Plein-air work is work

I have still been working on my plein-air work., and today a great painter friend from Carson City joined me.  He said he was rusty, so we needed to get out there and get warmed up for the event in June.,as he is  a part of that.  We walked this a.m. out in the field to the north of the house, and found a scene. Here is my tri-pod easel I am experimenting with, and Ray is setting up out ahead of me.  He likes to paint the house at the ranch, and I just like the mountains.  Dealing with the very green foreground is always difficult and as its Early summer, late spring, there is a lot of bright greens!!!    Dealing with that is a talent learned over many years of painting I fear!!








This one is mine, in about 2 hours time, size  9 x 12, on a dark blue support by Colorfix.  I thought the dark blue would be hard, but I hardly noticed.  That is Raymond Peak with the snow, and the little irrigation stream leads you into the  painting.   The foreground needs more work, and some green color adjustments thru-out.   It was a good lesson and I am not sure what I think yet. I won't show Ray's work, as its his and he wanted to Finnish at home later.  We did another at the other end of the ranch, and boy, its just too hot for this early in the year!!   I need to re-do mine, but it was a good place to paint.   Here's  a shot of 2 I did a few mornings ago on the hilltop to the west of us.  I have been trying to do a least one a day, compositions are so hard to learn!!

Plein- air painting is not always easy!

Today I am going to post what I have been doing for the last weekend, along with  a couple of friends who also love plein-air.     One of the ladies I know is a well-known, wonderful plein-air artist.  She recently told me about the Tahoe Group that likes to have plein-air Sundays, then a small critique  with an artist who teaches at the college up there. That is David Russo, a very nice gentleman who is very encouraging. So I phoned my friend Carole, from Dayton Nevada and we met the group down in the Carson Valley. Trouble is, we were a day early!!  No matter, her and I went ahead and painted, and Carole did a very nice painting this first day- - - -I rather struggled, trying to get all I could it seems onto the paper!!   The next day, the correct day, we were again there to paint with these PA folks, and Thaleia  Georgiades also was there.  She is a pastel artist from California, belongs to the Sierra pastel society and is also the lady who has brought very famous artists to our area for workshops in the past.  A real pleasure to paint with her!  Again, I didn't do so well, but want to show you the work my friend Carole did:

This one just seemed to glow in the shadows!


                                                                                                                                                                   
And this next one is the one Thaleia just whipped out in moments.  We were in the valley , but rimmed by the Carson range of the Sierra Nevadas', which are really high.

 I was so amazed by how she drew this , making the mountains appear very large, as they are, and to show scale, the trees below so much smaller.  A great lesson to be sure.   The critique session was fun, and I went home with a lot on my mind.  Did some more reading , looking and studying.  I read Carlson's and Paynes' books a lot- - - -and also now the new Plein-air mag, which is wonderful.   This morning, I ran out from my home and from 8:30 to 10 am, I painted this one. I believe I am very slow in learning all I want to learn!  But , its a great thing to be doing.  We are all so different in our response's to nature and our world.  Each day I will be painting something, or at least doing the Thumbnails in my sketch book.

Plein Air again

This is a Spring time  Plein-air , size 9 x 12  , I recently did trying to get going again on My plein-air work .  Its something I love to do and it requires commitment . Now, this one isn't so bad, the valley floor was still colorless sorta, and the elevation is high and things hadn't begun growing yet - - -but warm enough most the snow was gone.  We did not have much snow this year, and it is getting hot now even.    This next group of rocks are on a sage brush hillside at a lower elevation, and different terrain altogether.  I hope that difference shows.

This grouping of rocks is above the fields  at the ranch in Dutch Valley and were in direct sunlight.  I hope the painting doesn't seem odd without the sky showing---we are looking down a hillside!

Happy Easter and spring is here

This isn't right!!  Geese don't lay eggs this high up, in a nest in a tree!!!  When the eggs hatch, the little goselings don't have feathers for a long time, yet they walk around and even swimm!!  This dumb goose is really high in this tree, I used a lot of zoom to take this picture.  I was out with my cow, taking pictures and heard a  noise., I looked up and saw one goose fly away, the other still sitting on the nest.  We had been seeing this, but couldn't believe it was a for sure thing-- - - but it looks as if it is!!  So the little geese are going fall from this tree, and it will be upsetting!   I will be watching this daily!!  I really do find this upsetting!

And its storming again today, too!

I have been working on this snow-y fog scene from photo's taken about 2 weeks ago.  We had snow, but also heavy fog coming down the mountain behind the ranch house on Foothill.  I shot a few pictures, then ran inside to start a fire, but keep thinking how could I actually paint the fog effects, and have them look believable?    I choose a 18 x 24 inch Amber-sand pastelbord in grey and drew out the composition and then slowly worked on this.  At one point, I placed a photo of it on Wet Canvas and asked for feedback.  Many good artists did come online and offer suggestions to help solve the issues I was having.  I really appreciated the feedback and tried to use many of the suggestions.   My main problem seemed to be values, and in this type of painting, where you have to work with close-values it can be diffeicult.  But this is where it is now, and I will leave it on the easel for awhile and see if anything jumps out at me to fix.

I believe Quits are art, too

This beautiful quil was made by sister,  Ardy Schacht, who lives in Yerington, Nevada.  She works so hard on these, and putting together the patterns and the colors are an art form all its own.  This is a sampler quilt, which means it has a sample of various blocks instead of a pattern using one block.   It has a very home-spun feel to it.  I just love it!!   Here is a picture of Simba checking it out.

He seems to think its swell, but he isn't laying on it for a very  long time, if ever!  Now I feel I need to work hard and make a quilt, also.  So many projects, and idea's and so little time!

finnished----for now

Well,  Now its all done----unless I decide to change something!   I will let this sit awhile, on a bookcase or someplace where it catches my eye as I go about my daily routines, just to see if anything stands out for changing.   I found out its true that if you place Nupastles in your freezer for a short while, then sharpen them with a hand pencil sharpener you can create a wonderful point for detail---if you need it.   I also learned that Nupastel is really GOOD on the Suede Mat Board surface, coming of as smooth as butter.    If I were a more detail person, this would really be good info!!!!   I wonder if I am?   There is still so much to learn, not just about pastels, but also Art, and finding your niche or style.  So far, I seem to love it all.