Veterans Day Car Show in Bastrop

It was a great day yesterday, Saturday, in historical downtown Bastrop, Texas.  The Veterans Day Car show was on and it was a well attended event.  The Austin American Statesman, story here,  says 10,000.  Hmm.  You can see the newspapers photos here.

Check out Joanna's beautiful flag photo, too.

I opened my Studio & Gallery and painted outside on the street.  I have never tried to paint cars.  You realize they do not have many straight edges.  It is difficult to depict the curves, at least quickly.  :)    I walked around quickly but didn't get photos from the rest of the street, sorry.    I really enjoyed painting and visiting with all the visitors to Bastrop and hometown friends.  Here is my effort followed by photos from the front of the gallery.

The Blue Car, original pastel painting on Pastelbord, 11 x 14 inches, Plein Air

I loved this view of the red cars, tent and the shiny hat on the lady, but it was a harder angle to paint.

So I picked this view.

The models were leaving.

The rest of the models.

The painting as I finished.  So many things wrong, but it was certainly fun trying this out.

The end, as I put away my equipment.

Gallery Notes - Pastel Paintings

I mentioned that Regina brought some paintings for my gallery. We have always had such good times painting together. I hope we can continue that. It is good for artists to interact and connect. You can see more of her pastel paintings on her website, Fall Shadows. I will put the one she brought yesterday here to tempt you to go look at more.

Nursery Collage
8 x 10 pastel
by Regina Calton Burchett
copyright with Regina

She brought some note cards, small prints and some postcards, too. You need to stop by and see the paintings in person.

I will take some photos at the studio/gallery today so you can see how nicely it is coming along.

The Bastrop Fine Arts Guild, in the same building as my studio, is starting "First Friday" in Bastrop. They will have their featured artist for the month reception. Other businesses will stay open until 8 p.m. and see if we can't get the idea working here. The Guild's featured artist for May will be the Bastrop High School Photography Students. That is great. Stop by and see the photos and all the art in our location and across the street at the Mercantile. I will post more about it tomorrow.

First Friday
May 7, 2010
6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
1009 Main Street

Bastrop, Texas 78602

My new painting for this and Cinco de Mayo is a pastel of some little girls that were dancing in Santa Fe, New Mexico, several years ago. They were so cute.

She's My Sister
Pastel on Pastelbord
16 x 20 inches

Scroll down for earlier posts today.

Worth the Wait, Pastel Painting

I finished, I think, the painting I started before we went to Albuquerque. It is a take on the New Mexican Restaurant we ate at in Taos. With my artist's license I made some changes. Not too many.


The painting is on Pastelbord. This board is made in Austin, check out all their products. I taped it to another board to put on the easel so that I can paint to the edges without getting down into the tray for catching the pastel dust or bump into the clamp at the top of the easel. (This video is on my sidebar about how I do that.) I put on some pastel and smooshed (official painting word) it around with a paint brush and water to cover the light beige of the Pastelbord .. I don't do beige. I was going to use watercolor for a change, but couldn't find them. I am 99% sure that I packed them, but did not see them anywhere. The main objective was to cover the light colored board. An under painting saves pastels as well. You don't need so many layers of the expensive pastels.

I was thinking about the bright blue tape, do you suppose that affects my choices in colors? I probably shouldn't use that. In this painting, it probably is OK as the colors are bright anyway. I was just trying to use it up. Hmmmm.


I then got into the zone and forgot to take more photos. In general I try to put some pastel all around and put some of the colors in all areas to harmonize the painting. I don't mean that I put bright red in the sky or trees, but I try to add some dark red into trees and some green in the shadows of the reds, etc.


In looking at the photo, the edge on the light green umbrella looks off, not as noticeable in real life, but I will touch that tomorrow and take another photo in the morning sun before the clouds come. Let me know if you see anything else. The values look pretty good as well. There are a couple of spots too dark in the trees and by the umbrella as I mentioned.

Worth the Wait
Pastel on Pastelbord, 9 x 12 inches

There is a post fence around the patio, but I didn't want to close in the area, so I left the fence out and added another couple waiting to be seated. I like the final piece.

While I was looking at the Ampersand page I found a new to me pastel artist, Joe Mancuso. I especially like his plein air pieces. He has a video of a quick paint out painting as well and a blog.

We hope to golf tomorrow. We will see if the rain cooperates. Rain is needed, I'm not complaining about that at all. It is good to get out and be somewhat active, though.

Acrylic Paintings - Figure, Landscape Plein Air

I went back to the view with the fence from the other day and looked down the valley. The fence is along the edge of the golf course on the left and the road is to the right in this view. I took my compact kit again, but forgot to take paper towels. I used one of Gene's old golf towels, but rinsed the brush every time so didn't hurt the towel. I only painted about an hour. The wind was so gusty, it blew over the easel at one point. My paint was drying fast, too. I didn't take the stay wet palette and had the paint on a Styrofoam plate so that sped up the drying time, too. It was an "I give up" situation. I don't know how Gene did thirty miles on his bike. Wow.

I painted this on the back of the painting I did last week of another valley. It is on watercolor paper and just for practice. I think I am about to figure out the palette for these greens and will try another "real" painting soon.

The view with my camera. There were prairie dogs and golfers around. I couldn't get a decent photo of the prairie dogs and didn't bother with the golfers.

Fencing, too.
Acrylic on watercolor paper, 8 x 10

The painting .. fairly close in color to my painting. The sky needs to be lighter near the horizon, otherwise I am pleased with this. With more than an hour, I might have fixed the ground colors and added in a building or two. I usually put red in the evergreens and I did put some red in the darks, but it doesn't show. Next time!

Morning Cook
Acrylic 5 x 7 inches, on canvas panel
One of Jo's Notions, $50, unframed, free shipping

Back at the house I watched golf (Tiger lost, boo hoo.) and finished the painting I started the other day. It is based on the restaurant from breakfast the other morning. I changed some colors and the counter, which I think helped the painting. My in house critic said it didn't look like the photo. The cook was reaching for something in the photo and I couldn't capture that to my satisfaction, she looked awkward so this is my interpretation. The photos were blurry with no flash, so I won't post them.

Has anyone seen the movie, Local Color? It looks like an artist's movie that we might enjoy.