Mrs. Texas is at the edge of a pumpkin patch, a big “patch”. Okay, a pumpkin field. We mistakenly thought it was summer squash, that yellow crookneck stuff that prompted a friend of mine to say, “‘Squash’ is the past tense of ‘squish’, and ‘squish’ is not a food.” (Right on, Ben!) But pumpkins? Yes! […]
Plein Air at the Lake
Krista was willing and able to meet me at the lake (Lake Kaweah in Three Rivers) to plein air paint, the very next day after Trail Guy and I walked on the lake bottom. Gear management is one of the most difficult aspects of plein air painting. What do you actually need? Paint, brushes, oil, […]
Before and After, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8
2025 CALENDARS AVAILABLE HERE. In case these before and after posts are putting you to sleep, let’s skip the chit-chat and go right to the paintings. SIMPLY HOME The show hangs until December 29 at CACHE in Exeter. Their hours are Friday 1:30-4, Saturday 10-4, Sunday noon-4. It includes about 50 paintings, 3 original pencil […]
Before and After, #3
Plein air painting #3 was the only one I did that day because I spent the morning trying to solve my easel problem. A new friend at the painting retreat lent me a pochade box, which needed a tripod to hold it up if I didn’t want to paint sitting with it on my lap. […]
Before and After, #2
This is the second plein air painting I did in Monterey. I set up in the shade by the path to Asilomar Beach (another struggle against that easel), and this time I was determined to do a better painting. This painting gave me hope that I might be able to paint plein air. It also […]
Before and After, #1
This is the first plein air painting I did in Monterey. We set up on Asilomar Beach, and I tried to concentrate on painting when I just wanted to put my feet in the water and enjoy the waves. Instead, I tried to paint while the waves kept moving and my easel kept fighting against […]
Plein Air or Studio?
This is Asilomar State Beach, the first place I set up an easel to paint plein air, which means feet in the sand, wind in my hair, hair in my eyes, and easel fighting gravity. This is my painting of Asilomar Beach, brought into submission in the confines of my painting workshop (i.e. studio). This […]
Plein Air Painting in Monterey: One Last Peek
Among the 100 or so folks in Monterey at Fall Color Week, there were fantastic painters along with rank amateurs: my work fell solidly in the middle. I am a studio painter, and this whole thing stretched me. I could go on and on about what I learned, but I suspect that if you are […]
Plein Air Painting in Monterey: Sunset and Sundries
Although I am still going on and on about the week of plein air painting in Monterey, now that Simply Home has opened, I will show a painting from the show each day until I either run out of paintings or run out of days. Each evening I ate dinner quickly, grabbed a to-go cup […]
Plein Air Painting in Monterey: Friends
As we spent time painting or at meals or meetings, we gradually got to know one another and learn names, although there was a lot of name-tag reading all week long. I met John Lynch of Toronto on the first day, so his name got cemented into my overloaded memory. John spent several mornings working […]