Indian Lake 5-29-18

Such an awesome night. We were there until dark which let me get two paintings started.

Indian Lake County Park

Indian Lake County Park was surprisingly pleasant despite the thermometer reading! The shelter provided some shade and there was a bit of a breeze. It was nice to get out and paint. My second paining as the sun was getting lower was fun to do.
It was good to see folks out painting! Wendy

Indian Lake Outing

We painted yesterday evening at Indian Lake and it seemed like a mid-summer day already.  I did a twilight painting and then tried to do a nocturne.  I knew a full moon was about but it wasn't where I wanted it to be and was covered by clouds.  I started the nocturne anyway.  Intending to throw in an invented moon, but once it got darker and I turned my easel lights on, the mosquitos attacked me in swarms and I had to give it up.  But I'm still posting what I completed of the nocturne and hope to somehow complete it later.  The new shelter at Indian Lake is quite nice with good painting views, a firepit, and new rest rooms.  Might be a good spot for a plein air painters party at a later date.

Tom

Solo Plein Air in Lewis Park 

I did some solo plein air work at Lewis Park in McFarland this past weekend.  Wendy

Bucky

 

For those that didn't know I got to paint a Bucky for the Buckys On Parade event. Now I'm doing a painting of my painting as a keepsake. It's in such a cool spot. :)

Salmo Pond Outing

Had a nice warm and sunny morning at Salmo Pond.  There were still bundles of dead branches and stuff along the shoreline from their cleaning up the area, but I tried to paint it abstractly so who knows what it is.  It's just a spring painting.

Tom

Edna Taylor Conservancy, May 8th

I got there a little after 6 pm so the light was starting to look good to me. Nice to be out with the group. Thanks, Tom, for getting us out there again!

Waning Light at Edna Taylor Conservancy, May 8th; 8x8", oil on board, by Jan Norsetter

Edna Taylor Park May 8

I enjoyed getting out to paint for a bit!  See you again soon I hope - Wendy

Edna Taylor Outing

Had a nice turn-out for the first outing and no rain.  The afternoon sun was a bit hazy at first but improved later on.  My field sketch needed additional work and this is what I ended up with.  Complete with red-wing blackbirds.

Tom

Edna Taylor Park May 8

It was a lovely day to paint with the DCPAP. I found this great old tree with lively colors surrounding it for painting. I think I'll do a bit more value work on this before I call it done. I do have a title for it.
Title: Spring Alive
Medium: Pastel
Size: 12" x 9"
Trisha Duren

Edna Taylor Park May 8

It was sure nice to get out and see all of you. We had such a nice night. My values were close is the best I can say for what I left with. A few hours help left me with this. Thanks for holding the pose Trisha.

Plein air painting workshop June 2 & 3 with Jon Wilde and Jan Norsetter at Belleville Community Park

http://lsrwa.org/get-involved/program-and-projects/adult-plein-air-workshop/
This is a fundraiser for the Lower Sugar River Watershed Association. We usually have good weather but, just in case, we reserve shelter #3 near the edge of the water, so we'll paint rain or shine. The park is bordered by the Sugar River,  Lake Belle View and the beautiful surroundings of marsh and trees. I hope you'll consider joining us!

First Plein Air Painting Outing fir 2018 - May 8th @ 3pm @ Edna Taylor Park

We will meet in the parking lot around 3pm for painting at the park.  This is the first time we have painted there.  See website for details about the park:  https://www.cityofmadison.com/parks/find-a-park/park.cfm?id=1159 

Please note there are no restrooms in the park but there are businesses nearby.  So far the weather looks good and in the 60's.

No Spring colors yet

Maybe I better get used to painting in the snow. Here is how my painting from February turned out.

More Snow?

In my last post I said spring is coming soon. You'd think I'd know better than that.  Here's another studio snow painting.  A scene from Cherokee Park that some of us have painted before.  Probably my best snow painting of the winter.  But still, I'm ready for a spring scene.

  

The Ponds at Holy Wisdom Monastery and Salmo Pond

With the warmer weather I was able to get out and paint a bit yesterday at the monastery and draw today at Salmo Pond.  Today I went to Crossroads Coffee House in Cross Plains and saw Jan Norsetter's group rosemaling show and I bought one of her door crowns.  It is just beautiful as is all her work.  Several pieces including a cello had already sold and the opening is tomorrow from 5 to 7pm.  Beautiful work by Jan and two other rosemalers.  I think she is so amazing that she gets so much plein air work done AND all the rosemaling, too.  Makes me feel so lazy!  Tom came out yesterday and painted, too and it was fun to be out there painting again.  There were Buffleheads on the pond and a pair of cranes came at sunset as I have seen them do several times this month.  Maybe they will nest there?

Fisherman at Salmo Pond

Add caption

Two small gouache studies at HWM pond

2018 Plein Air Events

I was recently notified that the City of Oshkosh will be having their first Plein Air painting event this year.  I decided it was about time I updated the entire list of 2018 events.  Scroll down on this page and check the right-hand column for the list.  A link to Oshkosh's information and other events can be found there.  If anyone knows of an event I've missed please let me know.

Tom Gilbert

Bucky On Parade

Hey all. I have pretty much finished up all the paintings from last year I want to save. Warm weather can't come soon enough. In January I submitted a few ideas to paint Bucky for the Bucky On Parade event uptown this summer. I was notified in February I got a sponsor and two weeks ago I got to pick up my Bucky statue . They tell me mine will be at Law Park for a few months. I pretty sure this preview is no spoiler. 85 were chosen I think and can't wait for the preview party to see them all together.This is all so cool. 2 years ago I was the only artist I knew.

 

The title is Strike Up The Band and it is going to be a one badger Shake The Lake celebration.

Mountains at Last!

I just returned from a trip to Arizona to visit my daughter.  After spending my entire plein air life in Wisconsin I finally got to paint some mountains.  This was started plein air in the Tonto National Forest, just east of Phoenix, but then I did work on it some more at home.  I also have lots of Grand Canyon photos but the views from there are so immense and overwhelming I'm not sure I'm up for  doing paintings from them.

I have a robin visiting my back yard the last couple days so Spring and painting outings must be coming.  Soon!

Tom

Lake Wingra at Vilas Park

                                                 Two small gouache studies painted in a warm car.  

February 14 & 16, 2018

Lee Valley Road; 11x14"; oil on board; Jan Norsetter

From a lovely February afternoon when the temps were just above freezing. I went back two days later to finish it even though it was windy and cold by then. Never a dull moment outdoors:-)

Sugar River at Paoli March 2nd

Warm enough to sit outside and draw this today.  Felt like Spring!!

Lake Wingra Feb. 27th

Yesterday was the first super warm day - 57 F - so I went to Vilas Park to do this charcoal sketch.  It was super windy so I sat in the car.  I only had an hour so I couldn't do justice to the trees on the left which look goofy but they were goofy looking trees.  I used a black ink marker, charcoal and conte crayon.  Working in black and white makes me concentrate on values without having to worry about color.

Lake Wingra near Vilas Park Beach - 10 x 13

Tenney Park Winter Painting

Rick's previous post reminded me of how nice a place Tenney Park is for a possible winter painting of ice skaters in action. I'm posting two photos from when I was out there a couple weeks ago.  The one photo (with the large sky area) if from right next to the shelter building looking west. The shelter offers a nice place to warm up.  I wanted to do a painting with nice sunset colors through the clouds above the ice, with a few skaters on the blue-gray ice below.  It looked promising for a while but then just after I started painting the sky became totally overcast. That effort didn't work out but if the ice doesn't melt I may try it again soon.

Tom

Tenney Park

Tom you got me fired up to go down to Tenney. I haven't painted snow at all since I took up painting again and never outside. Granted 40 degrees plus isn't frigid but I stuck my easel in the snow so it knew how it felt. :)

I only lasted two hours but I did it!

Snow at Last!

Okay, okay, okay ... it's about time we put a snow painting here.  This was a studio effort, not plein air, but at least it's snow.  I'm hoping to get a plein air snow painting this coming week.  I was out at the Tenny Park skating pond last week trying to paint but it didn't work out very well.  I tried to start a painting with a panel toning and wipeouts but because of the cold and clumsy gloves, I had a terrible time controlling the wipeouts (with a rag).  I'll try a different approach next week.

Tom

Token Creek

I spent two sunsets here and just couldn't do it justice. It's still half plein air but not the good half, lol. 16x20 oil on canvas.

Gibralter Rock

Yet another landscape started on site. I am still working on the values in the center. What a cool place for an outing if it didn't take a half hour to climb. On a side note, I got my scooter way up here! :)

Stages of Painting

Decided to photograph the progress of this painting.  It's a view of the Mississippi River from Dubuque.  I did this this in three sessions: the underpainting / sketch, then the first pass of painting (I could have left it at this stage except for the very rough foreground), and then the final painting.  In the final step I decided I needed to punch up the contrast but in comparing it to step two I think I lost some of the mood and atmosphere that inspired me to paint this scene in the first place.  I never really know where my paintings are going to end up and it's interesting to see the progression.  I just wish I could go back a step when I overwork a painting.

Tom

Summer Dreaming

Sometimes (when the weather is terrible) a little summer dreaming helps get through the winter.  Here's a painting I finished recently from a photo I took while camping at Kohler Andre State park this past year.  Does it show that I repainted the clouds about eight times (I think it does).

Tom

Pink. It's like red but not quite.

I'm down to less than a dozen paintings to finish or fix. I don't throw many away like I really should. We had an outing at Longenecker Gardens in the Arboretum last May I'm guessing. I imagined something like this only better when we started. :)

The Exiled Sculpture - Olbrich

Started this last fall. Warm better come soon. My pile of unfinished paintings is getting thin. For those that don't know the story, this sculpture was commissioned for a lot of money and sat outside the civic center uptown in the late 70's. Some city leaders disliked it so much they had it removed and put in a much better spot. It used to be shiny but has a cool patina now.

Random Triad

Inspired by David's use of randomly chosen pigments I did a quick study with random primaries of the Schoebrunn Preserve in Door Co.  It is impossible to get that spring green with ultramarine which is a good thing to know with spring coming up eventually.

Winter Studio Work

This weather has made it easy to get into finishing/fixing paintings and not feel I'm missing being out there. I had a few commissions that plein air painting really helped improve my work.

Umami

Last fall I was heading out to the lake to paint and driving down Willy St. I saw this splash of color. I did a uturn, parked and got a good under painting done before the light was gone. I waited and waited to come back and get the true color. Photos did it no justice. It turns out that was one of the last days they used the umbrellas so I added the color here. I did my best to ignore details and just pretty it up. :)

Random colors

Here's something that I have been trying to get more familiar with all of my paints (40 of them!) and to learn what colors work together. I randomly select 4-6 pigments (with a random number generator) and then only use those colors. I typically do this with smaller images. I allow myself to add a primary if I say don't have any blues and the painting will not work without it. (But randomly pulling a blue) 

5 x 6.5 study. Watercolor on paper. using new gamboge, Quin Scarlet, Sap green, Mars yellow, Ultramarine

Derivative Work

A few days ago I posted a painting I did based on a photo I saw in the newspaper.  It was pointed out to me that this is what's called a derivative work because I'm using someone's else's photo, and since I didn't get the photographers permission, I could even be sued.  When I painted it I just thought it was a scene that would be fun to paint and didn't give any thought to copyright issues or selling the painting.  To me, it was just a painting exercise.  But, I agree, I can't say it's "my painting" because it's based on someone else's photo.  I'm always careful about this and have never tried to sell or pass off any derivative work as my own.  I guess I didn't think a simple blog post was a big deal.  But I've now removed the post just to be "proper".

What bothers me about this is that as a person living in Dane County, who doesn't travel all that much, I'm missing out on painting so many exotic or interesting landscapes from around the world.  I've always wanted to paint mountains, deserts, the Maine seashore, etc. and it would be nice if I could lay claim to ownership of the resultant paintings.  There is, however, one way around (at least partially) this dilemma.  It's provided by Google Earth which in my opinion is one of the greatest inventions ever.

It's so cool to be able to ponder the entire surface of the world, then zoom in on one particular spot, and then enter the "street view" mode and see actual photographs of views from a street.  And, guess what, Google has confirmed that there are no copyright issues with use of these images.  So I could sell a painting that I paint from a Google image.  But, still, since I didn't come up with the image, can I say it's "my painting"?  I think I'm getting confused.

Here's a painting I did a few years ago from a Google image.  No, it's not a scene from Stoughton!  It's from the Google street view of Rome, Italy.   Note I didn't sign it because it wasn't from my photo image, but I can post it and even sell it.  I guess it's a Google-Gilbert collaberation.

Tom

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year to DCPAPA members!!  Hope you are all staying warm and painting in your studios (except the intrepid Jan Norsetter who is probably out there right now but she is made of sterner stuff than me!)

This is a watercolor monotype based on a photo a friend took last Christmas in Lutsen, Mn.  I learned this technique at the Clearing in Door Co. this fall and have been playing around with it in the studio.  I like it because it is still involves painting but you get effects that you could not get with just painting with watercolors.  I've also printed some based on black and white sketches so that my memory has to work harder to come up with the colors and mood.  It's really fun to pull back the print and see what happened.  The paper is still wet so you can make little adjustments with a brush before you let it dry.  I've tried a few different papers and I like Strathmore Aquarius II.  It dries flat and is a nice bright white.

11x14 watercolor monotype-Lake Superior, Lutsen, Mn.

Winter Studio Work

I know this is a plein air blog but a lot of us do catch up on studio work in the winter, and as a way to get some new posts during the winter months maybe we can share some of our studio works.  Here's one I did today that was based on a November sky where Six Mile Creek flows into Lake Mendota.  Although this is a studio work I painted it with the same degree of "painterly" finish that I strive for in plein air pieces.

Please feel free to post other studio works.  Let's see what everyone is doing.

Happy Holidays,  Tom

Lodi Ice Age Trail

Had the last official outing of 2017 today.  And I was cold (!) by the end of this painting.  Those of you who are up for winter outings should feel free to use our group email list to seek painting companions.  Thanks to everyone for a good year of painting and hanging out together.

Tom

Last Outing of the season (?) Lodi Marsh Segment Ice Age Trail 2 pm Wednesday Nov. 8th

We will meet at 2pm in the southernmost parking lot on Lodi Springfield Rd. (you can see a great map on this site http://dnr.wi.gov/maps/WM/SCR/7880lodimarsh.pdf ) for the last scheduled plein air painting event of this season.  This photo looks like early spring but we should still see some later fall color yet.  I suggested maybe going to the Harmony Bar on Atwood Ave. after for food and/or drink for any interested parties.  Bundle up and come out and paint at this beautiful spot!!  Hope to see you there!