Waiting for Warm, Late Winter Plein Air

Perhaps life gets hectic when the weather warms. At least, I think it does, but winter has its own slower pace. Right now I am ready for the busy painting schedule that NFPAP has put together, so I have been playing with a variety of different materials.

The first painting is from an upstairs window view. A little bit of snow and a lot of sunshine inspired me to capture the blue shadows of the biggest cottonwood tree I have ever seen. It is at least three times the height of a two story peaked roof. About 100-150 feet away and across the street, if it ever came down we would have a huge mess and a bit of damage. I see this tree out of every window in the front, and it fills my view from bed as well. This was a pastel experiment, the paper had too much texture for me, perhaps I should have used the back. I think the same painting in oil would be more successful.

The second is a front seat in the car painting. I parked along the Robert Moses, recently renamed the Niagara River Parkway. A fairly gray and quiet day, the Niagara plume hovered in the gorge making the buildings of Niagara Falls Ontario appear to float or sit on the mist.  A famous chimney has been moved to the river side of the road and was given its own parking lot as well. It is a good place to just look and think.

Shadows of My Dreams, pastel 9x12 c.K Schifano

A Chimney's View watercolor 6x9, c.K Schifano

YYC, Summer's ending

 

How do you get 30 foot sailboats out of the water? 

With real big straps,  a hoist and this hook. The Youngstown Yacht Club is one of my favorite spots to paint, the people are all happy, they are glad to see us and there is something to capture in every direction. 

With a bit of whimsy, I turned away from the water to see this HUGE ball and hook gently swinging from a crane. I knew it would be in use soon and painted quickly. The weight of it pulled the cable roll tighter; as I worked my model slipped from an overhead view to almost eye level. In the background is the building Babs Damesimo lived in years ago, back when when we were both other people.

Ball and Hook 12x6 oil on gessoboard

Buffalo's China Light

I have been here before and I have painted the lighthouse several times. It is the China light lighthouse in the canalside area of Buffalo. The shape is the same. the horizon is the only item in the view other than the lighthouse, yet each painting captures another day, another weather, a different sky. In particular, this does not have a light in the beacon area, nor is there glass. The giant lamp was being retrofitted to have a light, but not to be a marker for ships in the lake. It no longer correctly marks the Buffalo harbor on ship maps, there are smaller buoys to mark channels and safe areas.

The day after I painted it, the lamp and windows were returned to the top. I had considered going back to paint the new top but have decided that my plein air painting captured a particular moment.

'A Day Before the Light' 16x12 oil on birch

Looking For Colors in the fog

Painting shows the fog lifting a little after I arrived

photo taken when I started my painting

The day after I returned from a 5 day NYC art trip a paintout had been planned at Bond's Lake. Although I was not entirely ready to start painting right away, I still had art to unpack and put away, I went. Sherrill Primo had graciously offered to pick up my paintings from the NFPAP show at 464 Gallery and had them in her car.

As I drove north, a dense brown cloud appeared across the horizon, as I got closer to Lewiston I saw it was low to the ground right where I was headed, making a right turn, I drove right into intense fog, which appeared gray white from the inside. Again, I hesitated to continue, knowing that it was too dense to find my artist friends in the desolate park. I continued and realized the opportunity the fog presented in a painting, plus, I found them all easily at the end of the park road.

Glad to have my pastels, I set up quickly and made color notes on the lightly sketched page so that I would have the colors established as the fog lifted. The distance was invisible, just a shadow on the sky, and the middle ground alternated between fuzzy and gone altogether. This was a fairly quick plein air and I am so pleased that the fog remained when I needed it. As I finished the fog lifted and an amazing set of early fall colors appeared in the island in the distance. So glad I didn't see them earlier.

Looking for Colors in the Fog 9x12 pastel c. 2015

The Falls at Water Level

I discovered a new access to the water level of the lower Niagara. Close by parking and no climbing necessary, I expect to paint here often. Perhaps in early Spring we will have a larger glimpse of the Horseshoe Falls, the trees and leaves will not be as dense on the cliffs but I will have to bundle up. The lower river stays full of ice and very cold water for quite a while.

This is at the winter dock storage for the Maid of the Mist ships. The seasonal docks are just beyond the trees. The water here is the Horseshoe Falls.

At Water Level, 11x14 oil on birch panel

#28 and 29 of 30 paintings in 30 days

'Seagulls, Swifts and Spring' started as a study of the posts and water reflections while I waited for the light and shadows to change on the bridge. 'Niagara Painters' were meeting at the new little park at the base of the North Grand Island bridges and I had assumed that the bridge would be in my painting. The water was quite smooth in the morning and the soft and muted colors of a spring morning were hard to resist. This is the bigger one, I also painted a mini, only 2x2 of the same place.

My sweet tooth was calling, I wanted a decadent cupcake from the trendy new cupcake store on Whitehaven Road. I didn't get there, but Tops had a 4 pack so I could go home and eat one, Carl had one, then we split a third one. I grabbed the last, perched it on a pretty plate and as I headed to the studio I bumped it and 'Oops, there is the title' came to mind.

'Seagulls, Swifts and Spring' 9.5x12.5 oil on paper, c. 2015

'Oops on Bone China', 5x7 on wood panel, c.2015

5/5 days of the Facebook artists challenge.

The last day of 5 in this FB painters challenge.
As much as I love water and am tempted to post waterfall paintings from the Adirondacks, I spent this beautiful day enjoying fresh snow and sunshine in my yard. The art lesson is to paint what you know, so I chose my outdoors for the final day. Thank you, Frances Gaffney for the nomination, we need to paint together soon, this was fun and a bit of a challenge to post daily. Breaking the rules I post 4, and nominate some more. Marcus L Wise, you generously support so many artists, Dave Borkenhagen you share my love of water, and Kathy McDonnell painter of landscapes: I hope you three rise to the challenge, post 3 artworks a day for 5 days and nominate another artist each day.

1. Behind the Pool, plein air oil 11x14
2. Fall Back, 25x19 pastel
3. Rainbow Spring, 24x20 oil
4. Didn't Miss Fall plein air pastel 16x20

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3rd and Niagara, Niagara Falls Painting story

I found a photograph of myself on the 'Niagara Painters' website, we were painting this morning in downtown Niagara Falls.

A young lady from Boznia Herzegovina came by to chat, she was practicing her English, and asked me why I chose the 3rd Street scene. I said I liked the street because I used to live right there ----> on the painting.

She answered, 'I live right there.' She's upstairs from the old Sheusi Brothers furniture store, I lived in the cottage behind, but I knew about the apartments, the Murphy beds, built in cabinets and elegant woodwork. I wonder if, after 30 years, many of them in neglect, some of the elegance remains? For her sake, I hope so.

The big vista

Everyone driving down Lewiston Hill looks at the scene out over the lake and the rolling landscape from the escarpment to the shore, mostly farms and fields. On clear days the city of Toronto stands like a beacon in the distance, more than 35 miles as the crow flies. This Spring day, I painted in Ann's backyard, on top of the escarpment, as I looked, the spires and buildings of the city appeared as the morning mist lifted.

Toronto Haze, 9x12 oil

Emily Carr

Emily Carr is a 19th century artist, an explorer, fearless and brave, willing to undergo extreme discomfort, ravenous bugs, slithering and biting things to document the totems of native people of the northwest as well as the landscape of towering trees, majestic mountains and streams. She was driven to capture expression with her paintbrush, finding a compliment in being labeled a Fauve.  Her work is a historical document of ancestor poles that were sold, ruined or stolen. She is considered an honorary member of the Group of Seven in Canadian art history.

This scene from the East side of Tuscarora State Park was painted with Emily Carr in mind. I hoped to show respect for our mature evergreens and the meadows of wetlands in rich and loose color, painted with a brisk wind at my back and a serious chill in the day.

Channeling Emily Carr, oil on board 14x11

 The book The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland is an embellished novel of her life as a painter, her travels into the Northwest and into Alaska in search of carved totems to draw and paint. The week after I painted this, I drove to Pennsylvania to paint and listened to the book on CD. Totally inspiring, but coincidental that I had just completed this painting.

Influenced by Wolf Kahn

A few years ago, I appeared on a channel 7 morning show and in the interview I was asked which artists were my favorites. I flubbed the answer, since any names that would answer that question changes regularly, and also was not something I thought much about, I like so many artists equally. If I had been asked who influenced my artwork, I would have a completely different list. John Singer Sargeant, all of the Group of Seven, Emily Carr, Robert Henri, maybe Georgia O'Keeffe, Charles Hawthorne and many of my painter friends including my husband.

Recently, I was asked by Carl Judson to reconsider Wolf Kahn as a 'favorite'. My main interaction with Kahn's work was presenting a workshop/paintout based on his visit and artwork created in Niagara Falls for his Castellani Art Museum show. Loving the Falls as I do, I objected to his severe abstraction and garish colors, simplifying views and places I know so well.

I thought about this challenge and when Judson and I went there to paint, I eliminated details, heightened colors and broke the landscape into color fields. The huge plateau of snow and dramatic shadow, along with the shapes of mist, water and background made the composition appear to be composed of just a few puzzle pieces, hard edged and flat. I like it. I proceeded to make a second painting from the same vantage point including more information. I might have painted more on it, but the light was changing; by mid afternoon, the gorge fills with light and the shadows you see here are gone.

  Channeling Wolf Kahn, 14x11 oil on board

Early Spring at the Shoe, 8x12 oil on canvas

Great Baehre Swamp in Amherst

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Call it Great Baehre Swamp or Margaret Louise Park, this was a great place to officially start the plein air club season. We came early last year also, but the geese had paired, green was everywhere and frogs were sunning. It was eerily quiet this time, except for a single pair of geese practicing their water landings and the regular walkers getting exercise, the day was gray.

I chose a spot at the beginning of the raised wood walkway, intrigued by the amount of ice that remained in the pond.  I am sure it was merely an inch or so, melting furiously to make way for sun and reflections.

Once I got going this painting went quickly, as it is quite small. I am sure that the buds on the trees in the distance expanded during the time I was painting. A day or two later and there will be green here, the ice will be gone.

Interesting -I searched the former name 'Margaret Louise Park' to create a link and one of my paintings from a previous year here came up first in Google images.

Spring Melt, oil on canvas panel, 6x6

April Snow

I planned to paint outdoors, but the weather report was gloomy. Waking to white stuff falling isn't high on my list in April. There was not much snow and it melted quickly as the ground had warmed already. Snow only remained on the tops of the evergreens and on horizontal branches. I took a photo out the back, ate, and realized I should paint from indoors. Carpe diem.

 The woods glowed silver with iced mist. My new birch panels were ready to go, three coats of gesso and sanded. As I prepared to paint, it warmed outside and the scene changed, snow melted and large drips from tree branches kept the surface of standing water flickering. Now that I have tried it this birch painting surface is my new favorite.

I painted our garden rock wall far to the left of the big pine in this photograph, but I included this photo to show the magical effect of icing in the wetlands and snow on our half grown evergreens.

April Snow, oil on birch panel, 8x10

Monica's Mists and her frame

Started last winter, this sat unfinished, clipped to a huge backing board and behind the door, for months while my wrist healed. I took it out to finish and check my grip on the pastels and slowly built up final layers over two or three weeks. It is from a photo in my files that I took in early Spring, the light pink area is a huge mound of ice taking its time to melt; the water temperature was still low and there is a massive amount of ice built up from the mist.

The inspiration for the painting is a frame. And winter studio time. Right from the start I planned to give it to Monica for her birthday, it took about 6 extra months, but she has it now. I thought it was huge, but when I delivered it to her new Fillmore Street studio it seemed to shrink on the massive white walls. She planned on bringing it her home, where it will get big again.

The frame was originally Monica's, gold with a white mat and a reddish inner mat and fancy corner detail, so I had it a looong time before I found the right image of the Falls to suit the frame and the colors. I was also hampered by knowing what colors she lives with. Truly a backwards way to work is to start with a frame and make a painting suit it. This is my only painting that includes this much of the park area and both Falls.

Mounds of Mist 20x32, pastel

A tiny portable paintbox works fine in the car.

 Years ago, I was given an old 'Beginners Paint Box' with some dried up paints. It had been purchased used at a garage sale for a dollar or so. It sat in my studio all this time, more as a memento of the person who gave it to me than as a useful art product.

Recently I was researching the purchase of an artist's pochade, which is a very useful travel box with lots of gadget type aspects. I had a few new sample paints, a couple of short brushes and a teeny jar for some medium and so I tried out this teeny box. The little plastic cap on the medium in the photo is smaller than a quarter. Altogether, the box is 6x9 and less than two inches tall so it fits under the car seat or in most purses. 

I painted this oil parked at Eagle Overlook on Grand Island, looking over towards Navy Island and the industry near Niagara Falls. I pushed my seat all the way back, leaned on the steering wheel, and propped it on the dashboard for a 'longer view'. With the sun shining the car stayed pretty warm, it was about 11 degrees out and two iceboats were consistently sweeping the ice away from the massive New York Power Authority intakes, seen on the right side.

I came home thrilled to have been painting outdoors, ready for this most frigid winter to end and Spring to bloom.

'Icebreakers on the Niagara' 5x7 oil on board

Poetry & Art, and Interchangeable Impressions

Stuck in an arm brace for several weeks, I could not hold or maneuver my favored pastels, which probably were the cause of my wrist and thumb issues in the first place.

Not using pastels, limited to oils this summer and fall, I devised a few new ways to wield brushes. Working on treated wood boards gave me more control. Using a palette knife helped cut down on my repetitive motions, and working smaller, with its own particular challenges, limited additional stress on my damaged tendons. I would not give up creating!

While painting with Sherrill Primo, she told me of a poem by Richard about the single red tree of a new fall, a clarion of the season. Hence this lovely bit of Buckhorn State Park, across from the fisherman's dock and its title.

Clarion for Autumn, 7x5, oil 2013

Carnegie Art Center Paintout on the canal

Saturday's intense gusts almost took out this setup several times, a collection of bungee cords attached everything in winds up to 50 mph. I set up in the shade of the railroad bridge, not realizing that I put myself into a windier place than an open site. I eventually moved under a tree and still had to fight the wind, all my available equipment was used to weigh down the easel. The red line in the sky is a hook attached to my easel drawer. I chose to paint the Remington Tavern because of the historic architecture [formerly Remington Typewriter] that was adapted to become a great restaurant, but also because of the beautiful flowers bursting forth from their canopy.

Working in shade allows colors to be recorded more accurately, if someone paints in sunlight, especially when the sun is on the canvas, the image appears dark when indoors.  Often my huge artist umbrella protects art in progress and the palette more than me. I could not use it here due to the high winds; otherwise boaters would be fishing me and all my supplies out of the Erie Canal.

The Carnegie Art Center sponsored this paintout in the North Tonawanda area to coincide with Canalfest. This Remington Tavern painting was displayed in the beautifully restored Riviera Theater where the giant organ was played to the delight of the crowds.

Breezes at Remington, 11x14 oil.





This is a link to a newspaper article by Jill Keppler, click to read it for my 'quotes' and a little bit of background on the day.

	Chasing light, catching shadows Source: tonawanda-news.com There are life lessons in plein air painting: It's all about location. Life keeps moving. Travel light. Embrace imperfection. Roll with the punch

Publisher's Invitational Plein Air 2013 paintings

This is it. All of my finished paintings, from nearly a week in the mountains, sort of taking it easy, so I also have a collection of drawings and sketches to go with these as well as a head full of beautiful memories.

This first landscape painting is '3 Dollar Sky', pastel 9x12 because I started by laying in the gray-blue for the sky with a new stick of Unison pastel. It was half gone when I had the undercolor completed. As it cost $6 a pastel stick it was named well.

 'High Falls 3' 16x 12 pastel. This was my second trip carrying gear down the semi perilous steps, but I had also painted a 4 foot tall picture from my previous references.

 On the way home, we stopped in Harristown for a 'painting break', one more for the road? one of just two oils I did this week. 'Harristown Interlude', oil 8x12

 Norman Ridge Skyline, pastel 9x12 Miles of mountains recede on the horizon. The air at this altitude was so fresh, the wildflowers were bright and the day was perfect, with perky little crooked clouds trying to stay afloat.

Return to the VIC3 oil 8x12  Three paintings in 3 years from the same spot, if only I had walked another 200 yards to a super paint spot in shade. Next time, I suppose.

'Rocks at Bog Falls', 9x12 pastel, a very quick painting, there were a lot of bugs in the muddy spot I selected for this composition.

 Roosters at Bog River Falls', pastel 12x16, the first I painted here.

 Solstice Above the Flume, 9x12 pastel. I was looking down at this section of the rapidly descending flume water, seated on huge round rocks at the edge of the cliff. I was sort of tilted forward so my toes were constantly pushing me back from the edge as I painted. When I finally got up my feet were very happy as well as stiff.

From the same vantage point I was able to see the Flume below, perhaps my favorite image of the week. We arrived very early in the morning before the rest of the campers and I ventured very close to this falls area to paint this one first. As I finished, a bit of sunshine sparkled on the top of the waterfall, shining into the gorge from overhead.

Solstice Sun on the Flume, pastel 12x9

3 Variations of Marsh Grasses in Western New York

If they have not been crushed by heavy snow, marshes keep their tall fronds of dry golden grasses through the new year, until new grasses fill in. Spring growth adds bulk and color variations as the green shoots stretch for sunlight.

These were coincidentally painted the same week, each about 25 miles further away.

The first is an oil, made in Buckhorn State Park, my favorite meadow, secluded and quiet, with a distant view of mists from the Falls to the west. It was hot and a little buggy, occasional clouds gave me a break from the sun even though I had an umbrella for shade. The marsh grasses nearly glowed white in the sunshine

The center painting is a pastel, painted at Tuscarora State Park on my second visit there this year. Peggy sat close to the water and made a statement about the movement of the water, giving me an idea for the title. It was neither hot nor cool, just a perfect painting day.

This last picture is also pastel, painted deeper into the Tifft Nature Preserve than I usually venture. A map noted that the water is named Mosquito Pond. Wrong. The non native Red Ants in this area were atrocious, even marching in thick lines on the raised walking platform. I tucked my pants into my socks, sat with only my boot toes touching ground and occasionally jumped around. It makes me itchy to remember as I write this! The grasses here seemed almost pink at the tops, I liked the horizontals formed by the receding layers of nature and the patterns of verticals from the growth near to far.

Ironically, I created three paintings in one week with the same subject, unintentionally, each captures its own moment and place.

Reminiscing, 9x12 pastel, 2013
Water Flows Both Ways, 9x12 pastel, 2013
Mosquito Pond in Tifft, 9x12 pastel, 2013

Art Dialogue Gallery Members Show, 2013

The first shows of the year are often group exhibitions at many galleries. In fact, group show season starts with December gift exhibits, when galleries carry smaller works and crafted items for holiday gift giving. One of my favorite 5x7s got away from me this year and I have no photo of it, anywhere, at all. I can't even find it listed on my OCD calendar of what was painted when, size and media. It was nice to carry home a check, but I wish there was a photo of it in my camera. I usually have wonderful record keeping skills but I let it slip through the studio before it was documented!

That little jewel was a plein air of the front of Beaver Island Casino, showing just the garden and in a furniture grade mahogany frame. If you saw it in my studio you know why I call it a jewel, I expect the new owner is very pleased with their purchase.

On the other hand, the current show at Art Dialogue Gallery is self selected; artists choose one work to represent them for the month of January. It is usually very interesting to see different work from artists at this show, often pieces are experimental, different media or subjects. I chose this stately tree trunk painted at Sonnenburg Gardens in Canandaigua, NY last June. It was raining hard when I started so I nestled under an elegant archway in the Japanese gardens section. This tree was gripping the ground with the knowledge of a century, pulling up the earth and dwarfing boulders at its base. The sun came out at the right time and created contrast between the wet rocks and tree trunk and long shadows in the sunlit grass. Water continued to drip all around me from giant trees, but I remained dry with my pastels in the shelter

Aging Gracefully, pastel 16x12, 2012