Summer 2012 plein air adventure

[Carolyn Karch]

Hi...

I guess I'm not to great on blogging....  I just returned from spending 8/10 to 8/18 celebrating my Mom's 90th birthday in Denver with my family.  We had lofty ideals of getting everyone out daily to do a bit of plein air.  My sister and I each packed extra PA set ups for our siblings to use, Mom has her own.  We celebrated her B'day with a picnic at Betasso Preserve in Boulder County.  This is a beautiful area up by Nederland.  We invited life long friends and family.  We wanted it to be a PA event, but we were too overcome with all the rebonding with everyone we haven't seen for a long time.  My sister and I stayed after everyone left around 4 and knocked off a painting.  Deer were grazing around us, and there was a rogue yearling bear that was annoying some people near by.  We saw him running up the slope we were painting.  A little drama.  I employed my Easel Butler for the first time.  This is a handy dandy gadget that will hold my full box of pastels on my tripod.  I have a magnetic board that I use for my supports so it worked into a great set up!  The mosquitos came out, but they stayed away from me with the bug spray.  This is the painting I did here....  I'm not happy with the foreground rocks,  actually this needs a lot of revision.  I hope to repaint this and do justice to this beautiful spot in the studio.My sister and I rented a cabin in Evergreen, and did a few paintings in that area. There are a lot of fox in this area, and one would pass by the door to our cabin each morning.  I caught some great pics of him on the hunt. Following are two of three paintings I did in Evergreen. The first one was the underpainting  I was planning, but I stopped and left it as is as I like the monochromatic feeling of it.  This is the first painting of Evergreen lake ...

The next painting I did right after this one in full color.  Similar underpainting, that barely shows through.... I see were I can improve this.... there isn't a path through the cattails in the foreground to take me into the painting, the midground mountains need to recede a bit more, my focal point is centered, and needs to be moved,  and the trees and shrubs need more development.  Hey it's PA.  I'm not perfect, this is my choice of recreational sport!!!  lol.   Actually I'm my best critic. (:

 

Mom was pretty tired from a whole week of entertaining all five kids, long time friends,  grandkids, ggrandkids, so she wasn't up to much in joining us.  We wanted to paint with her so bad, but there just wasn't the opportunity, and we didn't want to overtire her.  Also, other activities came up that were more important.  On anther day we painted in Elk Meadow which is also in Evergreen, we even saw a herd of elk lolling in the shade.  On that day, I painted with Oils with a palette knife for the first time.  I was really happy with this painting.  However... a rogue wind came along and blew over my tripod and my painting hit the gravel.  Drats.  It is drying now, and I hope the gravel will come off without too much paint being removed.  We'll see.  But I learned that I really like working with a palette knife.

We were able to squeeze a few galleries in.  We stopped at the Madden Museum of Art and viewed the 8th Annual Mile High International Pastel Exhibition.  It was a wonderful show, and a wonderful place to exhibit.  We also went to the Abend Gallery to view the Landscape Show with many notable artists.  My favorites in that show were Bruce Gomez, Lorenzo Chavez, Doug Dawson, and Tim Deibler.  A real thrill was visiting the Clyfford Still Musuem in Denver.  The second installation.  WOW what an incredible artist.  He is a notable abstract artist who influenced the likes of Rothko and Jackson Pollack. "Described by many as the most anti-traditional of the Abstract Expressionists, Still is credited with laying the groundwork for the movement."  We also stopped in at the Evergreen Fine Art Gallery- we missed the National OPA show by one week, drats.  But there were some AWESOME works being shown when we breezed through.  Beautiful Gallery....

Over 7 days we put 900 miles on our rental car!

I hated to leave Denver and Colorado, but I have a real job I had to return to today.  However I was able to get one more PA painting done.   I joined the Tahoe Art League for their weekly paintout in a beautiful spot in the Sierra Mountains.  The spot they chose for this weekend was at the top of Carson Pass overlooking Red Lake and Hope Valley. Red lake is a very dirty lake, it is in full algae bloom right now.  But from this view with the sky reflecting at this time of day you don't see all the yuck. Watercolor artist Dave Russo leads these weekly jaunts, and offers critiques at the end of each session.  What a great bunch of people to paint with. This painting, I feel, is my best effort for the week.  I still need to learn how to do rocks and trees.  About 2 hours spent on this pastel...

So this is my wonderful vacation in a nutshell.  I'm disappointed I wasn't able to do better, and do more paintings, but I had a wonderful time painting with my sister.

If anyone actually reads this, I'd sure been delighted for any comments, or critiques.  Helpful suggestions only help to improve my sorry PA attempts.  But Heck, I love doing this!

 

[chi le]

Hey,hey,lucky you to have a whole family to paint with.Your work is you truely you,that all is matter for now.

You will improve along your way to your best,that why i join this site and study from every artist whenever

i have a chance.I do like your mood and fresh.Just see more value and punch,you will be great.

I love your attitute about PA and you are so delight and fun to paint,you make me jealous.lol.