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!

New look at my website

Updated the website recently with Jeremy in Houston. This is the new Home page image, assembled by Carl. Comments are welcome & encouraged! You can comment below or directly to me.

www.kschifano.com

Market Sreet Art Center BNAA show

Market Street Art Center in Lockport is host for the Buffalo Niagara Art Association 2010 Spring show this month. Everyone was pleased with the strength and range of the work which filled the downstairs gallery.

It's hard to choose when a snow painting should be displayed! After winter, I look for light & bright & colors like green, but in Fall, I thought the snow looked so 'last year'. I was determined to show this view of Huth Road from our upstairs window & it was mighty cold when I sent the application last month. It was downright hot when I delivered it last week, & perfectly lovely today for the opening reception. I now believe there is no right time for a snow picture, just enjoy the colors & composition. Long trunk shadows are created by streetlights, so they are the same all year long--but sometimes with leaves.

I adapted this scene from photographs I shot before dawn last March as the light started to change. We had a late snowstorm which silently continued all night & it was truly lovely even after a long winter. Then it took two long months to paint in my studio. This March there was no snow at all following a rather mild winter season.

The second painting in the show is a pastel, 'Not a Lift Bridge on the Erie Canal', showing a section of the canal near Widewater in Lockport.

Winter's night Dawn 36x24, oil 2009

Niagara Falls Boys & Girls Club Cookbook

I have been working since last summer on illustrations for a hardcover cookbook to be published late this year by the Niagara Falls Boys & Girls Club. Volunteers have been testing recipes & preparing the chapters for a long time already.

Each page has a 'sidebar' that may contain information about this area, the restaurant a recipe is from, or some cooking information. This painting will appear there - gray-scaled & as a screen so that the type will show clearly.

My challenge was to find an image that would work in a format that is 3 times as tall as it is wide! They are considering using two different sidebars, so the next will be 'more mist, less land'. This scene took a few tries, but I am thrilled with the result. It is from Prospect Point looking across the Niagara River to the Horseshoe Falls.

Masterviews, oil on stretched canvas, 24x8 2010

Raghava KK

"I hope you will join me in this Magic Carpet Ride, and touch children, and be honest."

Passing along a link to a Ted Talks video, it's less than 20 minutes, but Raghava shows how he has passed through 5 avatars as an artist, but remains true to himself & his art. I would like to be able to say I have been true to my art as well. We'll see. Thanks for the link from Charles.

http://www.ted.com/talks/raghava_kk_five_lives_of_an_artist.html

Sweet tooth

I couldn't resist the close up - this is about 1 foot of the painting. Time to celebrate.

Detail- 'My Mixer is Pink' (see next post)

Inspired by the Cupcake Queen

Delivered today, this painting just jumped onto the giant naked wall it was made for. Sometime ago, Cupcake Queen Amanda DiCesare mentioned that she wanted to 'do her kitchen' in the cupcake theme that had already manifested itself in cookie jars, candles and more. This kitchen already has a major collection of PINK appliances-toaster, mixer and more. She liked the old fashioned desserts shown on the tray here, so I took it for inspiration & an example of what she might be thinking about.

I drew about ten different plans, including family items like the teapot & bowl before I found a good composition for a 'larger than life' painting-it is three feet wide, the cupcakes are huge.

As I painted, I thought. [That's what I do when painting, even when the music is loud.] How could I put a picture full of sugared foods in the kitchen of a home with three children? Besides, my teeth were hurting from painting so much frosting. That's how the cookies turned into apples & the milk replaced other sweets. This is the milk bottle that I had asked around for, but eventually found & borrowed from 'Kelly's Country Store' on Grand Island.

It's not what I usually paint, but I had a lot of fun doing it, & it was worth it just to hear Amanda when I delivered it today. I brought the tray back, too.

My Mixer is Pink, 24x36 oil, 2010

Can't keep the small ones, so I'll work large

This is another large painting that lived on & off my easel for months. I have drawn this scene & painted this curve every year plein air & decided to try it in plain brain. I used some photo references, but mostly worked with the familiarity of having spent so many hours balanced on the edge of the park walkway studying the water.

I enjoy painting large, contemplating the composition & working on it over a period of time. On the other hand, I also like finishing a painting!

Thinking on Curves (Sound of Water 2) 24x48 oil 2009-2010

Not just a pretty picture

This is quite big for a bouquet & took 3 months on & off my easel. It started as a flat presentation & gradually developed depth & light. I visualize it over/behind someone's buffet or server, or perhaps in an entrance hall, acting like a huge bouquet on the table it is hung above.

The light & fresh life is on the right & the flowers there reach into the brightness, while the other side has a bit of wilting, past their prime. Little bits stretch to get out of the jumbled interior, struggling with the confusion of stems, leaves & flowers.

I appreciated the story telling quality as I painted, giving life & portraying death in what appears to be just a still life of cut flowers. The lights & darks symbolize a relationship. It will be easy to live with, hard to inspect.

I think it is not done. But almost finished.

More or Less Like Life 28x22 oil 2009-2010

Great Lakes Garden at NYS Parks

In the Fall, Niagara Frontier Plein Air Painters [NFPAP] met at the Great Lakes Garden. It was planned for dramatic landscape color, so I paint there a few times a year. This day was chilly, and turned into rain as we ate lunch-outdoors, on the park benches. I finished the painting in the rain with aprons & an old Maid of the Mist raincoat over the easel to protect the painting.

Then I misplaced it. A few weeks ago, after it had dried, I took several paintings downstairs to be lightly varnished & left them there. Since I usually varnish outdoors, I forgot about this batch of paintings. I wondered where one of them was every time I saw its empty blue frame, but they were all small & I assumed it was under or behind something else in the studio. Well, out of sight, out of mind-I just found four paintings & they are all very dry.

This is still not varnished-apparently I realized it was too soon & set it aside!

Skyline from Great Lakes Garden, oil 10x14 2009

Lights in the Garage-a Tonawanda portrait

Commissioned as 'the house I grew up in', Colleen Sullivan's parents still live here. The house faces north, so it took a number of visits to figure out the best sun light. It turned out to be 6:30 pm in August, when tree shadows appeared on the side walls & as a bonus, the flags are shading the entrance. However, I wanted the trees the colors of Fall so it is a creative jumble of references. As many times as I drove by, the car was always in the driveway & I felt like a stalker taking reference photos while her parents watched tv in the summer room/garage. Therefore, they are here & silhouetted in the painting.

The second dilemma to create this painting was...what color is the house? Seeing the photos taken in evening light added a lot of gold, but it looked very true blue as well as nearly black at other times. Imagine my surprise when Colleen said it was a greenish charcoal--and I had painted it dark blue. It was an easy change which worked out better than if I had planned it, glazes of cadmium yellow toned the blue to green & emphasized the elusive light while creating additional texture. Success!

Lights in the Garage, 18x24, oil 2009

Still waiting for these orchids to bloom

Now that winter is official with the solstice, I am thinking about the Botanical Gardens in South Buffalo. Last winter I was able to go only twice to the weekly Thursday paint outs. Both times, I spent more time walking around admiring the gardens & new layouts than I did painting.

This is a branch of Cymbidium or Dendrobium orchids, before opening. There were plenty of fantastic open examples, but I had hoped to come back in a week to see these blossoms open & paint a pair of pictures. It began as a plein air, but I continued to work on it in the studio for several long sessions, the depth represents the distance I feel from the Botanical Garden when I cannot go back to paint regularly. The closed blooms symbolize a promise of something special.

This is an expressive & dramatic painting in my studio, I feel fortunate to be able to paint like this.

Not Orchids Yet, oil 11x14, 2009

Open House at Earl Brydges Library in Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls Public Library held an open house on December 5th, cookies from Howes, punch & several local artsy people showed their work, including me. I chose a small table for my prints & cards right next to the tree so I could rearrange the ornaments for them.

I'm showing a print to Fran Volpe & Joe Carosella as their Aunt Helen-a dedicated Library Volunteer-checks out Niagara Falls paintings.

I've been busy with shows like this, calendar orders, mailing artwork, now I am going to slow down & figure out how this photo got into my folder!

I have prints & cards for sale in the library gift shop which specializes in images of Niagara Falls including wonderful historic black & white photos from the Dunlop collection. It is always a treat to go & see the volunteers who work to keep the shop full & the displays changing. I am confident it should be named the best North End gift shop for variety & history. The library building is impressive as well!

Hyde Park Golf Course Niagara Falls

Last year I was given a cart ride-with my plein air easel-out onto the golf course in Hyde Park, Niagara Falls. There were no golfers as it was late in the season & chilly, but the maintenance men-who gave me the ride-checked up on my progress several times.

This is a par three, the tee is off to the right past the little bridge. The painting stood drying in the studio for a long time, unsigned, & unfinished, because I had not chosen where to put the flag & hole on the green. The trees painted by the green were too wet & thick to draw the flagpole straight outdoors. By the time I decided on the left front, I had forgotten whether it was on the black or the red course. If I had played this course one time then I would have known the answer. Of course, painting on the golf course is more fun than chasing a ball. Well, I do know a bit about golf, the players, rules, but I do like to paint best!

Outdoor paintings in Fall

Fall started out cold & rainy, but most of the leaves stayed up to change color slow enough to paint them. These two paintings were blessed moments in the 'church of nature' on completely different days. Laurene Buckley's backyard on Lake Ontario was cold & threatening, but a warm lunch by the fire was promised. It's so nice to paint with friends, I stood on a huge flat rock-with my french easel-nestled against the cliff as critters climbed around the crevices. The biggest chipmunk I ever saw.....fat orange tail......Marian Granfield painted up above & missed all the nutty action.

The second painting is in Buckhorn. I keep trying to capture my favorite tree, but it is sinking into the marsh & didn't have the majesty it deserves on this day, so I looked East to the woods. Love my own juicy brushwork here!

Fall paintings give me the opportunity to use colors we don't see much during the rest of the year. What a wonderful November! Two solid weeks of sunshine.

West from Old Lake Road, 10x14 oil, 2009

Buckhorn Meadow Creek in Fall, oil 11x14, 2009

IPAP paintings slide show

http://www.i-p-a-p.com/

The link above is for the International Plein Air Painters website. It is a great place for me-I have made friends & connections with artists around the world & our message board contains workshops, news & comments about artist issues. Jacq Baldini, the IPAP 'leader' has posted a series of paintings by members; it runs on the front page of the website, starting with the green & black logo. It's a great representation of plein air artists, around the world, including my 'Dam Leaves in Elma' oil painting. Enjoy! If you go to the website, you won't need to click anything, it loads itself.

November 21 invitation

On Saturday, November 21 I will have an art open house from 11:00 am until 5:30 pm at my Grand Island studio. It has been exciting getting ready as I will have artwork displayed by subject-boats & lighthouses, fruits & flowers, local landscape and Niagara Falls.

Because the 2010 calendar features 12 new Niagara Falls paintings, I painted plein air in the park often over the past year & have a variety of oil & pastel Falls area paintings that will be shown for the first time. I'm looking forward to seeing them together myself.

In addition, I have new beautifully matted prints in two sizes & the 2010 calendars. I invite you & your friends to see my new paintings & perhaps get an idea for yourself or a gift for a special event in the future. All original art is discounted 20% in the studio and, of course, it is all 'Made In the USA'.

If you would like to come but are busy on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, the studio is always open by appointment. Please share this invitation with others who may be interested in seeing the new paintings.

Contact- ks@kschifano.com

Solo in Youngstown, 9.5 x 12.5, pastel 2009

Whirlpool State Park Rapids

Standing up on the hill at Whirlpool State Park, looking up-river (which is south around here, the Niagara flows north) I painted this in a flash. It was a spectacular September Thursday morning & I had 90 minutes to waste/kill/wait. I raced over to meet other NFPAP painters in the park & concentrated on the rapids as the water rounds the bend before the whirlpool. 

I should have 90 spare minutes & a small prepared canvas on sunny warm days more often!

Whirlpool Rapids, oil 4x6 2009

Buffalo's Old First Ward & Grain Elevators

Last May, Niagara Frontier Plein Air Painters came to this site-grain elevators in south Buffalo, the Old First Ward. It was windy, cold, & unworldly for a May day. We returned to paint again in September-what a difference! Warm, no wind, relaxed. There is very little growing to change the view here, so the compositions were similar but with the sun a bit lower in the sky. Layers of unused industrial buildings create strong geometrics, while the sun quickly changes the shapes of shadows.

 It's called 'elevator alley', & the Buffalo tugboats are moored to the left of this scene. I have painted them with pastel as well. To the right is the river leading to the Ohio Street bridge and another massive collection of grain elevators-a subject for another day. Sharon Fundalinski & Peggy Walker have painted this scene many times with & without me & scheduled this paintout for us.

Shadows of Elevator Alley 9.5x12.5 pastel 2009

Buckhorn State Park

This 'bit of Buckhorn' was also judged into the Erie County Family Justice Center auction. I accidently arrived at Riverwood on a lovely Fall Monday afternoon last year.....during their weekly church service. Visiting Mary was out of the question then, so I hi-tailed it up the street for my own Church of the Woods meditation. The light was glorious, the yellows and oranges flickered, & leaves silently fluttered around me. Having art supplies in the car at all times has emotional & spiritual benefits. Went back to have our visit, refreshed & renewed, with a fresh wet painting in the car.

Buckhorn State Park is a never ending source for my painting.

As Good As Church, oil 14x11 2008

Domestic Violence Awareness Month-October

This moody little oil depicts Navy Island in the Niagara River with the Robert Moses Parkway shoreline of Niagara Falls in the distance. It was rainy, foggy & chilly on the northwest corner of Grand Island, a pocket park call 'Eagle Overlook'. I painted it plein air from inside my car with the window open, the dampness crept into my bones as gulls & seabirds flew into the water & floated by. It was even grayer as I began, but the fog lifted so I could see fuzzy outlines in the distance. Despite the gloomy description it was a peaceful & lovely experience.

The Family Justice Center of Erie County and Artspace Buffalo invited artists to participate in an art auction for the benefit of the Family Justice Center of Erie County. The auction will be held during "A New stART" on October 22nd, 2009 and as part of Domestic Violence Awareness Month. This painting, & two others I entered were juried into the Family Justice Center's annual auction. See all the auction images at their website for A New StArt. Click here to view the artwork! You can also get tickets to the event, it was a lovely affair last year, great restaurant treats & wines from around the area - the art was beautifully displayed & lit for the auction. It's at Asbury Hall, formerly The Church, on Delaware Ave. & is a wonderful reuse of an elegant building, with great acoustics.

Gulls & Niagara Fog, oil, 11x14 2007

16th Street in Niagara Falls painting - a portrait

Painted from a grand old home on 16th in Niagara Falls, as well as old & new photo references, this house portrait includes details that no longer exist-the awnings, trees, windowboxes & flowers. No longer in the family,  the portrait was commissioned by Nardene Bradt as a gift to her family who grew up in a traditional blended household, aunts & uncles, cousins & grandparents in the same house.

I intended this to be all pastel, but various details of window lights, trims & brick were too small for fat pastel pigments. I chose to underpaint it with Golden fluid acrylics, a rich flexible paint that would preserve the Wallis pastel paper surface. Pastels were used on top of the dried color, allowing the hard edges & details to remain while capturing the rich qualities of pastels as well. I have used the two media together before & have always been happy with the result.

Memories of 16th Street, 16x16 fluid acrylics & pastel 2009