Buckhorn! Again! Summer!

 Look very carefully, the right side of the photo at top shows the tree hanging over the creek. Taking the photo together with a painting uses a different vantage point and size relationship than my eyes see as I paint. Watching this tree slowly melt into the landscape over the years has been interesting. It is indeed slowly breaking down as it had several trunks in my first painting years ago. That was a fall scene from the opposite side of the creek. Kayaks were unloaded near my vantage point and I decided to add one in.

Another Buckhorn Day, 12x16 pastel. c. 2018

Burchfield Nature Park

Buffalo Creek and Burchfield, 9x12 pastel c.2018

Sharon Fundalinski and Peggy Walker introduced me to this park at least ten years ago and every time I return it is a lovely day with slowly rippling water, little kids with grandparents, people walking dogs and peaceful nature sounds. Many of the stately trees are gone as the creek has the potential to become fast and furious and the trees roots are eroded, year by year as they age.

 

There are still a few massive trees that may have been painted by Charles Burchfield. He lived directly across the creek from this one.

Fort Niagara Lighthouse

This is my view of
the lighthouse, about 5 minutes into my preliminary drawing, when the buses arrived.  Not interested in using yellow I decided to paint the upper part of this lighthouse. It was a scorching hot day and there were no trees so I had set up in the shade of my car, with the back extended and a shade umbrella attached with bungie cords.

I met so many nice people, tourists from all over were on vacation and headed to Fort Niagara. Best part was espying a revolutionary uniform or other traditional dress as colonial actors reported for work

The painted view above the buses

North By Northwest, 12x9, oil on linen panel, 2018

Another Buckhorn Painting, Spring with a bit of snow.

From the canoe launch on the south side of the park, there is a small inlet that connects to the creek. I painted there on a sunny spring day with ducks and herons and fishermen all around. As I painted, the little bits of snow remaining from a late storm melted.

Spring Equinox, End of Winter, oil on canvas, 9x12 c.2018

Burchfield Penney Saturday still life

Two fun Saturday afternoons at Burchfield PenneyArt Center in their first floor classroom

involved an art project with unusual still life set ups by invited artists. I like to work with real objects outdoors, but these were so different that I kept smiling as I painted. It was difficult to choose a particular part of these unusual structures to work with because there was so much going on in each still life.

Saturdays With Myles

Watching the museum's schedule for additional opportunities to do this challenge, I am disappointed that these two paintings will stand alone. There is no way I could put up a crazy still life like either of them for myself. I have to laugh that I did this for my students regularly. Because the setups were completely my choice I didn't have the perspective of strange and new objects. Planning the shapes and colors gave me an unfair advantage. At this moment I want to apologize to all the art students who were overwhelmed by art room still lifes in Niagara Falls High School. It took me quite a few years, but now I know how you felt.
Both paintings are 12x9 oil.  My Guerrilla Painter pochade box worked well on the classroom tables.

Critters With Eyes