Sunny afternoon in Texas

 

Outside Austin, Texas at Maxine Price's painting studio, a wonderful native rock wall encloses a lovely yard of Texas treasures, including sculpture, plants and majestic live oaks.

An afternoon of plein air combined with visiting  and artist conversation turned into this little oil of a prickly pear cactus half immersed in front of the wall.

A Little Texas Sunlight, oil 10x8

Painting for Preservation, Delaware Court

Super Saturdays! About once a month, Sara Zak invites artists to join her to bring attention to an 'endangered' or at risk building in Buffalo. Delaware Court, on the corner of Delaware and Chippewa in Buffalo was our most recent event. It may be replaced by a modern steel and glass tower, but no building would have the character and beauty that is on the corner now.

The curved facade gives the appearance of a building that goes on forever, decorative plaques are embedded on the pilasters and in the top molding, bump out 2nd floor balconies increase the visual delight. The group was gathered by Spot Coffee for a kiddy corner view, but I choose to sit across the street in the sun on a crisp fall morning on the patio of an obliging restaurant.

Me

Sara Zak

  Carol Case Syracuse

Delaware Court, oil on oil paper 11x14, K. Schifano 2013

Adirondack painters, the first group photo

This photo is from June 2011, and was left as a draft. Today it got noticed and I 'undrafted' it, and instead of landing in the June 2011 calendar, it published today. I guess if I want something to be in order I need to post it on time! At the time this was the largest gathering of plein air painters painting at one time, this has since been eclipsed by the PA convention groups and the two subsequent Publisher's Invitational Plein Air Paintouts, both of which I have attended. Simply an amazing experience.

A unique art studio and a wonderful friend

Frances Gaffney is a long distance buddy who I don't see nearly often enough. Check out her boat residence on the west side of Manhattan.

Hear Frances, See the video on Pleinair.ning.com

Long Beach, Long Island Paintings August 2013

Coffee Time in LB, AM., oil on canvas board, 12x24
Maybe this seems a little dark, but morning on the ocean is hazy and peaceful. The tide came in, swirled around my ankles sinking the easel supports just as I finished.

Living the Salt Water Life, oil on board 8x16
Beat flat by Hurricane Sandi in September 2012, the sand dunes along the beach were plowed back and planted with hardy beach grasses. The light on the dge of the dune stopped me right on the street. It will be interesting to see how much more has grown by next summer.

Observation, oil on canvas board 8x10
Love these rocks! As the tide and sunlight changes, the green starts to glow on these boulders, nearly underwater during high tide, but full of swirling water, shells and bubbles the rest of the time.

I painted this jetty angle twice, the more abstract of the two remains in Long Beach, collection of Francis Marion.

Slack, oil on canvas board, 9x12
Perhaps my favorite of the week, this is the same composition I painted with pastels last year. No matter how devastating the storm was to homes and the city of Long Beach, these boulders were impervious, stalwart in their assigned locations. The title comes from slack tide, when the incoming and outgoing forces of tide water is fairly even.

Summer's Missed, oil on BFK paper 8x22
This panorama is emotionally charged, a Labor Day painting symbolizing the end of summer lifeguards and lazy days as well as beach and salt water time I gave up by moving off Long Island and across the state. I miss the ocean, but not much else.

Van Gogh at the Beach, oil on board 5x7 
After completing one of my 'stand up at the easel' oils, I sat on the blanket as the waves came in right at my eye level. I took a few photos, but realized that I wanted to paint this power, and I had a spare little board with me. Trying to catch this enormous power right in front of me, I poured on the paint, frequently using a painting knife to sculpt the color.