Posts Tagged ‘landscape paintings’
Snow Hill Paint Out – Day 1
The Snow Hill Paint Out is this coming weekend. Officially, it is Friday through Sunday, but unofficially, all week long artists are permitted to go to Snow Hill or the surrounding area and paint. The only requirement is that you register before the cut-off number of artists is reached.
My two friends and I met south of town. They drove together, but I drove separately because I paint larger paintings than they and it takes me longer to finish. Once parked, I joined them and we drove around the area looking for interesting scenery for our landscape paintings. We finally settled on Byrd Park, the local city park along the beautiful Pokomoke River, because it had something for everyone – water for them and trees for me.
After 2 hours or so, Suzanne had 2 paintings, Betty had one, and I had about 2/3 of one. Later, after dinner, I finished mine.
The Perspective of a Friend
A friend came over for the afternoon today. I hadn’t seen her for a while and always enjoy her visits. She has been a very creative person for many years, and I was delighted to see her again
She looked at my landscape paintings and gave me many ideas for promoting them. Several people have said that because the paintings are bright and whimsical, children would love them. In addition, she pointed out specific ones and said they would fit nicely in the office of a children’s dentist, or a bed and breakfast, or a ladies powder room. Some would fit in a mountain lodge, or a cottage by the sea. I don’t often think about who might use the paintings, or where a good place might be to hang them, so it was wonderful to have a new perspective on my paintings.
The Edison and Ford Estates
My friend and I decided to do some landscape painting at the Edison and Ford Estates today. Our friends had said they had seen several landscape painters on the Estates and that painters were encouraged to come.
After we parked, I went to pay any fees and ask permission to paint. After talking with 2 volunteers and another who seemed to be a paid employee, I waited for the Event Coordinator who asked me if I would try to sell my painting. I said I did have a web site and hoped to do so. I then had to sign a couple of papers which, in her words, said that if I became a Van Gogh, I would owe the Estates something. I replied that I would be glad to share with the Estates, but not to hold her breath! At least, I didn’t have to pay!
Edison had imported several varieties of Ficus and Banyan trees as well as several other types of trees, trying to find a method of producing rubber, and they had been planted in a grove next to one of the parking areas. My friend painted a giant Ficus tree and I painted a leafless Bo tree on such a gorgeous day!.
The Open House
Several days ago I printed invitations to our Open House today, 2-4 PM, and my friend and I took them around to several neighbors in the development in which we live. We wanted a chance to get acquainted with the neighbors, as we are somewhat new here, a time when they could visit with each other, and an opportunity to show them our landscape paintings.
They came! They talked! They enjoyed themselves! They ate – but not much! They really liked our fruit punch! They asked a lot of questions about our paintings and, I think, they liked them. Best of all, we enjoyed having a chance to spend a little time with the neighbors, getting to know them better.
Delighted!
When I went to the gallery in Matlacha to pick up my landscape paintings, the owner said he would be happy to keep them over the summer if I trusted him. Trusted him? If I hadn’t trusted him, I never would have left them in the first place!
I was absolutely delighted that he would be interested in continuing to try to sell my paintings. My next option would be to try to sell them in Maryland, but how many people in Maryland would be interested in palm trees or banana trees? Only the people who live with them would truly appreciate and love those beautiful whimsical trees!
Open House
It’s done! Finished! Sent! The income tax, that is. And in a few days, the accountant will have another worry. I had many expenses this year with setting up a web site and blog. And recently, an on-line mall has asked me to join them – Easy Place to Shop (www.easyplacetoshop.com).
This Sunday, my friend and I are having an Open House and we invited some of the neighbors to come and visit and see our latest landscape paintings. So today, I will do some more touch-up work and photograph a few new ones for my site. However, I long for the days I can forget about responsibilities and take my easel to the park, set up, and for a couple of hours or so commune with nature!
Studio Time
On one of those very nice days recently, I was able to get in some studio time. I worked on five of my landscape paintings.
I usually do the main painting at the site and fill in the background later. Also, I generally paint the edges, and must do that in studio. This particular day I had to add palm fronds to one, paint the background, palm trees and edges of another, just the edges of the third, the roots of a banyan tree on the fourth, and a complete overhaul on the last with more lights and more darks. It felt wonderful to have these “almost done” paintings finished.
Raining, Again
Yep, you guessed it! It’s raining again today! With a 90% chance of raining tomorrow, this is just not a good time to do plein air painting!
I always have paintings that need finishing however. Sometimes I have to adjust the colors a bit, and I like to paint around the edges which is always done in studio. So today is a good day to finish some of those landscape paintings that were mostly painted on site!
The Park on Coronado Parkway
A few days ago, my friend and I went to the city park on Coronado Parkway, Cape Coral, FL. to do some plein air painting. It is a fairly large park with a variety of trees.
Along the perimeters are “stubby” trees with short trunks and billowing tops. The interior of the park had larger, more elegant trees which gave lots of shade for the children’s playground and picnic shelters beneath them.
There were also some quite large shelters. I didn’t check them out, but I heard the clack of what might have been shuffleboard pucks attacking one another. Parks are great places to enjoy life.
The Bonsai Nursery
Today, my friend and I visited a Bonsai nursery in North Fort Myers in search of a choice tree for our landscape paintings. Bonsai trees are amazing to me – those little shrubs about 12″ – 36″ in height that normally would be much larger!
To create a Bonsai tree, one uses techniques like pruning, root reduction and grafting to produce small trees that mimic the shape and style of mature, full-sized trees. Frequently, the trunks of Bonsai trees are much larger in comparison to their height than normal tree trunks are to their height. Also, sometimes the limbs have been wired to grow in a particular shape to make an interesting display. To me, they are always charming.