En Plein Air: Back Home at Leisure (Oil, 7 x 11)

Two days ago when I was painting Entrance to a Kingdom on Styles Road, I noticed way back there was a pond with a boat docked there. From the distance, it seemed to be the kind of twin-hulled party barge next to something I would not call a dock. It looked like half a bridge. I believe it was built there for agricultural purpose. Judging by the PVC pipes attached to it, my guess is that they could be connected to a water pump during the dry season. However, when these two things were together, I felt there was an aesthetic attraction in their combination like a ballroom dance couple.

This morning I drove directly into the kingdom and knocked on the door of the palace. the king's name was Paul. He recognized me and said he remembered me painting across the street two days before. I said it must be he that drove an 18-wheeler in there with a full load of hay. He nodded yes with a smile. I asked his permission to get inside the fence to paint my picture. At first he was a little hesitant saying that would be a liability with the cattle in there.I assured him that I painted in cattle farm before wth cows around me and would not get him in trouble. Finally, Paul agreed but cautioned me about the black bull. I set up under a big oak. Of course, on my way in and out, I had to watch my steps and avoid stepping on cow cakes.

En Plein Air and Sketch

Yesterday afternoon I went to Bell Tower Cinema to see the movie Railway Man, which seemed to have received good reviews. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed by it. It was pretty bloody for sure, but the story could be better even though it was based on a true story. Before I entered my movie hall, I did a sketch on a lady sitting in the snack hall with children. Her posture was a little awkward since she was trying to do something on the table while sitting at a right angle.

Encouraged by my discoveries last time on Tuchahoe Road, this morning I was curious about the other part of the road, so I purposely turned left into the road instead of turning right as I usually did. I didn't drive too far on the road before I came to an intersection with a street named Styles Road. The name tickled me and, therefore, I immediately made a right turn to see what styles I could find. I came to an entrance of a farm, the tin roof of its house was glaring deep in the dark woods. The contrast made it even brighter. So I set up across from the entrance and made this painting.

Entrance to a Kingdom on Styles Road

Oil, 10 x 16.5

En Plein Air: Old Oak (Oil 10 x 16.5)

This is an old old oak on the McIntoshes' farm. As far as I remembered, I had painted oak trees twice before. I was satisfied with neither of them. I believe the problem was I didn't really pay attention to the form of oak trees, taking it for granted that I knew how to paint tree branches. In fact tree branches twist following their specific logical way. Therefore, this morning I took special care for its form. I studied and drafted carefully the tree branches. 

In the middle of painting, I saw a cowboy on horseback waving to me in a distance, so I waved back. Then he rode across the pasture coming towards me. As he was riding nearer, he said to me, "I thought it was Dennis." I smiled and responded, "I am Dennis's friend." The cowboy's name was Michael. he was the McIntosh family's neighbor. He asked if he could come to see my painting and, when I said yes, he circled around me on horseback. He praised me for the painting and then went on with his pleasure ride.

Alla Prima Portrait: Artist Trisha (Oil, 20 x 16)

It was Punta Gorda VAC's Portrait Studio day again. Today's model was Trisha. Quite a few people here painted her before, but it was my first time. Overall, I felt it was OK. I got her likeness all right. I tried to control tones. Even though the outcome seems OK, but I know the tones and strokework were not precise enough to be always satisfactory in the first touch. When you need to repaint the same spot, the effect usually is not the most desirable. Like Jeffery Watts says, every stroke has its story.

Compared with many other artists' organizations, I believe Punta Gorda VAC is one of the best in this region. It is well organized and people here are friendly and helpful in spite of the fact that sometimes I do feel it is a little too relaxed and break times are often stretched. Considering socialization is also an important part of  life for most artists who came to VAC, I accepted it as a reality. As long as it is not your private studio, you have to put up with other people's needs. That I understand. However, there is at VAC an old gander whom I believe I mentioned  before in my blog. He often gets on my nerves. He lives in Punta Gorda so he is an early bird to the portrait studio. He likes to set up his easel right under the model's chin. I believe he could count models' freckles if he wants. Then he takes picture of the model with a camera. For the rest of the session, he mainly paints from his camera.

 He is very gentlemanly to ladies. Sometimes, he offers his hand to female model in order to help her step down the high chair when it is time for a break. When a lady artist comes, he often moves his easel to make room for the lady. Once he did that for a lady and, as a result, he came to stand in my path of vision like a billboard in front of me. By then, the studio was packed full and I had to move to the wall and ended up doing a profile of the model.

Today, during the model's last sitting, I knew I had a lot to catch. I needed time to put final touch to her hair together with the background. I also needed to smooth out some spots on the face and so on. By then the gander was done. He skipped the model's  last sitting and was putting away stuff. It is not unusual some artists would finish their work earlier than the session was over. However, this guy was eager to share his work with the lady painting in my left-hand front. When he came over, he totally blocked my view. I reminded him that he was in my way but he was too concentrated to hear me and stayed till he finished sharing. Once he was done, I thought that was it and went back to my painting. Unexpectedly, he came over again. This time I had to yell loudly, "Excuse me, but you have blocked my view." And not till other artists joined me in yelling did he realize he stood in the wrong spot. I am not sure if it was a symptom of senility or he was a born lady pleaser. God!

En Plein Air: Trees by the Creek (Oil, 12 x 9)

En Plein Air: Rocks at Harns March Preserves and Artist Judy Usavage Painting en Plein Air

I went with Lee Plein Air group to paint at Harns Marsh this morning. Altegther there were four people, Velda, Danny, Judy and I. I didn't go deep into the woods since vehicles were not allowed to drive all the way in and I had so many things to carry with me. I didn't even take the umbrella along considering it was pretty cloudy in the morning. I picked the rocks to paint. When it was finished, I switched to paint Judy. It was the first time I met and painted with Judy. We started at 9 AM and by 11:30 AM I was done with both the sketches. When it got windier, I was, fortunately, almost done. And having learned my lesson before, I used a large paper clip to clam the palette to the easel, so there was no accidents when it became windy except for a couple of times, I ran to chase my blown-away straw hat.

Oil, 9 x 12

Oil, 11 x 14

Alla Prima Portrait: Rose (Oil, 20 x 16)

Rose sat for us today at VAC's portrait studio. Somehow she looks like frowning her eye brows in the portrait. I believe I got her likeness in spite of the fact that an old lad of VAC came up to whisper in my ear: "Your portrait looks prettier than she is."