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!"

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.

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.

The Creek

Hello fellow painters!

Well after a week's hiatus from painting while I went back to Michigan to visit my parents and shoot some exciting images from Detroit, the DPC gathered again in our local spot to paint. It was good weather, warm, not too humid and the bugs were not as bad which was great.
Here is my blocking using a wash of Van Dyke Brown.
Will setting up, the nice shade helped keep us all pretty cool till the end.

Fighting the complexity of nature is a challenge and relaxing at the same time.

Jane working away...
Will making progress...
Here is my painting after about 90 minutes or so...I had to step on it as the sun was moving to really change it's position.




Here is my final painting it's 12 x 16 on a Fredrix canvas. I choose this because I loved that light passage in the middle but I had a little more time on the water--but the sun said the time was up so we packed up and hit the diner for lunch--everybody was starving. I hope we hit the same place next week.

Darby Road A-Go-Go

Here is my finished Plein Air of the bridge across the Darby Road Creek from today's paint-out with the DPC. We hit the road early in hopes of beating the rain that was promised in the afternoon, returning to our new favorite spot along darby road at the invite of the gracious host we met last week.
Here is my start on my painting. I kept my palette pretty limited until later on in the painting. White, Van Dyke Brown, Maganese blue, Cad Green and and an Earth Green.
Will and I set up along the river while the gals set up across the road in the field.

Jane setting up.
Our friend Brie from school joined us this week. Brie setting up far back in the field. This time next week I'll be painting in Arizona!