Workshop and hiatus from my blog

This is my second post tonight so be sure and go to the main page and scroll down to see about my exhibit in San Marcos, Texas.

McKinney Falls

painted by Regina Burchett and Jo Castillo
Plein air, Soft pastel on board with pumice, 16 x 20 inches

I am attending a plein air workshop with Bob Rohm at the Bunkhouse near Marble Falls, Texas, from October 29 to November 2. I leave tomorrow. Is that exciting? I have not been to this type of workshop in more than 10 years. Bob Rohm is a wonderful teacher and we students should learn a great deal. Regina Burchett is going as well so I will have a wonderful art buddy to work with and remember with. We get together and paint as often as we can. We will be very busy with lectures and paint outings every day and discussions in the evenings.

This is out in the country so there will be no e-mail and posting on the blog. That part is a little hard to imagine. I'm not usually away from the internet for more than a day. Wow.

Even though we will be very busy, the country there is so beautiful that it will be relaxing to be away from our usual routine.

Please excuse my absence and I will keep a daily journal and report back at the end of the workshop. I get back on Friday and then on Saturday, daughter, Jennie, and I will be going to the Pow Wow in Austin. The family is getting together here on Sunday, so it will be a complete week before I post again. Please come back ... and check out my links and blogger friends while I am away. I will miss you all.

Exhibit, Tiendita de Chile, Chile Store Pastel Painting,

You are invited to:

Aritsts' Reception
Friday, November 9
5 :00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m.
The Walkers' Gallery San Marcos Activity Center

501 E Hopkins Rd, San Marcos, TX

(512) 393-8280

Hours:
Monday - Thursday: 6:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Friday: 6:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Saturday: 10:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Sunday: Closed

You will be delighted with the number of paintings, variety of artists and techniques you will see in the show. The Austin Pastel Society was formed in 1998 with a membership of around 100 artists. The exhibit of pastel paintings by members of the Austin Pastel Society will be on exhibit from November 2, 2007, through January 4, 2008.

We delivered the paintings below to the Walkers' Gallery in the San Marcos Activity Center to be in the Austin Pastel Society Exhibit until January.

Tiendita de Chile

Soft Pastel Painting, 16 x 20 inches, on board with Colourfix primer
Framed in a dark wooden frame with a linen liner
Museum non reflective glass against the painting, no mat

Full of Hot Air

Soft Pastel, 12 x 12 inches on Pastelbord
Framed in a black gallery style frame against the glass, no mat

Stuffed

Soft Pastel on mounted Colourfix paper, 14 x 18 inches
Framed in a black metal frame

You see I finished the pastel painting of the Chile Store. This is an in-studio painting or traveling studio painting. I started it in Las Cruces and finished it here in Bastrop. It is difficult for me to have lag time in between the start and finish of a painting. As I am working on it there is a mood and intent toward the completion. If it sits without working on it, I lose interest or momentum. I just can't get back to the original feel. Many people work on a painting and leave it for a long time and then work on it again. I am not good at that. I can let it simmer for a short time to see if I am really done, and decide if it needs corrections, but leaving it for a couple of weeks like this painting just isn't my way to paint. I like to start and finish while I have the idea fresh in my mind. I like the result on this, but I think it would have been better without the two week lag time. The painting was created from a couple of photos of a chile stand in New Mexico. The woman in the photo is from a completely different set of photos.

A little hunting....

For Scavenger Hunt 60:



#2, Paper Bag, a shopping bag from Foley's done with the old ZIG Millennium . I love that pen and it is about out of ink. About 15 minutes in the NY Sketchbook. I'm using that sketchbook just for the Hunts, but I do sketch for the Hunts in other books, too. Nice to change paper/media sometimes.



#3, Ad in Magazine. Ad from a pastel magazine. About 30 minutes while watching a Hallmark movie last night. With a regular old Pilot ball point pen.

Workshop with Bob Rohm and Cowboy Jo

This is my second post today. Guess I had better get on the ball and get something up about this workshop with Bob Rohm. I saw him do a demo for the Austin Pastel Society a few years ago and liked his style, so I think this will be a great learning experience. He also juried in a couple of my paintings into the Austin Pastel Society's show that year so that gives him points as well. I'm going with Regina Burchett, my pastel buddy from Austin. We have great fun together painting. Our styles are different but we can critique, talk, have comfortable silences and enjoy the painting together.

We will be at the Bunkhouse in Cypress Mill near Marble Falls, Texas, in the beautiful hill country. We will not have internet service, except for emergency but hopefully our cell phones will work. I will not be posting all of next week, but I promise to take photos, notes and share the experience upon my return. This will be the first time I am without the internet for quite a few years ... I'm having withdrawals already.

I used to go to the ranch with my Dad and not see anyone or talk on the phone for a month at a time and loved that, so maybe the quiet there will be good for my soul/heart.

Dad on Orphan and his cowdog, Snip at the Criswell ranch in 1976. A few years after this story.

The first summer I went out to the Field Ranch with my Dad on our own must have been when I was a freshman in high school. I had ridden my half shetland pony and other horses at rodeos (not participating) and around, but had not been a working "cowboy". We left Magdalena in the ranch pickup with a cattle guard made of railroad rails on the back. I drove and as we went down into Corkscrew Canyon I proceeded carefully on the curvy dirt/gravel road. As I negotiated a sharp turn, the steering wheel turned and the wheels turned but the pickup did not. The weight on the back had the front lifted dangerously up and the pickup just went forward. Luckily it was toward the bank side. My dad got out and sat on the front of the pickup to hold it down and I backed up and we went on our way. Good thing that you couldn't get up any speed on that road! I don't remember about the installation of the cattle guard so it must have been later or some company came out and put it in.

My Dad always got up before daylight to get a jump on feeding the livestock, milking the cow and fixing breakfast (and having a drink). We usually had steak and biscuits and gravy as I was not an egg eater, another story. He had brought out my pet horse I had raised in town, Nieto, and I assumed that would be my mount. Well, the first day he said I needed a more experienced horse so I rode Helen Major's horse. Good thing for that, too. We got out a couple of hours from the house and my Dad said, " Follow that ridge down to the next canyon and when you come to the corner go through the gate and I will meet you over the next ridge. After you go through the gate, drive any cows you find along and we will get together there in about an hour."

I tried not to show any panic .. what was a ridge? a canyon? How do you "drive cows"? My mind was blank and racing. He took off and I did too. How fast should I go? How long is an hour? I knew that horses can find their way home, so I wasn't worried about that part, but I sure didn't want to mess up my first day as a cowboy. I kept the horse going at a good fast walk and found the gate after what seemed like several ridges and hours to me. Went through the gate, I did have experience at opening wire and post gates, and started down a trail. The horse knew the way and soon found a couple of cows and started them down the trail. I didn't have to do a thing, that is why Dad put me on that horse for my first day. He was waiting for me at a dirt tank with a few head of cattle and we carried on driving them back to the corral at the house. I had survived and with no yelling from him! My cowboy life had started of swell!

This saga will have to continue later. I'm off to buy supplies for the workshop and go to the Austin Pastel Society meeting in Austin.

8th of November

I take Prilosec for my stomach and that is where I heard about the "8th of November". They included a documentary DVD in the packaging. I got it last year as well, but I forgot to post about it. There is no Prilosec ad on the DVD, interesting.

Anyway, Niles Harris was wounded in Viet Nam and 48 of his comrades were killed and many more wounded on the 8th of November, 1965. Big Kenny and John Rich got together with him and created a song and video about the day. It is very touching and a tribute to all the military that served or lost their lives in Vietnam.

Please check it out and see and hear for yourself. It has a great story and is a song to remember.

Scavenger Hunt 60, bed ... Lisa

I finally got a sketch done for the Scavenger Hunts on wetcanvas.com. I have been busy and ..... excuses, excuses. I worked on the Chile Store painting so did a sketch yesterday to warm up.



#1 is your bed. This is a 10 - 15 minute sketch in the NY sketchbook. I used the new Faber-Castell artists pen. I am disappointed in this pen. It is much like a Sharpie so, not particularly great for sketching. Oh well, good for notes and a quick value sketch, maybe. It didn't bleed like a Sharpie, so maybe I'm just used to the extra fine nibs now.

I was looking through the sketches and I like Lisa's so much that I decided to make a link to L. P. Boni. Her sketches are beautiful, take a look. She has a few blogs one for painting, sketching and a general one. Interesting. She is in Flagstaff, Arizona.

I will be posting about the workshop I'm going to with Regina next week. Stand by for that.

Plein Air Visitors and "how to"notes and more

You may have noticed that I still have not posted about our marathon plein air week. I will get there. In the meantime here is where we were painting.

This is about 4 miles from Aguirre Spring Park. It is close to the foot of the mountains. So pretty.



We had many visitors including this lovely tarantula. They look so scary. :) He was so fast I almost missed the photos. Put my finger down so you can see how big he was, about 4 inches in diameter, toe to toe.



This squirrel just sat and watched us paint and stayed there for a long time.

We saw many birds including a big hawk, but I didn't get a photo. We saw rabbits and roadrunners, too. The post below, October 20, has two of the paintings I did on the marathon.

Plein air painting is a wonderful way to improve your painting skills. You have to work quickly to capture the light. I recommend it if you can. Even to sit on your porch and paint the yard. Give it a try. Medium is not important, although oil paints have been favored over the years. I have tried pastels, acrylics and oils. I don't paint with oils as I am allergic to them. I paint with the water based oils but still smell them and get headaches.

Prepare your surface ahead of time. For pastels, I tape my paper to a folder made of foam core. You can have two papers in one folder and put some glassine between or just one paper and then just close the folder, clip or tape and it is protected for your return. Travel light, with a minimum of equipment. Hat, sunscreen, bugspray, water, etc. To try it just find a spot, a comfortable one. Take a few minutes to look it over and use a viewfinder to frame in the area or your fingers in a square. It is overwhelming to try to paint the whole outside world. Focus on one area you like.

Then make a couple of value sketches, just small ones to find the best arrangement for your lights and darks. Just 3 values.

Then lightly sketch in your scene with pastels or do an under painting with complimentary colors or any dark colors for the different areas of values. Think big shapes. With oils you can sketch with charcoal or do a thin wash for the shapes, acrylics, too.

Paint in your shapes, working dark to light. Plan on working no more than two hours. Keep it simple and enjoy your time out in the fresh air and see how much you learn.

A couple of plein air painters that are generous with their tips and knowledge are Ed Terpening and Michael Chesley Johnson. Michael is at the Plein Air Festival in Sedona this week. I wish I could be there to see all the great paintings. You can follow along with Michael.