Plein air

Every October is the Brookville Paint Out

Brookville is a beautiful little community south east of 

Indianapolis, very close to the Ohio border.

It kind of sits in a little valley with mountains all around

and rivers that run through it.

This is the view as seen from the east.

Friday evening is painting downtown on Main Street.

This is the view I chose to try a little painting.

I'm workin' it....

Trying hard.....

Busy street......

I think this is fun?????

Street scenes are very hard.

And here is my friend Ron.....

Now he knows what he's doing.

Saturday morning....

A fresh start.

Lets go exploring and take some pictures.

The river is quite low at the canoe place.

Look at all these flat rocks.

I'm sure one of them belongs in our flower bed?

This is one of my favorite places to paint.

Trees, water, sun.... what more could I want?

Maybe a fisherman.....

or maybe some kayaks? Ducks?

Guess I better settle down and get to work.

Oooops. More distractions.

Our friend has a new paint setup.

Yes, we all agree, it's really cool.

This year we were staying several miles away in Ohio.

Which meant a drive back and forth each day.

This looks like a nice place and it's right in town.

The original house was built in 1835. 

In 1898 noted Indiana artists, J. Ottis Adams and T.C. Steele 

selected this site to set up their home and studios, 

where the Hoosier Group painted for several years.

Yipee. They have a room for us next year.

The next day.........

This will just have to wait until another day

or this post will be way too long.

Bye for now.....

Plein air

 A little off the subject this post..... 

I make a few things that go with my art endeavor.

 This happens to be my wood working area.

It's a little space I carved out in front of my car -

in the garage.

 It supplies most of my needs and even has a heater for cold weather.

 Next are a few of the things I've made....

 These are boxes that carry wet paintings.

Three sizes and will hold up to a dozen panels each.

 A peek inside shows how they slip in.

 This little number is from the sewing machine.

Works like a backpack and holds my stool, tripod or

whatever extras.

 Ah yes, this is made from Styrofoam and

hold the little panels. 5x7's and 6x8's.

I'm sure God created duck tape.

 I picked up this piece of equipment at the 

Goodwill for $8. As you can see, it holds all of the

essentials and is on rollers. Super easy.

That's my painting box on top. It carries paint, brushes,

turp, palette and extra panels.

I could put my stool on the other side instead of the 

paper towels. Hmmmm, good idea.

I'm ready now..... let's go paint!!

OK... so sometimes it's cold and raining out

 This is my ginormous easel.

 I've only done a few large paintings but I made it myself

so I saved mucho bucks. Very handy.

 

And this is where I hang out and create my masterpieces.

Chuckle... well I try.

All for now..... Bye

Paintings

Here are a few things I have been painting lately.

This is a farm just outside of New Harmony.

Small painting -  4x6.

Another small piece from the Bloomington area.

Sometimes I like to pick out a still life.

I took a picture of this at the Springmill State Park.

Mitchell, Indiana

http://www.in.gov/dnr/parklake/2968.htm

Unfortunately I need to do a better job at taking pictures of paintings.

I'll work on that.

This one has a funny story. 

It started out about twice this size with a girl sitting on a bridge. Well, I didn't like the top half very much so I cut it off and re-stretched the bottom half.  As a result.... judge for yourself?

Monet, eat your heart out.....

On that note......

Bye

This and That

After our class in Greenwood, a couple of us went on down to Gosport (yes, it's still in Indiana - very small) to visit a painting friend. Time to catch up and visit Nashville to take in a few art galleries. This is always a fun thing for painters to do.

Our friend has a pretty home.... of course pictures.

A corner of the porch....

Living room... looking into the dining room.

Kitchen is off to the left.

Dining area.

This little sitting area is just off from her studio.

She loves to paint flowers.

While there, we connected with a painting teacher who will be conducting a workshop in New Harmony come spring. This is something I look forward to all year long. Here he was doing a demo at the TC Steele historical site.

He is a very good teacher and I really admire his work. Take a look.....
http://www.toddwilliamsfineart.com/

That it for now.....

Bye

Paint-Outs

I recently went to Rensselaer, Indiana for a one day plein-air painting day. My friend and I went especially to paint at her grandmother's house. My friend had spent much time there and was anxious to paint it and maybe get inside to look around.

We decided to go over the day before and stayed at this beautiful Bed and Breakfast.

Of course pictures of the inside were in order.

Living room....

Music room.... I got to play a little tune.

Dining room.... breakfast was served and we were the only guests.

Now here is an idea for my daughter-in-law.....

I think she has one of these trunks.

On to the painting part.... got side tracked a bit.

This is the little house that we were concentrating on.

Actually, the light was much better the night before

 when it was on the other side of the house.

But we were here now so...... go for it.

And this is the little painting as a result -6"x8"...

minus the bushes that were hiding the porch.

And that was the end of our little excursion.

By the way.... we did get to go in and look around.

It now belongs to a law firm.

Bye now......

Museums

A trip to the Richmond Art Museum.
http://www.richmondartmuseum.org/exhibits

Painting Indiana:  En Plein View

August 22 - October 10, 2010

In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Painting Indiana Project, RAM will exhibit new works by Robert Eberle, Ronald Mack, Don Russell and Dan Woodson.  Join us as we rediscover the beauty of the Hoosier landscape from the brushes of four of the guys from the original group of artists who painted all 92 counties of the Indiana countryside. 

I went to the opening reception.

That is Shaun Dingwerth on the far right.

He is the Director of the museum.

I'm such a kid when it comes to autographs.

Thanks Don.

OK... this is my favorite painting.

Ron Mack's of course.

And this is in the permanent collection.

It is painted by David Slonim. Another Indiana Artist!

Look at what a simple, everyday subject he used.

Then look at how he uses sunlight and shadow to make it a wow!

Love his work. He also illustrates and writes children's books.

http://www.davidslonim.com/

The next stop on our trip home was a bridge in Portland, In.

Artists have to have lots of reference pictures you know.

I'm always looking for good subjects to paint.

 

On the way back home we visited

the Ceylon Covered Bridge

two miles northeast of Geneva, IN.

Then on to see the new clock tower in Berne, In.

This view is from the street.

Around the back...

the glockenspiel comes on for about 10 minutes every hour.

It was shady when I took this picture. 

 

Bye now......

Museums

One of the fun things to do as an artist is to visit art museums.

It gives me inspiration as well as ideas.

I love to look at other Indiana painter's work. 

The best place to do that is at the yearly "Hoosier Salon Exhibition".

http://www.hoosiersalon.org/annualexhibits.html

This year's winner...

Best of Show - "Out of the Mist " by David Tutwile

This is Ron Mack.

He is one of the painters from the "Painting Indiana"

book that was published about 10 years ago.

His painting is at the bottom.

This is his also.

It's a painting of his two friends.

I love the work this artist does.

His use of light and color jumps off the canvas.

These are a couple of paintings done by people from our own city. (the "Fort")

Photographs just don't do them justice.

You have to view them in person to really appreciate them,

especially the brush work!

It was a great day, with great friends.

Bye now....