haybales

I was visiting an artist's studio on a tour last fall and photographed these hay bales while in her yard. Later I took some classes with her at this studio and ended up painting them "en plein aire". This was challenging as the clouds were thick and fast-moving and cast different shadows constantly on the mountains and field, changing the color of the mountains from light cadmium orange to deep blue purple, and other colors in between. But I think I captured the place and time!

flakes of snow

Snowflake project for kids - no cutting! First, show students examples of snowflakes, highlighting the six sides or spokes with crystalline shapes. On colored paper, have students draw diagonal lines from corner to corner. Then draw a line midway through the intersection point -- this forms 3 lines total, or 6 short lines radiating from center. Next, have students embellish the lines with curvy lines, straight lines, or simple geometric shapes, to convey the idea of a snowflake crystal. The line drawings should resemble snowflakes that have been cut from folded paper (another project, or you can bring in samples).

Next, provide students with thick white tempera paint or acrylic paint and a brush. I like to start them with a medium size flat brush so that they can cover most of the space (negative) with paint quickly, and learn to use the side of the flat brush to get into crevices around the drawn lines/shapes. They should try not to cover any pencil lines. I then give them small brushes to add paint to inner spaces of their designs. This makes a white "negative" of a snowflake design - the colored paper that peeks through forms the snowflake.

This week, I will have students paint several and we will use the texture of the paint that builds up as a "block" for printing on other paper. I hope to post students' work tomorrow!

apple orchard

Not my first plein air painting, but the first one I've framed! This was painted near Little Washington, Virginia - the trees are old, dead apple trees. I love their shapes.

blue crab

This was painted on a linen/board, 8 x 10, with a palette knife. Most of the applied paint was scraped off; the linen board kept the color as a "stain" that was still intense and rich. I decided to not paint into it again as I liked the effect and felt I should stop.

red plums

This was done with a palette knife on a textured canvas. I wanted to capture the texture of the woven tablecloth and the highlights of the plums by using a rough base and smoothing oil paint like icing on a cake.

teen art landscapes

My teenage students are working on landscapes. I brought in photos of Wolf Kahn's and Milton Avery's work to inspire them. Concepts covered are horizon line, foreground, midground, background, and composition on the rectangular plane. After sketching in 4 horizontal lines to break up the canvas into sky, mountain, treeline/hedge, and grass/meadow, they are ready to begin adding paint. The assignment is to use "weird" colors, not what they think the sky/mountain/grass color "should be". Skills developed: trying styles of applying acrylic paint. Some are using wash techniques with lots of water, smoothing out with dry brush; others are letting brushstrokes show for texture. After completing these landscapes, some students may choose an option of adding trees, then perhaps interweaving something in the forest (Magritte's horsewoman, for example, or a dinosaur/dragon?). Others may redo a landscape, this time using more realistic colors. I find assigning odd colors (as in Avery and Kahn) helps students feel more relaxed about applying paint and they are not hung up with making it look "real" and "perfect".

Bradford Pear Pair

Oil painting done with palette knife of the bradford pear trees flanking our driveway.