Plein Air at Night

View from Muskrat Park 8x10 pastel available $25.00

What an amazing night!  First, the Plein Air Painters of the Chesapeake Bay met for dinner at Sam's in St. Michaels, Md. We had the best time talking art.  This group is so great and is really helping me gain some footing in my journey as an artist.  Let me just say that Sam's really has the best gyros ever!  So with full bellies and a plan to paint a night scene, we headed down to Muskrat Park.  This was my first visit here, and I was a little worried from the name that we might have muskrats running around our feet, but the locals said there hasn't been a muskrat there in years so I felt safe ( I've never seen a muskrat, and I'll have to do a little research on them later).

Once at the park our little group of 5 women walked the area to find the scene we wanted to paint, set up our gear and got to work.  After about 40 minutes I had to bring out the head lamp - great tool if you're going to paint at night.  We had to work fast and everyone finished in just over an hour.  Kate actually had time to paint 2!  Thank you Diane, Kate, Elaine and Judy for a great night of painting! I can't wait for next Tuesday!

Spring is here!

Spring! 5x7 pastel available $15.00

This is my first plein air painting for 2017.  I'm still very new to the whole plein air experience, and what an experience this past Saturday was!  My son and I headed to Adkins Arboretum - a great place for hiking and getting ideas for landscaping.  They use only native plants and will have plant sales throughout the year of just native plants and classes on how to use them in your yards.  Well, because I'm still new to plein air painting, I decided we should head far into the woods so I wouldn't be on display so much with the other Arboretum visitors.  We hiked about 30 minutes into the woods and came across this blooming branch over the stream.  There just happened to be a bench right here at this scene, but there were two ladies sitting and talking - I didn't want to set up in front of them so we hiked down the trail a little ways, sat on some fallen trees and waited for them to leave.  And waited, and waited, and waited. Finally!  We had the bench and the view to ourselves. I packed as light as I could, so I planned on doing the painting on my lap.  I found a good place to sit on a little hill and set my supplies out all around me. Then, my first bite.  And then another and another - bugs were flying in my eyes, my hair, down my shirt.  I don't know what kind of bugs these were, but they did NOT want me there!  But I was determined to complete this painting.  I'd paint a stroke, and swat bugs and paint a stroke and swat bugs.  It was terrible!  I finally decided to pack it up when I notice blood spots coming through my shirt.  I was left with a chest full of bites!  I had no idea painting could be so dangerous! Seriously though, the lesson learned - always carry insect repellent!  I know I will not forget it again.

Tonight my plein air group is heading to St. Michaels to do a nocturnal painting.  We're going to meet for dinner before hand, and then set up when the sun sets.  This will be quite a challenge - We will be wearing head lamps to be able to see what we're doing.  I'm sure it will look quite funny to on lookers - a whole group of people wearing head lamps.  I'll post all about it tomorrow. 

My Weekly Sky Painting

Pathway to the Storm available $150.00 Sold

I was watching You Tube videos this weekend of Les Darlow.  He's a fantastic painter of stormy skies, and I was inspired to give it a try.  I honestly could sit and watch him paint his skies all day and never get bored.  He's quite amazing.  This painting was done on a large piece of Canson Mi Teintes Touch pastel paper.  What I discovered was that I need to go shopping for some more pastels.  There were colors that I needed and just didn't have so I had to make due and try to mix the colors I needed right on the paper.

Tune in tomorrow for my report on my plein air experience from yesterday.  All I can say is that it's never a dull moment in the life of Wendy Johnston.  I need a day of recouping before I recount the day's events.  

Eagle on the Bay

Cattails and Lunch 12x9 pastel available $40.00

Sometimes paintings come easily, and sometimes they will frustrate you until you're left with handfuls of hair.  I'll let you guess which category this one fell into.  I started with a plan that I thought was a great plan, I had chosen my colors before I started, I blocked in all the large areas, I did a wash for the water, blocked in the eagle  - then came the grasses.  Oh the grasses!  Nothing I did seemed to work - they just kept competing with everything else.  I lost count as to how many times I brushed them off and would start again.  Finally I decided to NOT follow the reference photo and "make up" my own.  There weren't any cattails in the reference photo, but I believe they were just what I was needing to complete this painting.

This was actually a class assignment that we had to do during class time - the assignment was to complete a painting that used a wash, line and blending.  I thought I chose a good reference photo because I could use a wash for the water, line for the grasses and blending for the log and the eagle. In the end, I think I'm pretty pleased with the final result.

Today, Zach (my son) and I are heading to Adkins Arboretum to do some plein air painting.  The Plein Air Painters of the Chesapeake Bay group that I'm a member of, visited this location on Tuesday, and I was not able to go with them.  So today we will head over there and hopefully complete something so I can be on track with the rest of the group.  If you live in the area and would like to join this group let me know.  They're a great bunch of people and always welcome newcomers and they have scheduled an end of the season show at one of our local art galleries. 

Emerald Morning

Emerald Morning pastel 16x12 available $75.00

Although I haven't posted since Monday, that doesn't mean I haven't been hard at work painting.  I make it a priority to paint every day - how else will you improve?  I look forward to my painting sessions everyday.

This is Tuesday's painting; Emerald Morning.  I came across this photo on the Wet Canvas web site which is filled with reference photos, and I was captivated by it.  It gave me the feeling of what it might be like to take a walk in Ireland.  I primed a canvas panel first with pastel acrylic primer in elephant gray.  The primer is made by Art Spectrum.   It had a very different feel to it while painting, and I think that when I prime again I will do 2 coats of primer.  But I will say, it is definitely more cost effective than the already sanded papers and boards.  I still prefer the sanded papers, but when funds are tight this is a great alternative.

Marshy Hope

Sunny Spot on the Marshy Hope available $40.00

One of my favorite summer past times is kayaking, and living where I do, I'm surrounded by awesome places to do just that.  This painting is from a photo I took while kayaking down the Marshy Hope river in Federalsburg, Md.  I crept up on these turtles sunning themselves on this large branch that was stuck in the mud and shot the picture just seconds before they jumped in the water.  The water was probably a foot deep in this spot, because I can remember looking at all the grasses and tiny fish along the bottom.

I didn't get a chance to post yesterday - it was sunny out ( a little bit of a chill), but a great day to explore and take photos.  So my son and I set out driving to various spots with the intention of photography bridges for future paintings.  I think I took way more photos of ducks, seagulls and shells than I did the bridges, but they all will make great paintings non the less. So stay tuned - I'd love to share them with you.

Just a note, for the interesting movement in the water, I used one of those erasers that you put on the end of a pencil when the pencil's eraser is used up and squiggled it down while the underpainting was still wet.  It really worked well.

Interesting Tree

Crying Out 12x9 pastel available $40.00

Sometimes in nature you can find the most interesting subjects.  Take this tree for instance, the moment I saw it, I knew it had to be painted.  This lone, dead tree just looked like it was screaming up to heaven.  It was actually quite spooky in person although it was surrounded by the most beautiful grasses and gorgeous fall color.  This scene was photographed at Terrapin Beach Park, not far from my home.  I'm hoping it's still standing so I can do another painting of this tree in spring and possibly summer.