Category Archives: Urban City Scape

Dexter Nightlife

10 Wednesday Dec 2014

Posted by in Art, Urban City Scape

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Dexter Nightlife, Plein Air Commission. 8 x 10 Oil on panel. NFS

Dexter Nightlife, Plein Air Commission. 8 x 10 Oil on panel. NFS

I will deliver this painting to the Red Brick Restaurant in Dexter this week.  I was painting Night Visions at the Paint Dexter Plein Air Festival, and the owner asked for a commission of her restaurant.  I came back on the last night of the event to complete the work.  The temperature dropped down into the 50’s!  This was August!  I was not dressed for it, and ended up having to leave before I finished it.  I ended up with laryngitis, but thankfully it didn’t last long.  The laryngitis probably was due to all the talking I did during the event.  Most of the work was completed on location.  I added the people, benches and window lettering from a photo.  So, I think you can classify this as plein air.

Paint Dexter Plein Air Festival 2014

20 Wednesday Aug 2014

Posted by in Art, Event, Landscape, Oil, Oil painting, Plein Air, Urban City Scape

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I am very happy to announce that my painting “Paint Your Wagon” was awarded 2nd prize in the Quick Paint catagory at the Paint Dexter Plein Air Festival by the 2014 awarding Judge,

 


I painted 4 paintings during the week, and started on a commission. I could have painted more except we had rain Monday and Tuesday. I painted 3 evenings on Nocturne paintings. First time ever for a nocturne and it was loads of fun, except it was freezing cold in the 50’s.

The most exciting part is that all 5 of my paintings from the week (commission included) SOLD!!!  What an incredible week!  I had so much fun.  It was also a grueling week.  Standing  from 8 A.M. until Midnight at my age is quite painful and exhausting, but I survived.  We had some real cold weather where the temperatures dropped into the 50’s.  I chose to paint a nocturne, and I got a commission while painting it, so I ended up painting in those cold conditions for three nights in a row.  I developed laryngitis, but thankfully I got my voice back quickly.  The voice probably was from talking as well.  There were a lot of visitors to my easel.  One gentleman brought me pizza while I was painting at night!  It was YUMMY!  Dexter has great pizza.

Visiting Margaret

17 Thursday Jul 2014

Posted by in Art, Flowers, Plein Air, Sketch, Urban City Scape, Watercolour

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Mary and I went to visit our friend Margaret today.  Margaret is the co-founder at the Windsor & Essex County Plein Air Society.  She and I founded the group back in 2009.   She’s been laid up with a broken leg for over 6 weeks, and we all miss her.

I first got the watercolours out after having them tucked away since fall.  The pot was sitting in the shade, and lack of sun made it difficult to give it depth.  I should have put a cast shadow in, but I forgot.  Oh well.  It was just a quick sketch.  You always see your mistakes once you photograph your work.  I don’t go back in and fix my plein air paintings in the studio.  Why?  Discipline.  My mistakes will glare at me and hopefully make me get out of bad habits.

I also brought along my vintage Sheaffer fountain pen to try out. Everything was going swimmingly, until I tried to add watercolour. OOOPS!! The ink was not waterproof. So… I rescued the sketch by washing the ink. It was fun. Need some waterproof ink though.  There is no one who sells it around here, so I will have to go online and have it shipped in.  That of course raises the price beyond reasonable.  *sigh*  … and people wonder why artists charge so much for their work.

Ambassador Bridge at McKee Park

14 Monday Jul 2014

Posted by in Art, Landscape, Oil painting, Plein Air, Urban City Scape

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Had a lovely sunny day on Monday July 14th.  I found some more 8″ x 8″ canvas’.  I’m really liking the small square format.  Unfortunately, McKee Park is over run with Canada Geese.  They are quite bold, and will hiss at you.  I shooed them away, but geese can be quite aggressive.  My brother was attacked by domestic Geese when he was in his teens.  They left huge blood blisters all over his legs.  I was trying to eat my sandwich and they had me surrounded!  While I was painting, quite a few people came down and fed them entire loaves of bread.  Bread is not good for them.  People… don’t feed the geese!  Not only does it make them un-afraid of humans, they make a mess of our parks with their poop.  Did you know that one goose can poop out 1.5 POUNDS a day??!!  Do you know what that’s doing to our parks, lakes and streams?  When you cry that you can’t go in swimming because the ecoli count is too high, look around, are there geese on the beach?  I swear the Canadian Geese and the racoons are going to take over the world!  (Thank you Jack Miner, Walt Disney, and the bleeding hearts of the world.)  McKee Park needs to change its name to Goose Poop Park.

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