Saturday, October 30, 2010

Friday Plein Air

I'm really running behind on posting work this week. I had jury duty and have been working on some commissions for some house paintings. The jury brought in a conviction and the commissions are just looking toward a few touch-ups. Those paintings will be posted after the clients get to see them.

This is the old (now that they're about ready to move into a new...) firehouse in Mason. I couldn't paint the fire engines, because they went out on a run just before I started. We painted in the afternoon this time (shadow on the East side of the building) to compensate for the cool morning.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Plein Air Thursday and Friday

Once again my plein air adventures took place on Thursday and Friday last week. My painting on Thursday was of "Three Pines" near the entrance to French Park, an Amberly Village location, but  owned by Cincinnati Parks. This is a newer park that was the estate of the French family and includes their large Georgian mansion, a large wooded tract and three or four picnic shelters. I skipped the architecture and painted this scene, looking back to where the entry intersects with Section Road.
Then on Friday I painted the "Last Three on the West". A view on Route 42 heading North out of town (I guess this was a week to paint threes). It was a very bright, sunny day, but cold with a brisk wind. Temperatures have dropped and the leaves have turned, but probably won't last long because of the drought. Rain earlier in the week brought many down and another good hard storm might be the end of fall color for the year.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Plein Air Thursday and Friday

We're finally getting the barest hints of fall color around here, but mostly on the hill tops. As you can see the cold airs have yet to invade the lowlands to start the leaves changing color. Another week or so before the rest of the trees start turning. This 9x12 is from Thursday in the valley of Glenwood Gardens, one of the Hamilton County parks. Another one of the outings with the SW Ohio Plein Air group.
This is from the Friday outing with the Mason Area Plein Air group. We were back on the North side of Mason, but painting on the other side of Rt 42. This house was from 42 looking down Kings Mill Rd. Up on a hill top there is more color coming in the trees. Caught it in the earlier morning so the shadows were long across the yard.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Hyde Park Square Art Show

Lastly, A wet, cold and blustery Sunday with a few thousand fellow art lovers in Cincinnati. Thanks to all that stopped by and showed interest in my work. See previous post from today about the paintings in the photo. Here's a link to a few more photos of the booth at the Hyde Park Square Art Show from this weekend: HPSAS Booth

Mason Plein Air

On Friday our band of intrepid painters were outdoors in Mason again. We met behind Lil' Rascals photo studio, because some wished to take advantage of the photography props. I find this end of town a challenge to my compositional ability.

This scene is looking from the parking lot behind the photo studio toward the lot next door. A couple of pine trees were covered in some kind of vine and there were great shadows too. So this is "Back of 118 Main".

Plein Air Thursday

Catching up from last week's paintings... the SW Ohio Plein Air group met in Burnet Woods, on of the Cincinnati Park system's jewels. Located just North of the University of Cincinnati campus. In fact the UC Main Campus was built in the South end of Burnet Woods. Burnet Woods is lushly forested, with walking trails and this "Trailside Nature Center". Located just across pedestrian only Brookline Drive, the nature center was built by WPA and park staff in the 30's-40's.

Established as a park in 1872, Burnet Woods was developed on what at that time was undeveloped suburban land. Like many of the great parks in Cincinnati, BW benifited from the planning of a great landscape architect, George Kessler (1862-1923). Like Frederick L. Olmsted, his ideas were to create winding drives, incorporating the use of hillsides to provide distant views and overlooks, an oasis of nature to relieve people of their workday stresses.

I've been forgetting to take pictures of my paintings  "in situ". I like to see these kind of photos in other blogs, so here's my first!

Holiday Gift Idea...

I held off on this post until after this weekend's Hyde Park Square Art Show. I featured this painting and the one I posted 9/16 (Christmas Gifts), out front in my booth to drum up some house painting business. They are two views of the same home, that of my good friend Donna. The show was the first time she got to see her house portrait. She was so proud, that she started grabbing people by the sleeve and hauling them over to look, claiming "That's my house!"


I've received several commissions and hope more are on the way. My price sign with price list is shown below.