Friday, May 25, 2012

Return to the Delaware

Schools done and the nice weather is here so the DPC summer painting adventure is in full swing. Today the group ventured back along the Delaware river to the "Secret Spot" full of feral cats, blackberries, a few inebriated types with "Florida Chicken" on their minds and a crazy loud family who ended up destroying our set-up and trying our concentration an patience with their little dog named Doug.
We all spread out and searched for our spot to paint.
We hiked out onto one of the long abandoned piers which had a nice canopy of trees and great views, there were a tone of black berry trees and Alina and Lexi stopped and ate a bunch of them.
Soon we all picked our spat and started painting away. Will gets his paint on!
Lexi brought and old painting and used that to paint over today...
Alina concentrating...

David Wilson taking a cellphone break...

You never know exactly what you will find when going out painting in the Philly area, but you will always have drunk people show up at some point and try and help you paint which happened toward the end of our trip. This loud family showed up and tore down the trash-sail we were painting, they didn't even ask, they just came in like a wild bunch and set about being crazies--I looked up and it was gone. Next, what appeared to be the father of the group set about bring up large boards and logs and started banging on them as the wee dog and kids ran about screaming. You can see them running about as I paint....

I brought along the same kit I used last week when I went out and painted an Beaver Farms, and once I got my gear all set up I did a quick block-in and then with my Speedball roller and palette knife I blasted on the big shapes so I could then go back in and do the smaller work as the sun changed position. Things like the water changed a lot from the beginning of the paint to the final hour of painting, so I ended up repainting the water 3-4 times.
Goodbye cool trash sail! The family was soon followed by two guys that smelled like stale Budwiser, who spent 15 minutes trying to buy the dog from the crazy family,then crit and teach us how to paint as they made their way to each of our easels and inspected what we had and at the same time tried bargain for everything the family seemed to have by saying they'd be happy to trade them for the dog or some pot for some 'Florida Chickens", whatever those clucks might be....
Here is Will's painting, it was kind of hard to keep at it once our friends arrived on the scene.
here is Dave's awesome painting
Alina took a break before she had to leave...
Here is my painting and part of it was finished from memory after the crazies came. I was definitely thinking about Sargent, Sorolla and Edgar Payne, I just got a great new book on him this week. I had to force myself to slow down and think and not get distracted and either not really pay attention to how I was painting and get seduced too quickly by details. Having the Speedball roller is great for that--if I get too picky I just roll over that spot and repaint. Eventually the sun was too low and the crazies were too much so we packed it in. Next week we'll be back out to paint around the Philly area--so check back next week and watch out for those "Florida Chickens!"

Sunday, April 22, 2012

Painting The Delaware

Yesterday was one of the best days of the year so far weather wise and especially for painting, and with the need to finish a few more paintings for the ASE at PAFA the DPC hit the banks of the Delaware River to catch some sun and paint us a river. It was a mini-DPC group, just Lexi and myself this time, so it was a Mini-Palette meeting--but all the same rules applied---paint, paint, paint.

One of the things you find out while trying to get to the river in philly to paint, especially if you want to paint old piers and such is that they are not that easy to get to. So many places are blocked off or fenced or basically behind signs that say "No Nrespassing". But last year I found a spot and this is the place we went to. We walked out onto one of the long ago abandoned piers and found a cool spot. It seems like many people have been there for fishing and partying because there was tons of trash, fish hooks and broken glass.

There were so many great views here to paint I know we'll go back, here you can see the city a short distance away.
Lexi decided to bring acrylics this time as they have a lot less cleanup and maintenance involved, I brought my new French easel I got for my birthday last year. I knew it might be windy and so I spent time really making sure the painting was locked onto the easel. The weather report said thunderstorms by the afternoon so I knew the weather could change fast. At certain points the wind did gust up and I had to use my mall stick, a nice fat dowel of wood and hold down the easel and painting with my left arm--and paint with my right. It was a real battle a couple of times to keep the whole rig from blowing into the river.
Usually when doing a plien air painting I do a smaller painting, say 12x 16 or smaller, but this time I went for broke and used a canvas I made myself which was 13.5 x 39, so I'd have a nice panorama. Of course even though this was my biggest plien air so far, it still pales in size to some of the plien air paintings by Redfield or Garber.
To speed up the blocking in I brought along my speedball roller which was great for quickly massing in the big shapes--it's also great for textures as well.
As usual while out painting we had visitors and the curious onlooker come by to see what we were doing and what we are up to, this time it was a little different, we had a few fishermen and some families come through, but we also had the crew of the tub boat Virginia come by and moor right next to us as the crew wanted to go into the Wallmart that was right behind us.
The captain of the ship spent a fair amount of time talking to Lexi as she painted away, even giving her some flowers---awww. I just painted away racing the sun and fighting the wind as I knew any minute that thunderstorm could rear up...
Lexi paints away, emploring some ideas and approaches she go while taking a workshop with Ken Kewely last week.
A shot of my painting as it progressed. I was really trying to push shapes and not get seduced by details and thinking a lot about Levitan, Sargent and Sorolla and how they so beautifully took in nature and then designed it. There is so much they altered, changed or took out in their paintings. I kept saying to myself, "what does the painting need", "Keep it loose and big as long as possible".
A pic of me nearing the end of our painting day as the sun had now shifted a lot.
Here is lexi's wonderful painting, really great color and design!
Here is my finished painting, I made a few touches in the studio and scraped off a couple of bugs. I am pretty happy with this painting and it was great to get out of the studio after being basically a studio painter for the last few months, I really want to spend as much time painting outside as I can now that the better weather is here.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

The Dirty Palette Club Back In Action

After a spell yesterday the DPCC got back together at mi casa for an afternoon of jokes, goofing, art-talk and of course painting a crazy still life! It had been a while since we gathered in my house to paint, our last gatherings had been to see art or plein air paint, so it was fun to hang with the gang and paint away like we started a few years back now. Will did a handsome portrait of me and you can see an in-progress of it abouve.
Dave and Will have a few laughs...
Dave painting away
Here is our crazy still life setup-we called it the Two Towers.
Here is the start of my painting block-in.
This pictures is was taken as a little while later as I started slapping on the paint.
This is the final painting, I had to bum paint off Dave and Will as I left all my paints at school, so I will need to put a little retouch varnish on this to bring up the colors even as the darker colors sunk in a bit. There was so much fun stuff to paint in this piece, from the little Mickey head to the pig yp the faint blue reflected light on the wall next to the ecroche.
Dave's painting of my Lost In Space Robot.
Will's final painting of me. We plan on getting together weekly now like we did in the past to just hangout and paint in the looser and congenial atmosphere of the DPC.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Studio Incamminati Demonstration (Burlington, NJ)

Studio Incamminati and the Burlington Lyceum Hall have come together to introduce a new series of painting classes. As a promotional event, Robin Frey, Stephen Early and Peter Kelsey have come together under one roof to do a live painting demonstration.

Since the event seemed like a great chance to pick up a few tips and meet some new faces, my friends and I decided to drive in and check it out. The demonstrations were set up quite well, and those running the show held no expense when it came to treating guests with hospitality.

Daniel Murano and Kathryn Vaughan talking to the lovely Robin Frey.

Stephen Early's Figure Demonstration






Peter Kelsey's Portrait Demonstration






Robin Frey's Figure Demonstration