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!"

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.

THE DPC takes in a Demo

Yesterday the DPC made a little road trip over the river to Willingboro, NJ and took in a portrait demo by John Ennis. It was a short demo where Ennis demonstrated his underpainting technique.





Working with an burnt umber mixture he toned the canvas and then basically did a modified wipeout. Ennis went a little further than he would in the studio for the purposes of the demo for the crowd last night.
Ennis stopped along the way and answered questions from the audience and then gave a nice slide show talk about his work and career as a national portrait artist and his transition from being an illustrator.
Will and Alina squint like good painters...

Ennis' painting gear.


Afterwards the DPC stopped a diner for some dinner and discussion about what we saw and about the issues with painting we all have gong on. then we parted ways in the rain looking forward to our next painting outing as a group.

Goodbye Darby Road

The DPC returned to our spot this week, though only Lexi and I made it this week. The bugs were not as bad but the day heated up and got hot by the end. I decided since the light was so striking to paint the creek again. Lexi decided to paint the horse barn.

Lexi blessed the days painting events with a bubble pipe.
Here is my initial wash-in, trying to keep big shapes and an interesting design.
Here is a shot of my palette, I guess it's really a primary palette, my usual approach is to look at what I see and choose colors that match pretty close to start off.




A happy Lexi with her painting.
Lexi's awesome final painting.
Here is my final painting, this was more of a race that last week as we got started later and the sun's position changed earlier. I think we'll take a break from this spot for a bit and move to a new spot next week.