August 29th - Holy Wisdom Monastery

Last night I did an ink and watercolor sketch at the monastery.  I had tried the Mariner's Cove site but could not find parking close enough to the venue so went on down to the monastery.  The prairies there are beautiful right now and the fragrance is amazing.  It was a beautiful evening.

Creek Bed Farm

I had a wonderful time painting at the Creek Bed Farm -- a sunny, but breezy day and... no bugs!  The view from the hill was nice, and I am happy I had the right format panel for it. Wish I could also paint the sunflowers, but did not have more time. Maybe, next year. :-)

Morning on the farm. Oil, linen panel, 11"x18".

DCPAP Annual Pot Luck August 15th

What a great morning for painting at Cherokee Park followed by a great lunch!  Many thanks to Joan Siebers, her husband and Maggie (adorable puppy) for hosting the group this year in their lovely home with a gorgeous view of the Yahara River.  It is such a beautiful part of Madison but feels far away from the city.  Every time I go there I feel like I've taken a mini-vacation to some exotic place.  Here's a few photos from the morning and our plein air work.  (So great see everyone and forgive me if I messed up on any names!  Just let me know and I will correct them.)

Cindy & Tom 

Cindy with oil painting gear

Newest member Jane Barnard - Welcome and so glad you found DCPAP

Pam, Ann & Doug....

....and Marla!

Pam seated under paintings by Joan Siebers,  Tracy Wiklund and Jan Norsetter

Rick, Cindy, Jane, Anne Marie & Tom

Some watercolors from the morning and an oil of sunflowers from our last outing

An oil from this morning on the banks of the Yahara River

3 more oils from this morning

creek bed Farmancy

Watercolor. Only did a tiny bit of clean up at home. 9  x 12

posted by David Williams

Creek Bed Farm - Sunflowers!

We had perfect weather, a great sunflower field, and no big crowd at the Creek Bed Farm outing yesterday.  There were other painting scenes besides the sunflowers but I decided to try my hand at a sunflower close up.  It's still a work in progress but I thought I'd share a few photos from the day, starting, of course, with sunflowers!

Belleville Park

Had some nice paintable clouds at Belleville last week (they didn't move away too fast). I showed this painting to my wife and she said: "good, so far".  "So far?", I replied, "it's finished". "No, it isn't" she insisted. She thinks all the green trees and grass need more definition. I usually listen to my wife.  ;-) but, I dunno.

Annual Pot Luck August 15th - Painting at Cherokee Park 8am

We will meet to paint at Cherokee Park in Madison (not Cherokee Marsh) https://www.cityofmadison.com/parks/find-a-park/park.cfm?id=1185  This year Joan Sieber's is hosting us at her home near the park.  More details will be posted closer to the date.  Many thanks to Joan for hosting us this year and to Marla Brenner for hosting us in years past.  This is always a really fun and well attended event so we hope to see lots of painters there!  

Next Plein Air Painting dates: July 24 and August 8

We will paint on July 24th @ Belleville Community Park @ 4:30pm and August 8th @ Creek Bed Farm @8am.  See Events Calendar for details.

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