Plein air sketches

I was able to complete a few quick skethes while in New Philadelphia, Ohio, with the Ohio Plein Air Society. What a wonderful weekend! The weather was perfect and the scenery was inspiring. The best part of all though, was the other artists. So much talent!!! I didn't enter the competition but felt I came away as a winner because a fellow artist loved my composition of my painting of the courthouse and asked if he could use the composition for his painting in the "quick draw" contest. (A competition where you had only 60 minutes to complete a painting.) His painting won!

October...Hot off the Easel!

Hello............finally, I am able to paint again!!! It has been very frustrating, trying so desperately to break the addiction to nicotine. I knew it would be a war, but I didn't realize that it would cause me to be unable to put paint to canvas. I took on a commission that forced me to paint and stick with it. It finally worked! I have since completed the portrait and joined the plein air painters at the annual competition and was able to paint on location again. YEAH!!!

Hot Off the Easel April 15

This week I had the opportunity to see a free demo by artist Jane Angelhart, from the Andreeva Gallery in Sante Fe,NM.

For those who often say "there's nothing to do", you really missed out on this one..........

Even if you weren't an artist you would have enjoyed watching as she boldly played with color and a person came to life on the paper!

Jane's demo was in watercolor, although she also paints in oils. I was impressed by her bold use of color in doing portraits in the realist style! She was very open and sharing. Jane also was excellent in verbalizing technique as she painted.She was full of hints and suggestions, along with a great sense of humor!

It was a couple of days before I had time to set down with my watercolors. This is the painting of "Alex" that I did in about 2 hours....

Hot off the Easel

Yesterday was a perfect day to paint outdoors! I didn't have much time, as I teach an after noon class, but I had about an hour and a half to do this study. My goal was to paint a subject with mostly "face light", as I am exploring how the light affects everything.

It got pretty windy and since I had my easel set up on the driveway, I had to hold on to it with my left hand while I tried to paint.

I put my hair back in a ponytail to keep it out of my way and didn't even think about the area on my shoulder and neck that was directly exposed to full sun.........well, you know what happened.........a bright, red sunburn! (Just on the one area.....the rest of me is still pale, even though my face and hands were also in direct sun.)

I'll try to remember some sunscreen next time.........

What a change...........almost 80 yesterday and today as I type this, it is about 30 and snowing with winds about 40 mph. I have tried to cover the tulips, peonies, etc. hoping to save them so I can paint them but now it's up to mother nature.....

One of my favorite quotes......."If a voice tells you you can't paint.........keep painting and the voice will be quieted."

Good day............Ruth Ann

This is the third sculpture in progress......the rose was a variety that grew on my back arbor, until blackspot ruined it.........so I decided to give it a new life, as a piece of art in drywall.

This is the drawing stage.....you can't see it very well, but the photo I took of the Heron shows him with a background of shoreline rocks he was using for camoflage.........I chose to draw him standing on the shore, surrounded by cattails, with the water and sky in the background.

Here is the completed sculpture. The drywall is sealed before painting to strengthen it and is then mounted so it is very strong and stable.