Art is back in season

Finally, indoor plein air season! I have been going to the Buffalo & Erie County Botanical Gardens in the winter to paint over the past five years.

Everything changes quickly there, and seasonal displays of flowers add to the riot of color on the permanent plants. Amaryllis will be lining the walks soon.

Choosing to sit with my canvas on the same bench weekly would still result in very different paintings every time. This lemon tree has been my subject at least four other times, deep green fruit hides under big leathery leaves and tangled branches until subtle color changes to lighter green. The little white flower buds have a wonderful sweet scent.

Lemon Hide, pastel 12.5x9.5 2011

A Winter jewel

No. I have not been painting outdoors. This bit of winter is from last year, a sunny day with a lot of snow, enough to sink in it down to my knees in snow-I almost had to paint UP to my easel because it was braced on a fence. Getting chills just by remembering. Looking forward to painting some more purple shadows on the snow, which means we need to lose the clouds soon.

It was painted at the old canoe launch in Buckhorn State Park where I often paint in Fall, when leaves and shrubs hide the trees in the distance.

Creek Shadows, oil 8x10 2010

Open Studio 2010

My annual Open Studio event has evolved over the years and I look forward to seeing friends, sharing stories of my paintings and eating holiday cookies. Claudia Capolupo joined me for the day on Friday, its always a treat to have time with a good friend, wine & conversation.

Rearranging the studio for visitors involves framing new work, varnishing paintings from spring & summer and deciding which artworks are unfinished or need to be overpainted [not everything is a keeper!].

2010 was a Friday/Saturday event & the weather was warm and sunny, so there were many people out and the light streaming in the windows brightened the darkest corners. I'm pleased to show these photos of 'Holes in the Walls' studio at its best. Since that weekend is followed by so many holidays & preparation for them, visiting & parties, the studio stays clean & neat. I don't usually start any major works now but I am looking forward to some big projects for the new year. My 'need to paint' is satisfied by painting a few small works and drawing plans for upcoming projects.

Find peace & joy in whatever you do.

Letchworth State Park Weekend

After a minor whine/ rant last post, I have to admit to a two night get-away camp adventure in Letchworth State Park with Sherrill Primo, Joan L. Shaw and other NFPAP painters in October. Yes, I got cold 'camping' with a cottage, and it also rained. No matter, it was wonderful. I've returned to this Letchworth site & now have three pictures, one an older photo of my kids & Carl in front of this train trestle, another a little painting of the same scene with watercolors from a paint trip with Sherrill 2 years ago. This time, I was ready and the train trestle was finished-when the incredibly long train motored by, slow enough to capture the light glinting on the roof and slow enough for me to paint it from life! Actually, I can paint VERY fast.

The photo of me was taken by a tourist to the park, who happens to be from Buffalo, watched me paint for a while, took my photo & my card & sent the photo to me. Thank you John Gross! I'm wearing all the clothes I brought, I think there were seven layers, two pairs each of gloves & socks, but my smile is genuine. We went to paint the majestic Glen Iris Inn, but I happened to turn around & liked the shadows & light at edge of the meadow near the gorge. I stood under a tree that partially protected me from the constant mist and wind that started to get quite ferocious by the end of our adventure.

Are You Allowed Up There?, 24x12 oil 2010

By Glen Iris Inn, 8x10 oil 2010

TIfft Nature Center & Sanity

Those of you who know me understand the turmoil around me over the past few months. I have maintained my sanity by grabbing all rare occasions to paint, certainly not as often as I would like, & I haven't posted many new works that I have completed. My 'business of art' is set aside for now, but the studio is clean and serves as a sanctuary for music, sketching and thought.

Well, our first snow arrived & I finally spent the morning converting images for publication & hope to post several times in the coming weeks. Enjoy!

These two were painted at Tifft Nature Preserve in South Buffalo which is an idyllic park run by the Buffalo Museum of Science. It was reclaimed from abandoned railroad yards and factory dumps in the early years, when Buffalo was a huge port and transportation center.

Each year that I paint there I see nature overcoming the spoils of industry. As I painted the creek, a pair of deer frolicked in the distance, giant water birds came & went and the painting earned its title.

The little marshland portrait has a huge set of grain elevators in the distance; abandoned, trees and grasses have sprouted on the paths and fields, the buildings appear to recede as the trees gain height.

4 Turtles on a Log, oil 11x14 2010

Reclaimation, 5x7 oil 2010

Art to Print?

I received an email this week because a Google searcher found me and my cloud paintings when looking for posters. I was impressed because I had only published two of the 40 paintings from my year of preparing for 'Skies over Buffalo, Wait a Minute'. It slowed down my posting this year as it kept me busy doing my favorite sport-painting! Actually I purposely held back those images just for a show.

Anyway, it made me realize that they would make super posters.....thinking......

Don't Bring Me Rain, oil 10x20 2010

Off the Lake, oil 12x16 2010

Open Art Studio Show is Over for 2010

At the top of the staircase I placed this large oil painting, painted from a beautiful bouquet, my birthday gift. It was an introduction to the upstairs gallery and a complete change from the water, rocks and skies of downstairs Falls painting exhibit. I think the transition was effective. Guests stopped on the top step to look at it, then walked the hall left and right to look at other paintings.

Next year, I will create a display of the flowers downstairs, as I only used a few of them anywhere this year. There were many Fall landscapes en plein air in the studio and I was pleased to see them all together. I'll probably emphasize bridges somewhere too. I surprised myself at how many different bridge paintings are here.

After I picked up the cookies and paperwork from the open art studio event, I went out for a quick errand. Returning, the ceiling spotlight still shone on this painting, giving it an eerie glow it deserves, I could see it from the road.

There is a difference in the right and left sides that is only evident with a careful introspective observation, it is bright and optimistic on the right, fading on the left.

Perhaps I will put it in the living room near the window. I always felt it belonged over a breakfront or a server, to appear as a bouquet placed on that piece of furniture.

If you missed this sunny and busy show weekend, I'll be back next year, or call for an appointment anytime.

It's a Lot Like Life, oil 28x22 2010

2010 Open Art Studio

Next week will be my 3rd annual open art studio, Friday & Saturday 11-5. Saw a friend who purchased my Great Lakes gardens picture (September 2010 calendar image) last year at the open house & told him about next week. I thought his head would fly off when he whipped it around to say-'What! That was a year ago?'

Time flies when we are having fun.

This oil painting has been on and off my easel all year. I started it because of an earlier pink flower painted in pastel from a similar view-the back. It was called 'Looking Back on a Decade' because the painting coincided with one of those landmark birthdays.

What! That was TEN years ago!!

Just another Decade, oil 20x16 2010

Tuscarora State Park

Every paint-out is a mini vacation. A few weeks ago my mini vacation was in Northern Niagara County outside Wilson, NY, so I was home by 4pm.

The Tuscarora State Park on Lake Ontario has a lovely beach area on the west side bordered by a small outlet. Standing in sand, protected in the shade of a massive cottonwood, I could see across the tiny bay to thirsty trees reaching down to the water.

The shallow water here can float small sailboats and inboards, but there were none at this plein air paintout-just Canada Geese families.

Tuscarora Caribe 9x12 oil 2010

THE ELECTRIC TOWER paint out

This summer I had the opportunity to ascend 'The Electric Tower' to paint, it's the dramatic building where the outdoor New Year's Eve party & fireworks is centered in Buffalo. Built as the terminus for long distance electricity from Niagara Falls for the 1904 Pan Am Exposition, most of it has served as offices, the first two floors used to be an elegant store for electric household tools-vacuums! Waffle irons! Electric lamps!

The current owners (ISKALO) have been restoring the dignity of this round building and converting it to offices & condos. We were invited to paint on the 15th floor & quite a few Niagara Frontier Plein Air Painters took this opportunity to 'see the sights' 2/3 of the way up the building where the white section starts. This level was due to be renovated, so we were able to explore original boardrooms totally carved and decorated with dark wood, built in furniture and secret doors in the panels. Each painter selected a different window, our floor was small enough with all the walls and dividers removed that we could talk to each other about whether it was really plein air painting or not! The windows were huge, but we were protected from the wind and sounds of the city.

In addition, few of us had ever painted anything by looking down for the whole painting. This created perspective & compositional challenges; most buildings were much lower than us, roofs full of electrical systems, the lake and Canada in the distance, hockey & baseball stadiums within a few blocks.

I selected to paint a long view-the old first ward and grain mills with windmills & Lake Erie in the distance. As an outdoor painter I have discovered so many new streets & hidden treasures in downtown Buffalo, side roads off Ohio Street take me to 'Elevator Alley' a majestic remnant of 19th century glory when Buffalo was one of the largest cities in North America and the gateway to the west. Now these river alleys are quiet with age and home to geese, boaters and tugboats instead of crowded with great lakes ships.

Where I Like to Paint, oil 15x30 2010

The Electric Tower photo from website http://www.electrictower.com

Is this an old church in Canada?

A summer weekend at Artpark with the Niagara Frontier Plein Air Painters during the wine trail tour was a perfect place to paint. Surrounded by artists and wine, lots of people who were all in a great mood and not in a hurry--who could ask for more?

This is a Canadian building, perhaps a church, across the Niagara River in Ontario. I am not familiar with it by driving along the Niagara Parkway so it must be nestled in Queenston, behind those lovely historic homes and businesses. The river had a Caribbean color to it that day, reminding me of Cancun.

Canada from Artpark, 20x16 oil 2010

Phyllis Stigliano Gallery

A Jetblue airfare sale and a quick painting trip to NYC enabled this plein air of a lovely Brooklyn brownstone in the historic district of Park Slope.

The image will be used by Phyllis Stigliano for cards at her art gallery on the first floor. The title was inspired by the large number of serendipitous events that brought Phyllis, Charles & I together, as well as the ambiance of the afternoon that I painted. The sun shone and neighbors gathered as I was challenged to capture decorative details, fleeting light and the elegant mood of this grand old building with a quick brush.

Accustomed to wide open spaces and infinite vantage points when I work en plein air, this was painted from across the street by perching on a neighbor's wall, the only spot that afforded a view between towering trees. It might have been more difficult if the recent tornado that blasted this area had not torn down small branches and many leaves to give me a better view.

This is my second longest (time) on site painting; learning the scale and proportion of protruding windows, multiple columns and solving perspective from close range was a genuine challenge that I enjoyed all day. Now that I have challenged and conquered brownstone style architecture I'll find additional opportunities to paint in the city.

8th Avenue Serendipity, 14x11 oil 2010

Escarpment Drive Painting

Answer: Exactly one month, plus about 20 years of practice.

Question: How long did it take to do that painting?

I put brush to a gessoed canvas on September 5th, after several visits to take pictures, choose lighting & a bunch of drawings to choose composition & resolve scale for this commission. Although I plan to add a signature & a few dots & dashes for depth, it is a finished painting on October 5.

So, all things considered, including prep and framing, the real Answer: 2 months, + drying time to be varnished [3-6 more months].

Escarpment View, oil 12x24 2010

That's really a LOT OF WATER!

A plein air paintout on a late September morning resulted in a successful capture of one small piece of the American Falls. The photo was taken early, the water turned greener as the light changed. I placed it here to share my awe of the tremendous power at Niagara Falls. This was a joint paint out with Naiagara Frontier Plein Air Painters and Genesee Valley Plein Air Painters, so we all had an especially lively lunch discussing techniques and turpentine.

I toyed with the idea of including some tourists----it would emphasize the scale of the cataracts, but have instead decided to title it with a tremendous fact.

8,000 Cubic Feet Per Second, oil 16x20, 2010

'Music is Art' at Albright Knox Art Gallery

What was it like at 'Music is Art'? The title 'Magic Mayhem' suits Saturday perfectly---beautiful weather, lots of people, wild costumes, multiple bands & stages, delicious food, kids & more crowds.

It was fun to paint & have little kids light up when they recognized that my painting was of the roofline peeking out of the trees, I watched them look from my canvas to the trees over a

& over before they grabbed a parent to share their discovery. I had a wall display of work from local places & people of all ages asked questions and commented on places that were familiar.

The day was a feast for the eyes and ears, so I have included a few sights from my tent area.

For more pictures, go to Buffalo.com, even I am featured in the photo news as I was captured painting during the day. At Flickr, a photographer [pharaoh8] has posted individual images of many performers and spectators.

I painted in the afternoon-it is the house roof next to Albright Knox Art Gallery, peeking through the trees, catching afternoon light on the yellow brick chimney.

Music is Art 8x10, oil 2010

Music is Mayhem at Albright Knox

Today's the day! The all day feast of music on multiple stages surrounding the Albright Knox Art Gallery, book-ended by food and artisans is here. Participating in this event is the culmination of a summer as an an artist and audience member......so many bands were featured outdoors this summer from Lewiston to N. Tonawanda, Niagara Falls & Buffalo that some evening's entertainment was a difficult choice. As a listener, I often wished I could sketch or paint during the entertainment, but I will have my tent, my easel set up & plenty of music all day to celebrate the end of summer and a wonderful listening season.

This festival celebrates all the arts & their value in education, giving many bands opportunities to perform before huge audiences as well as having a big dose of magic today. Guinness book of records representatives will be there to see the 'highest straight jacket escape' at 300' in the air......where does a 300' crane park? Magic? It's all a wonder. I'll pack my juggling kit.

Niagara Frontier Plein Air Painters at Niagara Falls

Here is a peek at an oil painting that is drying right now...a morning that started with a rainstorm turned wonderful by a 9am start for the NFPAP paintout last week. The hardy painters who arrived at the Falls gathered at the top of Terrapin Point to capture the Horseshoe Falls, while I chose a spot midway between the staircases. I thought I would be safe from too many tourists; boy was I wrong! I actually welcome an occasional interruption as it gives my eyes a break and allows a little mind shift from paint. However, entire busloads of visitors gathered round my easel---and then started asking me to turn and pose for them. My photograph is traveling around the world on many tiny memory cards as I write.

I'm thrilled with how this piece of Niagara turned out, it's hard to see well with the light glare on oil, but it is mounted on my portable french easel which is folded closed. The big plastic bag holds odds & ends, camera, lunch, canvases and such. At the Falls a plastic bag is mandatory-I never know when the wind will shift and drench everything with mist.

photo by Joan Shaw

Picture Postcard!

Summer is TOO busy-but so much fun. We go to many gallery openings that include our work or to see artworks by others, but this was a particularly special show. My painting was selected for the postcard, and you can see both sides here.

The opening was spectacular-and crowded-and the work submitted under the theme 'Garden Mystique' was varied & interesting. Doreen DeBoth at Artsphere Studio & Gallery hangs this show to coincide with the Buffalo Garden Walk. Each year it is better and more inclusive of art forms, so I am doubly pleased to have been selected to grace the invitation. Marcus had openings across the street at Gallery 464 and Blink, so Amherst Street was hopping happy with art, music & people.

Shadow on the Pulpit, oil on canvas 30x15 2008 [Postcard]

Back to Glen Park in Williamsville

Last month, on a 'threatening to be rainy' day, I returned to Mill Falls in Williamsville, NY. I had planned to paint the waterfall to capture the power of that falls from a different angle. However, trees & brush were quite heavily filled in compared to the earlier visit; my view was blocked.

I noticed & studied this nearby area of white water when I had painted there in the Spring. The ominous gray weather gave the underwater rocks more definition, so I parked myself on the edge of the walk & used just 2 large brushes. I had been reading & researching about artists' processes recently & was influenced by some of the old masters.

I am pleased with the results....each stroke is deliberate. The colors were mostly premixed. Middle values determined the darker & lighter values. Thinking about how I wanted this to look abstract without losing the quality of fast water was important to the process.

Finishing this painting, the rain started-in great big plops that soon turned to buckets. Fortunately the car was parked nearby & it didn't get my french easel or painting too wet. The wet easel story is saved for another day's post about 'Rock of Ages'.

Noise, oil 16x20 2010

A Weekend in Artpark

My painting group, Niagara Frontier Plein Air Painters, will be at Artpark in Lewiston this weekend for a very public paint out. We will start around the lower level parking lot, but will probably start moving around the park as inspiration guides us! It is also the Wine & Culinary Festival and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra will be performing Beethoven on the indoor stage.

I'll be painting near my white tent 12-8 on Saturday & 12-6 Sunday, trying to make up for a lot of painting days missed this summer for all sorts of ridiculous reasons. Since I will be there for two days I am bringing several large canvases, with hope that I can find the perfect compositions & the right size canvas to push the paint around on.

Winter projects need Summer varnish

It takes about 6 months for oil paint to dry thoroughly, so I have been varnishing & framing artwork from Fall & Winter recently, but neither project is helped by the recent heat. It turns out that I often select paintings to work with, take a nice seat & then watch the birds or start to read.

When I began to frame this winter painting I had a burst of cool air as the ice at the horseshoe falls blew off the picture. It was pretty cold in the mist so this is not a plein air-I took a series of photographs and made the painting in my studio with the wind on my mind. Kath Schifano is not that dedicated or crazy enough to try this outdoors!

The walking area here is closed in the winter, those tall viewfinders are buried under several feet of ice. Not in this painting, the only way to see them in January is to know they are there-making small bumps buried under the huge, deep ice sheet.

It's aptly named for it's mammoth dangers as well as the Winter Olympics were held during my studio adventure with ice. You only get one try when you slide on this hill.

Olympic Ice, oil 12x24 2010

Sunny Day's Bonus Painting

On May 13 I posted a painting "Spring Rapids from the Second Bridge" of an upriver view from idyllic Three Sisters Islands at Niagara Falls State Park. I spent a long time on it & was going home happy with the results. Just past the islands, on the way to the parking lot, dappled sunlight lit up the path and brilliant patches of wildflowers in the lawn. It was stunning, and a quiet respite from the thundering water I had just painted.

I sat on the stone wall & reopened my french easel to experience the afternoon light on the path-I had an abundance of premixed Spring greens on my palette that I could use for this picture, as well as several well used brushes that were put back to work. I came home much later than planned, but sitting in the calm shade while I painted was a big contrast to standing on the breezy bridge and seemed like a completely new day.

Goat Island Path, 10x12 oil 2010

September Art Show Preview

Although I am saving the pastel sky paintings for the show 'Skies over Buffalo, Wait a Minute' at Quaker Bonnet in September, I mentioned in the last post that I was painting skies from a single location.

I'm putting this up as an early weather warning post! First Fridays in Buffalo feature openings at many galleries, so save the evening-September 3rd-for my new solo exhibit. This is the first oil of the series which are from Grand Island, looking south to weather in the distance, my view. These perky clouds were dancing lightly on a perfect Spring adventure, but not all the skies are this cheery!

Sky Series, 4-12-10,'Off the Lake', oil 11x14 2010

WIlliamsville Waterfall

I'm not a fan of the color blue in my home. However, blue paint is another story altogether. Since September 2009 I have been painting skies--actually the same sky view as the weather & seasons change. That's a lot of blue, and a lot of gray as well.

Now that I paint plein air outdoors more, I have been returning to close ups- an inspection of single elements or parts of a whole. The sky paintings fit that category as well. This is a April view of the waterfall behind the red mill in Williamsville. The vertical composition was painted in the morning, while I had afternoon light for the horizontal oil. Same water, but the sun had moved.

It was pure pleasure to paint again with Sharon Fundalinski & Peggy Walker; each of our paintings captured the day, but each view was completely different. Painting with varied blues is a whole different category from living with blue in my home!

Red Mill Falls Vertical, oil 7x5 2010

RedMill Falls Horizontal, oil 8x10 2010

A Tourist in Houston

Packed my paints, brushes & canvases for an extended visit to Houston TX & found that I couldn't paint plein air due to high heat & humidity---not me, the paint was entirely too tacky! I did a fair amount of sketching, read several books, spent too much time on FaceBook and just loved being with baby Amelia.

On a single day as tourist, I managed to visit the famous Beer Can House, Japanese Gardens downtown, & The Car Museum. By far, the best visit was to Museum of Fine Arts in Houston & the John Singer Sargeant exhibit of marine art painted when he was 18-24 years old.

Simply astounding.

Simply intimidating that so much planning went into a single final composition-full size individual figure drawings & paintings for a group composition on the beach as well as a maquette of the painting-and he was still a kid!

Sargeant, always loved his work, now I appreciate & respect it even more!

Spring Greens from a Three Sisters Bridge

On May 5 I published my new portrait, with an in-progress painting on my easel. Here is that finished painting which accurately portrays my experience that day---EXCEPT---there is no roar of water hammering rocks & racing downhill. It doesn't even LOOK like much noise here, but behind me, the water continues to cascade towards the big falls, and to my right all the water that is destined to go over the great Horseshoe is pounding boulders beyond the next little island.

So, dear viewer, when you see this painting please add your own sound track, as when I see it I definitely hear the tumultuous thunder of our water, all 50,000 cubic feet a second racing to the precipice.

Spring Rapids from the Second Bridge 10x20 oil, 2010

Winter Projects

Painting outdoors is so different than indoors. As a plein air painter who likes to stay warm, I meet with Sharon & Peggy at the Buffalo Botanical Gardens in South Park as often as possible in the winter. On 3 consecutive Thursdays, I sat by the same giant cymbidium orchid bush to draw-in the Florida Everglades display. I originally planned to experiment with different colors of paper, but I am pleased to see how the same branch developed in the time I was there.

These orchids twist & turn as they grow to the light until the entire branch has a series of flowers facing the same direction. This is the branch I would love to have in a vase, they last for months, except they are pretty hard to find in a florist unless it is wedding season. By then, my own garden gives me its bounty.

Not able to purchase a single orchid branch, in February I bought a mini orchid plant which has been celebrating life in the kitchen. The tiny balls on the end of the spray slowly enlarge until one morning they pop open to a full size-mini-orchid flower of the deepest magenta. It's kind of miraculous.
[3] evolving orchids-12x15, pastel 2010

Spring at Three Sister's Islands

Niagara Frontier Plein Air Painters met at Three Sisters Islands to paint yesterday & it was exhilarating! It's nice to be painting outside again with Sharon Fundalinski, Peggy Walker, Joan Shaw, Manning McCandlish and more! We were settled on each of the islands painting our own views. In the end, some of the same blue/gray/greens were in each artist's picture, but they were all completely different.

I finished this scene on location. As I dragged my tired self & painting equipment to the car, balancing this big wet picture, I was struck by flowers growing wild in dappled sunlight along the path to the parking lot. I pulled out my used brushes & palette and sketched the shadowed path on a small canvas with oils remaining from the first picture. Both new paintings will be posted soon, they are too wet to photograph.

Tugs at Elevator Alley

Last summer we [Niagara Frontier Plein Air Painters] painted near 'elevator alley', a series of waterways leading to various grain elevators in South Buffalo. We always seem to have a good time there with nearby geese floating & fishing, an occasional kayak, in a generally quiet neighborhood hidden near Ohio Street.

As I recently sorted files of paintings, I realized that I have chosen to paint boats of various sizes many times, but have especially selected tugs when they appear. These two are usually moored here, I don't know if they are city owned or their names and have asked around for the information.

Last week I was privileged to be invited on the antique Buffalo fireboat 'Cotter' for the 2010 BoomDays celebration at the Peace Bridge. The firehoses were aimed to create huge arcs of Niagara River water saluting the bi-national event while a huge orange ball was hurled over the edge of the Peace Bridge by the mayors of Buffalo & Erie. Needless to say, there is no dry spot on a fireboat squirting in all directions so I hunkered in with the captain. I brought art supplies but besides a pile of photos, all I did was sketch the prow.

Tugs at Elevator Alley, pastel 11x15 2009

Map is Less Red?

My normal 'cluster map', shown below the links on the right panel of this page details visits from various countries to this blog. Just when I determined that the reds were starting to connect the map was archived. The large dots from my previous map is shown here. Still waiting for the 'China connection', although the previous long list had shown visits from countries that I had nearly forgotten.

I particularly like the red visit dots from Pacific island viewers!