First Plein Air Outing of 2017 - UW Arboretum - Logenecker Horticultural Garden

DCPAPA had a great turnout today. I think I counted 14 painters and 4 of those were painting with us for the first time!  Welcome, Kitty, Gina, Jeanne, and Sarah!!  The crabapples were blooming and the weather was just about perfect so it was very pleasant painting today.  Darya stopped by on her way to pick up her kids and said she had been out painting a lot this spring and hopefully we'll see her next time and it will be warm enough for us to paint in the morning. And hopefully she will be posting some of her work soon, too.  It was a great way to start the painting season!!

Kitty and Gina

Gretchen and Gina

Jan Norsetter

Rick and Gretchen

Mary and her watercolor set up and Gina and Jeanne

Gretchen and Trisha deciding if Trisha's oil painting is finished 

Kung, Trisha and Jeanne 

My 9 x 12 watercolor on Arches 140 lb cold press

Sketching Group in Madison

Sketchers on the left and Raging Grannies singing on the right at Dane Co. Farmer's Market

Brittingham Boats

Union Terrace

                     Urban Sketcher roughing it on a cold winter's day in the Reading Room at the State Historical Society

The people in these photos are having almost as much fun as plein air painters do but usually in more comfortable conditions.  They are the members of Urban Sketchers Madison https://drawmadison.blogspot.com/ a regional Chapter of the international group called Urban Sketchers www.urbansketchers.org/ which is 10 years old this year.  We meet usually twice a month to sketch together for a couple hours and share our sketches and experiences with each other and we would like to invite anyone with an interest in drawing from life to join us.  You can find our schedule by clicking Events on our blog.  For several years we sketched as members of Draw Madison a local group inspired by Urban Sketchers to draw in our community and wherever we traveled.  In 2016 we were invited to apply to for Regional Chapter status in Urban Sketchers and we have been Urban Sketchers Madison since then.  Urban Sketching is a lot like plein air painting in that we are working from what we see in front of us in whatever is the medium of our choice.  And we paint outdoors as much as the weather permits and find cozier places when it is cold or rainy outdoors.  We invite anyone who is interested to come sketch with us.  There are no dues and no experience necessary.  If you have a question please feel free to contact me at pwafer@charter.net.

Date Changed to Wed. May 3rd a@ 2pm - Plein Air Painting at the UW Arboretum

Lilacs and crab apple trees will be in bloom in the Longenecker Horticultural Garden at the UW Arboretum on Wednesday May 3rd for our first outing.  This is a change due to poor weather conditions on Tuesday.  Wed. afternoon should be warmer and hopefully we will see some sun.  We will meet at 2pm in the main parking lot by the Visitor's Center which will be open until 4pm.  The restroom and bubbler in the horticultural garden is now open for the season.  Curtis Prairie was recently burned as part of prairie maintenance and is looking fresh and green now.  Looking forward to seeing you all again this year!!

BB Clarke Beach

It's that time of year again. Finding cool a cool spot to paint is half the fun. It just gets hard after that, lol. I enjoyed getting sunburnt at the beach. I'm going add a person or two as well. Looks like I'll be finishing the color here.

Out and about again

It's been wonderful to be able to go outside and paint after a dreary winter. Hungry for color I get greedy and want to paint it all. Started last week with painting a swamp though and gradually moved to brighter subjects. Here's a few very quick sketches  done in the past week at the Arboretum, Pheasant branch and Picnic Point.

Holy Wisdom Monastery

Spring greens at the monastery's pond

My first plein air oil painting of the year

It was great to get out Friday afternoon and push some paint around.  I am hoping to do a lot more painting in oils this summer so it felt good to get them out again as I haven't done an oil painting in many months. The wood ticks are always bad at the monastery and sure enough one came home with me in my hair.  Yuck!  Not my favorite part of being a plein air painter!!  I signed up for a class with Jan Norsetter and Jon Wilde for June 3rd www.lsrwa.org/get-involved/program-and-projects/adult-plein-air-workshop/ and another with Jan at Whispering Woodlands http://www.whispering-woodlands.com/id192.html in August.  Kyle Martin kyle-martin.blogspot.com/ has a 3 day plein air workshop coming up April 28 thru 30.  Not sure if that has filled up or not yet.  It was a bit too much walking for me but Kyle does great workshops and I always learn a lot in those.  It is so much fun to paint those spring greens but the do not last long enough.

Upcoming Show: Jan Norsetter

New Works at Zazen Gallery in Paoli, WI

opening reception April 21, 2017

Jan's opening reception is this Friday from 5 to 7 pm at Zazen in Paoli.

Rare photo from our archives of Jan with her feet up!

DCPAPA: Springtime for Plein Air Painters!!

Tom Gilbert in action!

It's that time again.  Our first outing will be on May 2nd with following painting dates on May 16 & 25.  We will post the time and locations soon!!  If any members have photos of their paintings or notices, etc they would like to post and are not yet a blog author please email me for more information.  We love to have our members work posted here.  Also if there are any plein air shows or events you want us to know about just let me or Tom know.  My email is: pwafer@charter.net   Pat 

Jonathan Wilde: Mostly From My Collection - at the Monroe Art Center, Monroe WI

Carolyn Liedtke Exhibit

J. Carolyn Liedtke was born and raised in Chicago, now lives in rural Wisconsin, enjoying the ever-changing landscapes and colorful creatures that inspire her paintings, mostly done on location. She studied fine arts at the School of the Art Institute, the American Academy of Art, and was inspired by a series of plein air watercolor workshops at Oakton Community College. She is a founding member and past president of the Illinois Watercolor Society and is now affiliated with several Wisconsin arts alliances and plein air painting groups. She has coordinated art exhibits for the Wisconsin Regional Arts Association and for many years wrote weekly articles on the Art Scene for local newspapers. She has also written an illustrated e-book, “Watercolor Journeys,” available on Kindle and the Apple ArtsStore.  See galleries of paintings on her website: www.keyartworks.com.

My show of 26 oil and pastel paintings is at Bethel Lutheran Church in Madison,WI through April 16.  With the exception of the one abstract oil, everything is or was painted from a plein air piece. The largest (36 x 48) was inspired by a 3" x 5" pastel plein air sketch.  The portrait sketches are from our weekly figure painting group (Mon. nights) at Winnebago Studios on the east side (Phil Salamone, Atwood Atelier).  Thurs and Sat. morning sessions are also open.    John Mix

DCPAPA Exhibit

Another February Warm Spell Painting

Here's a painting showing the black ice on a pond in Edna Taylor Park.

Lake Monona 2-22-17

I would have been mad at myself for not getting out during this warm spell. The ice was melting as fast as I painted it.

Near St. Augustine

I forget the name of this park. It was neat and the first place I sat and painted. It turned out to be the least memorable but it was a nice quiet sit. I swear the water didn't look blue when I was there, lol.

March in Colorado

Like many of you, I've been craving winter this year. Finally, last weekend, I found winter, in Aspen, Co. Here's a quick morning painting I did in Aspen Meadows. Wish I had a few more days to spend there!

Aspen Meadows, oil, 12"x16"

I took my easel to Florida

I hope everyone is having a good winter. I just remembered my password and see you guys have been busy. I've been practicing from photos this winter but went to Florida for a few weeks in January. Here is the first one I finished. I went back to this spot a few days and just dabbled because it was a great place to hang out. I look forward to browsing through what I've missed here.

Fake Winter Painting

This is a painting I did at Indian Lake on February 22nd, so it must be a winter painting.  But it was 68 degrees with no snow.  So I'm calling it a fake winter painting (where have I heard that before?).  I may have got a bit sloppy with this one but I think it somewhat captures the atmosphere of the day.

Tom

Indian Lake County Park

This was the sunset tonight at Indian Lake County Park.  It looks like they are building a new shelter and more substantial restroom building.  I painted this 6x6 gouache on Ampersand Aquaboard while I sat and listened to cranes, geese and Red-winged blackbirds.  

Trisha Duren Art Show

Summer Painting Completed

On August 4th we had a group outing at Pheasant Branch that was cut short by a thunderstorm.  I had, however, managed to complete an underpainting. After having that underpainting on my shelf for months I just finished it (with an invented sky and light effects).  With this dreary, wet weather we've been having it's nice to recall some summer scenes by painting.

Tom

Madison WRAP show and workshop

The Madison WRAP show is fast approaching! Registration deadline is Friday Jan 20, 2017. Artwork will be exhibited at the UW Pyle Center Feb 25 - April 8. Workshop is at the Pyle Center on Saturday April 8 (9am-3:30pm). To register online, go to: http://continuingstudies.wisc.edu/…/wisco…/wrap-schedule.htm and send your $30 registration check (payable to Vina Yang) to Vina Yang, 3423 Ice Age Ln, Verona WI 53593. Registration and payment must be made by Jan 20.

This year's workshop guest Judge and Speaker is multifaceted artist Chuck Bauer. Chuck has a BFA in Fine Arts and MA in Painting and is also the retired president, co-owner and co-founder (1972) of Madison's popular retail store, The Soap Opera, on State Street. Chuck is well known for his plein air paintings which often focus on familiar Wisconsin rural scenes as well as on traditional urban neighborhood architectures. Wherever he goes, he likes to keep his painting supplies close by and works on small canvases whenever a worthy subject appears. Chuck says his early training as an abstract painter today fuels his approach to realistic topics. He likes to use color expressively and likes techniques that convey nostalgia and tranquility. Chuck strives for solid composition but also values playful and sometimes unexpected results. Besides working in oil and acrylics, he is successful in watercolor, India ink washes, and fired ceramic art tiles. Chuck has participated in 14 one-man shows and 14 juried exhibitions in the Dane County area since 1991 and his work has been shown in 12 Wisconsin galleries. He has been a past instructor at the Green Lake Studio Workshop.

Plein air indoors

 We've had only a couple of snowy days this winter so far. Before this wood made its way into the fireplace I simply had to paint it!

Firewood, oil on canvas panel, 16"x20"

Sugar River @ Monroe Arts Center February 3rd - March 24th

Here's a landscape painting show well worth the trip to Monroe.  Jan Norsetter will have work in it.  Any other DCPAPA painters showing work in this one?  It was an excellent show last year and I look forward to seeing this one.  

Goodbye to November

With fewer plein air outings in the last month I've been catching up on finishing paintings I've had sitting around for some time.  And here's one that I think has a nice November feel about it.  Thought I'd get this in before we switch to snow paintings.

Tom Gilbert

Urban Sketchers Madison

Here are links to the blogs for the regional chapter in Madison and the international sketching group, Urban Sketchers: drawmadison.blogspot.com., www.urbansketchers.org/  .  I'm one of the administrators for the Madison group and we sketch on the 2nd Sunday of the month (except December) and occasional Saturdays as well.  Our schedule can be found on the Events calendar on our blog.  Our group began in 2011 and was called Draw Madison until last spring when we were invited to join Urban Sketchers as a regional chapter.  The group is open to anyone who likes to draw from life and there are no dues.  In warm weather we like to sketch outdoors but in winter we sketch in places like coffee shops, museums and Olbrich Garden's conservatory.  Sketchers use a variety of mediums from graphite and ink to watercolor and soft pastel.  It is much like plein air painting in that we draw from life what is going on around us.   Check out the Urban Sketchers blog to see interesting sketches from all over the globe.  Next summer the annual symposium for Urban Sketchers will be held in Chicago July 25-29.  It has not been in the US since the first one was held in Portland in 2010 so we are pretty excited and looking forward to meeting some of our favorite artists and attending their workshops. We hope you will join us sometime this winter when it's too cold to be painting en plein air! 

Tenney Park 11-7-16

I just got my new easel in the mail on Monday and had to go out for a bit. I'm an oil painter now. It's official, lol. Anyway I managed to get out late and get a good start. I learned a lot that will speed me up next time at home. This has about six hours into it.

Warner Park 10-19-16

I may as well post this too. I did double duty this day. We went to Lodi this day I think. This was done at Warner Park last month. 11x14 acrylic on canvas

Indian Lake 11-3-16

Here is my painting from Indian Lake. I got there early and the sun was overhead and the water just wasn't colorful. I went down in the valley and found a really cool spot. I thought sure I'd see deer. This was my first try at oils in the field. They say when you can't get it keep adding paint? Anyway I did that and made it a knife painting mostly.

Indian Lake Paintings

Here's not only my painting from last Thursday but another Indian Lake view painted in September.  The latter is the view of the hillside above the lake from the smaller parking lot at the other end of the lake (by the dog park area).  Both of these started as plein air but also had substantial studio finishing.  Last Thursday I just ran out of time as the light disappeared quicker than I expected for an afternoon start.

I normally stop the group outings about now but if this weather continues we may be able to do one more.  Regardless, over the winter I expect many of you will still be getting out occasionally and please feel free to post your paintings.  I also want to thank all of you who came out and painted and made this a successful year for the group.  And I'll contact everyone again next spring to continue the group outings.

Tom Gilbert

Fall colors

Arboretum, oil, 12"x16".

Here's some fall colors from an outing to the Arboretum a couple of weeks ago. Unfortumetely, I won't be able to join the group today at the Indian lake.

Plein Air Painting Nov. 3rd

We will paint this Thursday Nov. 3rd at Indian Lake. (Changed from Wed. due to weather forecast).  Meet at 3pm in the main parking lot.