Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Sunday, July 5, 2015
Pastel Dust
Do you wonder what drives an artist? What's the motivation to keep painting? For me it is about the color and the diversity of the landscape and wanting to share those images you see with others. And why paint en plein air? I think it is painting "true." Nothing is in your way of what you see. There is no excuse to what you put on that board or paper. It is right in front of you...it's your interpretation!
I had the opportunity to be part of a plein air event in Walla Walla a week ago. It was a 5 day paint out organized by a tiny 90-year-old watercolorist, Margaret Walters. About 20 artists came together for the event, painting it partly or in total. I think this was the third year of the event and there were several painters who had been on all tours. The event ended with an art sale that benefited the Carnegie Picture Lab. It was certainly a stress-free, enjoyable schedule and people to paint with. Each day a new venue...one favorite was going to this beautiful farm/vineyard at the base of Cottonwood Canyon. It is a favorite of mine and to be able to drive up through the farm to a high point and paint it from a different vantage point was great. Another day of endless opportunity was painting at the Robison Ranch north of town. I found a secluded spot where I painted two pieces. The only thing that drove me out of the field was the heat creeping up to 104! These two venues, for me was what painting plein air is all about....you could stand in one spot and paint in any direction...the dilemma is...what do you paint!
A note about the Picture Lab...it is an art education program for area students. It is a nonprofit that depends on funds from outside sources. Commissions on sales of the plein air paintings benefited the Picture Lab. Happily 4 of my 6 paintings sold for this great cause.
What's on the schedule...
July 11th I will be painting in the Art of the Beartooths, the fund raiser and painting event and sale to support the Carbon county Art Guild in Red Lodge, MT. We will be painting a quick finish during the day that will be auctioned that evening.
Pendleton Art and Frame, Pendleton, OR is showing the bronzes of Rip Caswell and my plein air landscapes July 9- September 1. The opening reception is Thursday the 9th, 5-7:30
Off to the beautiful area around Hood river, OR for the Columbia Gorge Invitational Plein Air event. About 30 artists have been invited to paint August 3-7 in the area with a reception Friday the 7th, 6-8 pm.
I feel very blessed to be able to "work" at my art and take part in these events. So with that said, go out there and take a shot of drawing or painting "en plein air!!"
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Pastel dust...
The new year brings on renewed energy and promises of commitments and resolutions. I am determined to get a painting a day done at least for January. I do believe daily paintings makes one work stronger...solutions to problems happen and stronger paintings result. I like to challenge artists to do the 100 daily paintings. Pick a simple composition and paint it daily..a hundred different ways...look back over my old posts and see how it evolves. You will be surprised.
A handy tool for us that utilize iPads and such are the art apps. Some are amazing and great fun creating art digitally!
So happy new year and paint on!
A handy tool for us that utilize iPads and such are the art apps. Some are amazing and great fun creating art digitally!
So happy new year and paint on!
Saturday, July 14, 2012
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Pastel Dust is moving...
Now, I am also closing this blog site and entering my blogs on the bonniegriffith.wordpress.com site. I have transferred all the old blogs from this one, but what I don't seem to be able to do is to transfer "followers" to the new site. Please take a moment to sign into the new site to follow the journeys painting through the 50 off the 90 series and more. I have some plans for painting in a couple of different areas this year and I am sure there will be some tales of interesting bits along the way! This landscape artist is always looking for something of interest- whether it is in the back yard, by the river, in the mountains, etc.
We traveled the 82 to the 90 to the 5 over Christmas to visit family and friends in the Seattle area and what we saw was something akin to the painting above, as well as sunshine on the west side of the pass in the Cascades to rain to fog and more sunshine. Mid mornings the clouds lifted and the sun shined on Rainier for one of those spectacular views. Driving through the Tricities and onward to Yakima was a little tense as the temperature dropped to about 27 and the rains came down. A few cars were in the ditches, but as we got further west, the temperatures increased and the rains stopped. Sometimes driving you see things that are just bizarre. We witnessed such with the adventures of a little BMW of vintage age with a less than well kept convertible top and its lone driver drive sort of oddly through the hills and valleys from Yakima to Ellensburg. He was zooming around semis and cars and then slowing up, passing again, etc. Now, as you crest the last big ridges and look over the valley where Ellensburg lies, it is a beautiful site any time of year. Snow covered on the 22nd of December, roads are clear except for some snow along the edges. As you come down the long hill into the valley, the semis are gearing down for the distance and at the bottom is where you get to make the decision to get on to I-90 east or west. 82 ends there. So this little car and his driver have now sped past everyone and we are watching as he opts for the I-90 east exit. WRONG! He really wanted west! He slams on his brakes, skids around and is just about to make it back onto the lane that takes him to I-90 West when he skids into one of the interstate sign poles. It seemed like all is good until the sign starts to sway and then falls over on the car and then bounces onto the ground creating a cloud of snow as it hits. The driver seemed unscathed however, sitting in his seat, both hands on the wheel with that look of bewilderment on his face. It was probably one of those things you had to see for yourself, but it was quite the site to see this sign give way and attack!
So it is back to getting some painting done. First thing is finish the poster for the Snow White production and work on some backdrop designs...so remember to go to the new blog site and follow from there. If you have difficulties...contact me: bzgriff@charter.net . In meantime...happy painting and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Monday, November 22, 2010
Pastel Dust
Another gallery that I love to go to and have exhibited at is the Pendleton Center for the Arts. Overlooking downtown Pendleton, OR from it's spot next to the Umatilla River, this gallery welcomes you the minute you walk in the doors. The beautiful light filled gallery with bamboo floors and white walls show work so well. A few years ago I did a show there called "A Hundred Mile Radius". It was a show of 23 landscapes, all images of the lands within 100 miles of Pendleton. This gallery has a wonderful shop of artisan items for sale as well as a performing arts area and great workshop space and more. This art center was once a Carnegie Library and was renovated into a first class gallery.
I am prepping for our 3rd annual Open Studio Art Sale. This year I am moving it to the first weekend of December to coincide with the Winter Barrel Tasting event for the wineries in Walla Walla. We will move furniture around and out to accommodate easy access to the wall space on the main level of our house, hang lots of art, salon style, brew some good coffee and have some treats available and enjoy the two days visiting with friends and art lovers who happen to come by. I am encouraging visitors to bring something for the Food Bank as well - something nonperishable to donate to the bank in the spirit of the annual Care and Share Food Drive the Walla Walla Association of Realtors does each year. Each person that brings some food item for the drive will get to enter a drawing for one of the series of 100 paintings.
I will have a good variety of sizes and prices of art - mostly the pastels, but I may hang a few mono prints and oils as well. So if you happen to be in the Walla Walla area December 4-5, stop by 938 Mountain Park Drive and enjoy some art and conversation over a cup of hot coffee or tea!
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Pastel dust under the lights
So on the last post I was talking a little bit about how lights affect photographing paintings. Because this is so dramatic on this piece I wanted to illustrate that for my readers. The first image where the rocks appear to be golden in color was photographed indoors with both daylight bulbs and a halogen bulb in a lamp that I paint with. The other image where the rocks appear more gray was photographed in a shaded, but naturally lit area (my patio) with a neutral background. I did not manipulate the image except to resize it.
When I an standing there painting in the studio and when I look at the image of this painting, what I see is the one with the gray rocks....which is accurate. So that tells me that the lights I use in my studio work for just that...BUT to photograph them in that light changes the tones greatly.
Now if I were painting that scene from southern Nevada for instance, the color of that rock would be actually the color of the first painting. Down around Lake Mead in the Valley of Fire, you tend to see this golden to reddish color of rock. But that wasn't what I saw when I took the reference photo in SE Montana! Another BUT...if I had shot an image in the late day when the sun was close to going down...I might have gotten that sort of image! Holy Cow!! Light is a huge factor in painting and photography.
So the message is...whatever painting you are photographing, it is best to do that in natural light. Now I know that professional photographers aren't running outside on their patio to shoot their images....but I am talking about those of us who are photographing our work for either shows and/or archival needs and want a good representation of the piece of art. There have been good articles written about photographing art for shows in Artist's Magazine and Pastel Journal and one might still be able to go to their web sites and dig them up. I just wanted to illustrate simply for you how differently a painting can look under different light. And I did these with a digital camera using the automatic setting for close up work. If you read articles about photographing art, you would probably find the recommended procedure is to use a SLR camera, not automatic settings, a light meter, certain f-stops, etc. A good digital camera can give you great results as I have shown.
Another little piece is the 3rd in the series of 50 off the 90...only by about 100 miles or so...It is a 5x7 on Canson black paper looking to the east toward the Blue Mountains near Dayton, WA. Spring in that area brings out about every color of green! It is a beautiful area. Those big hills are farmed on top and down some of the sides...and beyond the fir trees there are lush fields of grain any place a plow can get to!
So, experiment with some photography of work and see the difference! As a note, the last show I attended - and I think I may be touched on this last time - some of the paintings looked quite a bit different when viewed on the monitor when compared to seeing them in real life. And the catalog print images were even different again. It's all the variables! Just something else we need to pay attention to!
Happy painting....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)