Lisa's Art

More Plein Air and the new mirror

2012-02-14T07:25:00.000-08:00

This is gettting to be too much fun. I started this 9x12 piece yesterday morning and am really close to finishing. Again, I only paint from 5:30 to 6:30am each morning, so it goes pretty fast. I let the painting sit for at least a couple of days, just in case I see something that I want to change. This is the road to Charles Dayton's ranch again. In fact coming up on the barns.

The most fun is coming back on the second day to add sky back into the trees. The plein air folks do this while still on site, so I need to get more aggressive with loading paint onto my brush and dealing with wet paint. Plein air painters go through a lot of paint and layer it on the board without mixing with what is already there. This is an art and takes practice.

THE MIRROR
We remodeled this home last year and I haven't had a mirror in this studio until last week. Paul built this mirror for me so I can see what I am painting from a distance--the mirror tilts as well as rotates. You attach a small mirror next to your piece and line up with the large mirror across the room. This allows you to look into your little mirror and see what you are doing from a distance. The camera is pointed into the little mirror attached to my easel, so you can see what I see while painting. It is adjusted based on the heighth of the artist.

When you paint too close to your piece for so long, you can lose the concept of what you are painting. You get too caught up in the details and forget the "big picture". This way, you see the lights and darks and how the shapes fit with each other--and whether your piece is doing what you expected. You can't do this while plein air painting...outdoors you step back from your painting often. In a small studio, or even a large one, this saves time and allows you to instantly correct what you see as wrong.

Recent Work

2012-02-07T07:31:00.000-08:00

I have participated in the Cokeville, Wyoming Minerva Teichert festival for the last two years. Plein Air painting is a must in the Cokeville area. Capturing the character in the trees is key in much of the scenery. The cottonwoods appear to take on their own personality and the painters express this in their pieces.

I have done a bit of plein air, but am still working on capturing those cottonwoods. I've pulled some of my photographs from the last visit and am working through them. I hope with practice I can feel more comfortable portraying them next year.

This first piece is on an 11x14 board. This scene is driving out to a ranch just North of Cokeville--This is Charles Dayton's family ranch. Charles is an incredible Western Painter and promotes the festival each year:

This second piece is on an 8x10 canvas

This last piece is on a tiny 5x7 canvas I found at a second-hand store here in St. George. The trees are the same as those in the painting above, with a bit of variation--also "landscape" versus "portrait":

St. George Susquicentennial - Arts to Zion Studio Tour

2012-01-18T07:48:00.000-08:00

The studio tour was a success. I had between 50 and 60 people tour my home and studio. It was fun to see friends, old and new.

The whole event was Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Nine other home studios were open for the tour, and about 30 other artists were represented at local galleries around the Saint George area. The Saint George Art Center was also open all weekend, presenting workshops, art demonstrations, and lectures. In addition, there was a silent art auction, and "Desert to a Dream" art contest, and the Zion's bank sponsored an art show in their "Staircase Gallery". I submitted entries to all three. I do not know the outcome of the Zion's bank show, but my painting in the silent auction sold, and I won first place in the "Desert to a Dream" contest with my 9x12 oil painting below.

Just before, and during the weekend I worked on the following pieces:
This is a 7 1/2 x 11 abstract of trees:

This is a winter study from one of the upper valleys in Utah:

This is a variation of the above, but using a mountain that can be seen from I-15 between Payson and Spanish Fork canyon. I used "negative painting" to portray the birch trees:

I completed this last one this morning. It is a watercolor on 140-pound paper that has had gesso applied to it. This creates a different effect that might be hard to identify as a watercolor. I call this painting "Red Hat lady #3".

I started working on the following monday morning...so it is not complete. It is another winter variation. This is more like the photograph I took, although this will have more snow than I saw when taking the photograph.

Closing out 2011

2011-12-28T10:44:00.000-08:00

The year is almost over, and although I haven't participated in many art festivals, it has been a very busy year with moving and setting up a new studio. But I'm in. I will be participating in St George's Susquicentennial in a couple of weeks on January 14, 15, and 16, as one of the open Studio sites. I am excited to open my studio to guests.
I also just submitted my application to St. George's Easter Art Festival. I have not yet determined what it takes to be chosen consistently every year.

What I've been doing:
I've almost completed a series of "rock" studies in watercolor. This involves a technique that prepares the watercolor paper with oil color thinned with turpentine. Here are some examples:

The turpentine wash creates a great background texture for rock images. This can be used for brick walls and stone fences as well as creek beds. More examples:

In these I began adding other images such as the fish and a leaf. more examples:

All of the above are on approximately 5x7 140 pound rough pressed paper. I then completed a 22x30 piece:

One would think I have exhausted this series, but have some additional ideas for more pieces.

I've also been doing a few cowboy scenes:

and just finished this one....another watercolor on gesso textured surface...

Christmas cards 2011

2011-11-27T16:51:00.000-08:00

This is a typical Thanksgiving weekend---the Christmas cards task begins. Six years ago I started making our Christmas cards using block prints. This process involves carving an image onto a piece of wood and printing the image onto card stock with ink that has been rolled onto the wood block. My early cards were very simple with only black ink on white.

Following is the block from my first card...

Following is a block also from a black on white printing.

Last year I used two colors. In this block, the background was orange and the second printing was with a rich blue.

and this year I have saved white, but used orange, blue, and black. This required three wood blocks to complete and of course this means three separate printings on each of 120 Christmas cards. In this case I am including the final product, since there are three blocks used to make it...

...and they are all done...now to add the inscription, and mail them.

Ian Ramsay Workshop

2011-03-10T11:44:00.000-08:00

I attended an Ian Ramsay watercolor workshop March 1 and 2. As a year ago, it was a great workshop. His style includes mostly dry brush techniques, which is what I enjoy the most.
The first day we did a rural scene...

On the second day it was a scene from the northwest...

Ian does beautiful work and is a great teacher. I would love to spend some time in the northwest, getting to understand water better. That is an issue with living in the desert, you have a hard time understanding what happens around water.

Carl Purcell workshop

2011-01-24T10:34:00.000-08:00

I participated in a watercolor workshop with Carl Purcell this past week and had a blast. He is well-organized and enables you to complete projects so you have something to show for the time spent. I find it very difficult when there is no time to complete a painting. He is also very tactful in his critiques, but helpful as well.

Here are images of what I painted. The first is the Springville, Utah area...a winter scene...

Next is a barn I found on another workshop in Taos, New Mexico a few years ago...

We completed 3 other pieces which applied some of the techniques he was presenting to the class, such as value studies, negative painting, how to survive without misket, and general composition. A major theme was about leaving whites on the page. Carl offers many workshops and has a great website:
http://carlpurcell.com/cpart_index.php

Web Site - FINALLY

2011-01-09T16:25:00.000-08:00

I'm trying to set up a web site. Finally. My excuses have been that I have no time, that I distrust the last host provider, I don't have a personal computer anymore, and you know the old adage, "the shoemakers children run barefoot"? Well, I work with computers all day and really enjoy walking away at 5pm.

A website needed to rise on the priority list, so my tasks the last couple of monhts were to purchase a new computer (happened in December), and move the domain I've owned for years, to a new host. The domain transfer completed yesterday. I resigned myself that I would "make the time", and go through the keyboard pounding required to figure out the routine to design the website.

So here I am. The last two items began today, but so far the web site looks pretty stark.

St. George Art Festival

2011-01-04T16:12:00.000-08:00

I just applied to the 2011 St. George Art Festival. I am using a combination of watercolors and oils this time. That may be an issue, but we will see. I would like to be able to show a combination of both.

New Year

2011-01-02T13:38:00.000-08:00

New approach: Galleries and web site. Beginning with blog, however.