FOG AND SNOW

...OR FOG AND SNOW ON THE SAME DAY......

It started out at least 51 degrees before dawn today. Yesterday was warm enough for shorts (this is still January). I'm looking out my window at snow still in the crevices of my roof. Its supposed to be sunny tomorrow. So it's a roller coaster - isn't that supposed to be March?

I painted a plein air study of this place back in October, and it was a complete dud. So that's what I selected to try again today. I used the dud study and my photos. It was a lovely foggy morning with the sun beginning to burn through. Again, you'll have to take my word that it's better in person. Wet paint is tough for me to photograph, and the sky is a orange tint instead of yellow. The colors are so complicated, yet light. Kind of like looking out my window today at the gray day, but with that streak of sunshine coming through.

Fog Lifting, 12x16, oil on Raymar brand board

now at ARTifacts Gallery, Florence Al, framed in silver and ready for you

FAIRHOPE ARTS FESTIVAL in March

Your Invitation to the Fairhope Art Festival...........I hope to see you there!

Fairhope Annual Arts & Crafts Festival

March 20, 21 & 22, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Downtown Fairhope

CELEBRATE SPRING! COME TO BEAUTIFUL
FAIRHOPE, ALABAMA
57th Annual Arts & Crafts Festival in Fairhope
Slated for March 20, 21 & 22, 2009
Spring time is probably the most favorite season of the year and it couldn’t be nicer than in Fairhope, Alabama, where thousands of beautiful azaleas are in full bloom. Come to Fairhope and celebrate the beginning of Spring! The Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce proudly announces the 57th Annual Arts & Crafts Festival in Fairhope, which is scheduled for March 20, 21 & 22, 2009. Festival hours are 10 am - 5 pm daily and there is no admission charge.
Over 200 exhibitors from throughout the nation will bring their best works to show and sell at this prestigious juried show. Live entertainment will be going on throughout the three-day event and unique cuisine will be served up in the food court. It all takes place on the streets of beautiful downtown Fairhope, Alabama. Last year the event attracted more than 250,000 visitors to the area. The festival chosen as one of the top events in the southeast for March by the Alabama Bureau of Tourism and it is voted as #14 out of 100 Best Classic & Craft Shows in the nation by Sunshine Artist Magazine in 2008.

It's a BIG show, so consider this:

BRATS (Baldwin County Area Transportation System) will offer a shuttle service from the Plantation Pointe Shopping Center, Eastern Shore Village Shopping Center and Ecor Rouge Place. All of the parking is free and the locations are less than a five-minute ride away. The shuttle ride costs only $1.
Web site at www.eschamber.com.

HIGHER

on the easel, midway

Higher Ground, 10x24, midstage

Higher Ground 10x24

Higher Ground is done in a higher "key" in artists terms. Partly it means not much is darker than value 7. In this one though, the trees are nearer to value 8 or 9 and everything else is close in value nearer the 2 and 3 range. In this one the proportion of values is the most important. I imagine most people will be drawn to the color because it's pastel. There's a challenge in making the most of a narrow range of values. I painted so fast on this one that I didn't take beginning photos, so you see it when most of it was accomplished. Using a palette knife and mixing minor value changes in the colors kept me so busy making decisions I couldn't stop and get the camera. Wet paint and the tilt of my laptop keep me from getting a good photo here.

This one will go to one of the galleries or with me to the Fairhope Arts and Crafts Show (Fairhope Al, March 20,21, & 22 - come see me!).

Purchase this one before then at reduced price- $700. Unframed on narrow gallery wrapped style canvas.

PICKY PICKY

Let's Go,startstage 2

stage 3

Let's Go 8x6, oil on board, $95

I do these small ones to limber up and to remind me not to get too picky in the details of oil painting. For me, it's all in the gesture - the silhouette - it says the most in the least manner. It all starts with light and dark. Without the dark there can't be light. The darks make the lights simpler. As the painting gets to the end there is a little voice in my head saying "picky! picky!". It makes me stop and decide to wait on details. Details lie in the paint handling, warm and cool balance, and light and dark balance. This one was done with a little but long nylon flat on a thickly gessoed board. Usually I hate nylon brushes, but the flat plain marks this one made seemed to suit this job.

A SPECIAL DAY

start 30x30, oil

INAUGURATION DAY

What do cotton fields have to do with Inauguration Day?

This has been a season of introspection. With the passing of Andrew Wyeth and today being Inauguration Day and New Years Day not too far removed, there is much to think about and appreciate. Just being able to paint what moves us is such a privilege to me. For the impact of Andrew Wyeth, several of the artists whose blogs I follow have said it well. Karin Jurick, and Neil Hollingsworth's comments stand out. Even untrained artists stand on the shoulders of those before us.

So here's what I finished today, Inauguration Day. I got the enjoyment of watching a notable day unfold, and the small thrill of completing a painting.

Similar experiences.

At least I think it's completed - what do you think?
New Season, 30x30 oil, $900

contact me to add this to your collection

Robin

lroberts@hiwaay.net

KIDS AND PEOPLE

sketch, about 12 x12, oil

KIDS AND PEOPLE

One thing painting plein air teaches me is the need to simplify. Somehow, more children have rolled off my easel lately. For our monthly class I designated the subject painting children. It was one of the largest classes I've had. We just can't resist painting the kids in our families. It does sharpen the need for evaluating what we see. Beginning painters are just not used to letting our eyes do the measuring. So the visual training in one field of painting carries over nicely into the other. My first love is the land, but who can resist kids?

We often have to work from photos, so that was the emphasis of this class. You can see one of the many drawbacks of working from this photo rather than life - the pasty color and too light value of the skintones. Still fun.

Has anybody painted outdoors lately?? Gee - it's record breaking cold and windy here in north Alabama. The next best thing to plein air painting is checking for art supplies. I enjoy the Judsons catalog. It appeals to the gadget love in me and gets me fired up to head out again. It's such a friendly catalog - has everything I need and those things I didn't know I need.

Progress on painting The Girls

One way a painting develops....

Prepare yourself - this demonstrates that sometimes ( many times for me) paintings go through a very ugly stage. For me it feels like making something out of clay -like taking something soft yet solid and forming it into the shape it needs to be. I enjoy the challenge - when it works.

first outline of the group, trying to get features in the proper place and proportion, not concerned with color of skin - the value is more important at this stage. Color of hair is not important yet - just the value. I see so many things that need changing - what to tackle first??

skin tones blocky..........features need refining! If you click on the photos for close up views, you'll see some garish blues - have you ever noticed all the colors in skin? It's amazing.

Finally I get a take on the mouth. It's just a short but scary tweak from an ordinary mouth to big sisters' glamour girl smile. It was looking really bad for awhile. And finally they get some clothes! And younger sister's face shape gets refined. Her silhouete was way off.

I made several sketches in paint and pencil to prepare for this, but the drawing for the painting went on like any landscape you have seen on this blog.

It was fun!

TIME FOR PEOPLE

nfs Gotcha, 8x10, oil NFS the Girls 12x16 oil

TIME FOR PEOPLE

During the holidays I had requests for painting "people". One request specified boys fishing and another wanted a painting from their photo that was very well done. This is unusual for me, as I haven't done portraits. But you know many artists enjoy capturing people doing ordinary things. I find painting people improves my landscapes, and still life sharpens them both.

I''LL SHOW the progress on the painting of the girls so you will see that work can look really dubious for awhile. I call it the "rabbit-out-of-a-hat" effect. Nobody told me in the beginning how messy a painting could look until it all comes together in the end. I really felt cheated until I figured this out. In the beginning I thought it would look pretty and tidy from beginning to end. Ha. I'll show you the messy beginning another day.