One More Indian Lake Painting

Here's Marla's painting from the last outing. A rather peaceful scene.

Indian Lake Sunset - June 11th

About 8:30 pm

Pam attempting a quick sunset

Nearly finished

My quick watercolor sunset

Around 6pm

Indian Lake County Park outing

It is a great location, with some nice views from the shelter itself. So convenient and lots of options to paint ! 

Indian Lake - Evening Plein Air Painting - this Thursday July 11th 4:30pm

We will paint on Thursday evening this week with hopefully much better weather than last weekend.  Looks like the last relatively cool day for awhile, too.  Sunsets will probably be hazy and maybe colorful due to the wildfires up north in Canada.  My sketchbook painting was a quickie watercolor done at sunset last year when we painted there on May 29th.  The other sketch  was from March 11, 2018 when there was still snow on the ground.  It's my favorite sketch of the lake.  I sat next to my car in the parking lot .  I remember how great it felt to be out there painting again with a hint of spring in the air.  I think painting or even doing just a quick sketch can preserve memories so much better than a photo ever does.  I really like the softcover Stillman & Birn sketchbooks.  They lay nice and flat.  These both have cold press watercolor paper; the Alpha is 90 lb and the Beta is 140 lb.   The 90 lb paper holds up really well with wet media and either ink or graphite.  They also make great hardcover sketchbooks that lat flat pretty well but not in the 8 x 10 size which I really like.  The company also makes sketchbooks with really nice smooth paper more like hot press watercolor paper and has choices of bright white, ivory and also tan or grey.  They are some of my favorite sketchbooks.  (Obviously, I am kind of a sketchbook junkie!)  See you Thursday!  Pat

Watercolor in Stillman & Birn  8x10 Softcover Beta Sketchbook

Watercolor and Tombow markers in Stillman & Birn 8x10 Softcover Alpha Sketchbook

New Life Lavender Farm

The weather took a turn for the worse on Saturday and so we only had about 6 painters show up.  There was a very light drizzle almost all morning.  We kept thinking it would end but it didn't. But it was light enough that we were mostly able to paint by using umbrellas for shelter.

I'm attaching a really nice painting that Marla Brenner did of the surrounding country side rather than the lavender fields.  I couldn't quite finish my painting on site but then worked on it at home.  I did try to include lavender fields but the result looks sort of weird to me. But I'm posting it anyway. I might title it the "Violet Rectangle".

Following painting a few of us had a nice lunch at the Driftless Glen Distillery in Baraboo.

Tom

Doug Haynes Painting

Doug Haynes is visiting Korea right now and even thought that's out of Dane County I thought I'd post this really cool painting of his.

Schumacher Farm Park - June 26th

My pastel on Pastelmat

Marla's finished oil painting

Arboretum Azaleas

It's been a crazy few months house hunting and taking care of a high energy pooch. The big Bucky ON Parade Bucky I'm painting for the MARC Center is almost done. Here is what I did with the Azalea painting I started last I saw you all.

Schumacher Farm Park - June 26th

It was a perfect morning for painting at the park.  It's a great place for painting farm buildings and also has views of the countryside; and plenty of shade which is welcome on hot summer days.  There are 2 barns and the big one (not pictured) is having it's grand opening on July 14th.  You can find out more about that and the farm at:  https://schumacherfarmpark.org/

Marla painting the long view from her hatchback studio

Louise painted one of the farm buildings

I tried to catch the morning shadows on the farmhouse

The chickens got a chance to roam at feeding time; they were very friendly and interested in us

Anne Marie biked 18 miles to get to the farm!

The chicken coop

The old barn

The farmhouse with lovely flowers in bloom

Donald Park Outing

Here's my painting of the rocky outcrop. I think I lost track of the value pattern a bit but I enjoyed trying to get the rocks to look "rocky".  I need to find more rock outcrops to paint!

Tom

Oak Knoll Donald Park 6-13-19

Today I learned to wait for the light. Three things I learned from Jan Norsetter: 1)When you paint in WI in June, sometimes you have to wear a full length down coat, 2) Stand your ground and paint, and 3) Paint over old paintings (recycle!) You’re the quintessential teacher, Jan! You teach by example! Thank you!  Pam Grabber

DCPAP outing at Donald County Park June 13

A great day to paint outside!

Nine Springs 5/22 & Azaleas 5/29

I decided to have one more go at the Nine Springs sunset pastel.  I struggled with the sparkly water and tried doing an oil painting of it and am still struggling with the water.  But it was beautiful night to paint and enjoyed hearing all the birds and seeing all the painters.  I did a little watercolor sketch of the azaleas at the arboretum a couple days before we went there.  This year is the best I have ever seen the azaleas there.

pastel on Pastelmat from the boardwalk at Nine Springs

Also on Pastelmat from the boardwalk near sunset

Arboretum Outing

When I returned home with my plein air piece I realized my flowers were all an intense orange with no modeling.  So, today, I scraped it off and repainted it with the help of a photo I had taken. This painting still has some problems, but at least I think the bush looks like a bush. But I still need to get Darya to teach me how to paint flowers.

Tom

Show at UW Hospital: Siraj Hull

From Siraj Hull:  I have “Elegant Writer Pen Watercolor Art Show,” on  till June 26, 2019.  The entire show is done with elegant writer pen and watercolor.  Below is a sample of one of my paintings on display.

Exhibit location: University Hospital, J5/1 Corridor, Madison, Wisconsin

Display on from May 30 till June 26, 2019.

https://www.uwhealth.org/news/spring-art-exhibits-at-uw-health/52726

https://madison.com/calendar/galleries/pen-and-watercolor-paintings-by-siraj-hull/event_7421e420-83f1-11e9-8c36-308d99b28df7.html

Arboretum, May 31

Gorgeous morning for painting! This area of the Arboretum caught the eye of several of us. -- Wendy

 

Arboretum, May 30

Sorry, everyone, cannot make it tomorrow morning, so went to the Arboretum today. Here's the result. Oil, 12"x16"

Nine Springs Hot Spot

Here's where all the action was.

Nine Springs Outing

A really nice evening with  a lot of people showing up.  I painted on the hill which was not a popular spot and then I had to leave a bit early so I missed a lot of people, but it was nice to see a good turnout.  And, wow!, that green really did look as bright as I painted it.

Tom

Nine Springs Park

The weather Thursday evening was perfect for being outside painting at Nine Springs Park. The light was changing fast as the sun began to get low, but I enjoyed the challenge of trying to capture the scene quickly! -- Wendy

4.5" X 6.5" pastel on sanded paper

Salmo Pond

It was a great spring morning to paint and here's how I finished my effort up at home. I may still add a fisherman (or woman) by the side of the creek since we saw one of each when we were out there.

Tom

Festge Park outing

It was really nice to see some fellow painters yesterday at Festge Park! The weather was wonderful and it finally felt like spring. Today I went back to the park to finish this piece.

Oil on panel, 12"x16"

Nine Springs

Monday was so nice it was hard not to at least try to paint something. I have a new dog and love going to the dog park out there. I hope she settles into a painting buddy. I was on the boardwalk at Nine Springs for a couple hours and also had wind issues. :) The painting itself has few redeeming qualities. I don't want the first of the year to be the best you know.

Start of Spring Painting

We've had a few decent days of weather and on one of them I went to Vilas Park and found this spot just downstream of the dam (where the muskie are currently jumping).  The painting is of a portion of the dam. And I can tell it's really spring ... had an unexpected gust of wind blow over my easel.

Hoping to get the first group outing set up soon but today it's snowing and so I'm holding off just a bit more.

Tom Gilbert

Finally finished these 2 Plein-air pastels.

It has been awhile since I posted so here goes. 

I finally finished these 2 plein-air pastels. It didn't take too much to tweak them. And it wasn't a winter scene!

top one: Summer's Oak, pastel, 9 x 11.75

bottom one: Spring comes to the Marsh, pastel, 11.625 x 8.625 

Out the Window

It's been rough getting outside to paint this winter and so I found a couple views from my house to paint. Here's a painting of Heritage Park from my front window and another painting of my neighbors house from my back window. Both studio works but I was able to check the actual views from my windows.

Hey, it's March and time to at least hope for some decent weather to paint in.  Obviously the cold still has a strong grip on us but painting weather should be here soon.

Tom

Winter wo Snow

Here's my most recent winter painting but without snow.  Unfortunately I missed getting out for the few nice days we did have with some snow on the ground.

Tom

January 7, 2019

I painted this in the studio today based on photos and memory from my walk last week at the arboretum.  As Jan Norsetter suggested I desaturated the color so the photos were black and white to help with shapes and values and I tried to remember the clolors.  I find it hard to make skies blue enough with oil paint so I think I will try again with pastels.   I tried to paint as if I was outdoors and finished in 90 min.

8 x 10 oil on paper

Happy New Year and Winter Painting Challenge

I hope all our painters had happy holidays and are getting some painting done now that they are over.  Yesterday I painted this in the arboretum.  Ok, I sat in the car but it is still a plein air painting!  To get the painting year off to a good start,  I would like to challenge DCPAP to post some of their winter landscapes whether they were painted outdoors or in the studio.  Happy New Year to all!!

UW Arboretum  -  Watercolor