures in Darya's paintings.

As promised, here's the painting I painted at the lookout on Skyline Rd. in Peninsula State Park...

Fall Colors

Here's a plein air painting from a Madison east side neighborhood that I did a few days ago when the sun was still out.  I think our blog needs a few fall color paintings.  Feel free to post them.

Tom

Door County October 22 - Rowley's Bay Nature Conservancy and Famous DCPAPA Painter!!

Last week I visited Door County and while I did some watercolor sketching, the sketches I enjoyed doing the most were with charcoal and charcoal pencil one afternoon on Rowley's Bay.   I used a kneaded eraser as a drawing tool which was very helpful for rendering highlights and texture.  It was sort of ironic that with all that gorgeous color everywhere my most successful sketches were with charcoal.

I got a big surprise on Friday when I picked up the newest Peninsula Pulse and thought I recognized a fellow painter on the cover!  Sure enough, her name was on the inside cover and I called her to congratulate her on the nice photo.  She had attended a class at Bjorklunden that week.  Yes, it's Jan Feyzi!!  She was painting the fabulous view from an overlook in Peninsula State Park when a local photographer came by.  Hopefully Jan will post some of her paintings from the week.

Cherokee Marsh 10-18-2016

This was done with a plein air partner way down by the water on a boardwalk during a perfect day. Acrylic on canvas 11x14   

Lodi Ice Age Trail 10-19-2016

This was my second outing and such a great place to go. I got there early and made it to the to top the hill for this great view. I learned a lot about time management and not to leave so much foreground visible. I had to do almost all of it in the studio. Acrylic on canvas 11x14

Cam Rock Park Shelter #3 10-5-2016

Hi all. This is my first post on here so I hope I do it right. I am a group newbie but longtime artist. Plein air painting comes hard to me being detail oriented and shooting for realism a quick study is hard to call finished. I hope to loosen up and pick up my pace as time goes on. I am starting with acrylics because I feel they are forgiving and kind of like training wheels. I hope to graduate to oils soon. It was great to meet and have dinner with a few members and hope to do it again.

Lodi Segment of Ice Age Trail

We had a nice evening for painting yesterday.  I'm still struggling with trying to salvage my painting from it, but here's a photo of how it looked when I left.  Hope you're all enjoying the fall colors.

Tom

Bluff Strokes

I just returned from painting at the BluffStrokes plein air event in Dubuque.  It was a nice event, reasonably well organized, and with some great painting locations.  I'd say it was similar to Mineral Point's "Paint the Point" except Dubuque is a much larger city.  Dubuque has many old and interesting buildings and on the north and south river front areas are painting locations from up on the bluffs with great views.  Plus there are various places along the river front to paint.  They had a total of $10,000 in awards and about 50 painters participating.

It was unfortunate that, for the most part, the fall colors weren't out in effect yet.  The painting area included both Dubuque and the entire county, but in driving around the country side it seemed like maybe 90% of the roads had steep or narrow shoulders, such that it was impossible to pull over and paint by the side of the road.  But there were still many good painting areas in the city and parks.

There was a "Quick-Paint" and nocturne painting events.  Painters could enter three paintings in the main competition.  I didn't win anything, but, to my surprise, did sell three paintings.  Jim Faecke (from our group) also painted there.  I believe he won an "honorable mention" award.  And I saw his nocturne that was really an exceptional piece.  I had to miss the final day when they had the public sale, and the awards presentation, so I don't know yet who won the top prizes (1st prize was $2,000).

I'm attaching a photo I took of a cool river boat that Jim and I saw coming down the river from Eagle Point Park.  Plus two of my paintings that I sold.  I entitled the one painting "Distant Train" just so people would know those rectangular boxes were supposed to be a freight train.

Cam Rock Shelter 3 View

Cam Rock Park paintout.

Cam Rock park at dusk, oil on canvas panel, 12"x16".

Cam Rock Park 10/5/16

Small soft pastel sketch on Diane Townsend pastel paper

It turned out to be a lovely afternoon at Cam Rock Park.  I think 7 painters came including one who was joining us for the first time. (Welcome, Rick!)  Four of us went out for supper and I must say I was a bit underwhelmed by the pub but the company was excellent and we enjoyed Darya's stories of the Plein Air Conventions - she has attended every one of them!  I think Diane Townsend stopped making this paper sometime ago but I still have a couple sheets.  I believe it is Rives BFK with some kind of grit fixed to it.  It was nice paper but Rives BFK is fine for pastels just as it is, too.  

Plein Air Painting October 5th - Cam Rock Park

View from Parking area #3

Shelter at Parking area #3

We will meet here at Parking area #3 at 3:30 pm for painting until dusk and go for supper after.  I think last year we ate at the Keystone Grill in Cambridge and it was really good.  Does anyone remember?  We can figure it out on Wed.  I think these photos are from spring so hopefully it will have a bit more color now although the grass is still SO green from all the rain.