Capron Park painting

Capron Park 7" x 5" acrylic

I spent the last couple of days chasing down options to display paintings for art fairs in my tent. It was a bit complicated, but I have a plan worked out - more on that later.

Today I am back to painting, and thought it would be appropriate to include some subjects from the Attleboro area, since the Expo will be right downtown. This acrylic is from one of the photos I took in the rain last week. I love the stone and wood combination of the bandstand. There's some nicely contracting textures to paint.

Now I better get crackin' and start another tonight - the Expo is just over a week away!

Providence Art Festival

Some lovely displays at the Providence Art Festival

Saturday I spent the afternoon and evening seeking inspiration in Providence. I went to the Providence Art Festival downtown to see artwork and get an idea of how other artisans set up their tent displays. After seeing some great displays, I have a few ideas of what I'd like to do for my Expo display. I was in Providence about 4:30 when the rain and wind were picking up as well, so I got a first hand look at what a stiff breeze will do to a pop up tent. There were some tents that were weighted down with barbells, sandbags and home made weights, and a couple that had no weight but an adventurous artist trying to hold the tent in place. Luckily the wind never got to the point that anyone lost artwork or a limb.

Some tent weights

I also saw some professional looking weights - the one on the left here is a solution I found online which you can make at home, but looks a lot better than cinder blocks. I'll be trying that out today.

Tent weight made of PVC, eyebolt and cement, as well as a purchased one

After looking over display and weight solutions, I went back through the tents to really enjoy the arts and crafts of the participants. There was a diverse group of artisans there, and if I had some lottery winnings on me I would have come home with a lot of pieces. But since I am on a budget, I just picked up a few smaller pieces.

The best part of events like this is meeting the artist behind work that you like. When I saw something that I really liked, I made sure to ask the person attending the booth if they were the artist. I had some wonderful conversation with several people and got to understand their process or their inspiration a bit better.

Katy Meyer spoke with me about how she made her silk scarves and paintings. She had some pieces of her hand-painted silk matted and framed as wall art, which looked fantastic. I love the saturated colors she uses, and the whimsical style of the art, so I might have to check out her online store when I have more money to spend.

Christopher Belleau had beautiful pieces of art glass at the Fest - we discussed the difficulties of porting all the work to his booth, as the artists were not allowed to back a car up and unload on  the spot. With hundreds of pounds of glass, that must have been a feat for him to port everything from the parking area.

Sarah Whitman creates floral hairpieces from hand-dyed silk, inspired by Japanese art. At this point my money was practically jumping out of my pocket at her, so I nabbed a lovely purple hair flower and a card with a heart she created from woven Japanese papers.

Jyll Ethier-Mullen, whom I met at the recycled art show (she and her husband run the West Side Arts gallery) had her paintings at the Fest - wildly imaginative and colorful illustrative work.

Greg Stones had a gorgeous booth (you can see his with the fabric panels at the top of this post) and an awesome selection of small watercolors. His work is quirky, very funny, featuring zombies, sheep and penguins. I was thrilled to go introduce myself to Greg, and let him know I was a fan. I had seen his work years ago, with tiny martian people in his landscapes. At the Pawtucket Armory show last Christmas, my husband and I bought a signed copy of his book Goodbye, Pengiuns which hilariously depicts ten penguins as they vanish, each in a bizarre fashion.

Christine's tent with gorgeous artwork

Christine Wendel Farrugia had the most beautiful charcoal drawings of animals I think I've ever seen. She creates images of the animals from her farm in Connecticut. She was very generous with her time, and we spoke at length about the farm, how she works, and art festivals. I bought some art cards with her work, and added her blog to my Google Reader. Speaking with her really made the day for me, despite the rain (and the crazy 'fro my hair turned into).

After the Art Fest, I spent the rest of the night taking pictures of waterplace park in daylight, and then again during the waterfire. I hope that between the two I will have some decent reference for paintings. The waterfire was challenging as by that point the steady drizzle had turned over to a steady downpour. But with enough lighter fluid, even the damp firewood started to burn. At least the crowds were light! All in all an awesome day.

Marsh painting

Marsh  6" x 6" acrylic

After spending Friday up in New Hampshire visiting family, it's time to get back to the art! Here's another small acrylic. Now I'm off to check out the Providence Art Festival and see if I can get some pictures of tonight's waterfire. I'm hoping the weather cooperates, but it's been rainy up here in Douglas, so I'm bringing the umbrella just in case!

Painting reference

I've been thinking about what paintings to bring with me to the Attleboro Expo for the Senses later this month. I'm creating a slew of smaller works - pastels and acrylics 8" x 10" and under, as well as matted prints. Some of these are based on subjects I have painted before and some recent photos. But I'd like to explore more local scenery for the Expo.

My husband grew up in Attleboro, and helped me map out some ideas of photo ops in the area. Now that I have a plan of attack, I'll be on the road to take lots of reference pics. I'm not too encouraged by the sky here in Douglas - it's pretty gray. Maybe I'll get lucky and get some blue sky.

I'm going to check out Capron Park, downtown Attleboro, maybe LaSalette shrine - anything else that looks inspiring as I cruise the area.

I'm also looking forward to spending some time in Providence on Saturday. The Providence Art Festival on Westminster street looks pretty awesome, so I'll be checking that out. Plus there is a waterfire that night, lighting at 8:12 pm, so it would be a good day to hit the city and take more pictures.

Crocus painting

Crocus  6" x 6" acrylic

This is the last of the paintings I completed since the weekend. I think it actually looks better in person that I captured in this photo. Must be all the glare off  the acrylic. I worked on this one last night, finishing up around 1am. Honestly, I love that the house is quiet and I can dive right into these pieces, painting all hours until I am happy with them. Seems to me that I got started on this after I made dinner, wait...what did we have for dinner? My brain must be fried because I have to stop and focus to remember the last cooked meal...Oh! Seafood cassarole, cauliflower and garlic bread. 

OK - so after a late dinner I cleaned up and got this painting done - probably 2 1/2-3 hours. Late in the day to start, but at least I got another painting complete. This one has a lot of movement as the ground in my reference photo was kind of blah wood mulch, so I took some liberties with the texture.

It's funny, but these little flowers were tough to paint. I have a pastel of crocus that I completed recently, and I think the acrylic was a bit more work. The color is very saturated and transitions greatly in value from center to edges of the petals.

Crocus  10" x 4" pastel

For comparison, here is the pastel I created of the same subject. The pastel was tough to get saturated enough, but easy to blend from dark to light. The acrylic was more intense (I must be short on brilliant blue pastels) but challenging to blend correctly before drying on the canvas.

Which medium do you think worked better? I'd love to get some feedback on this.

Welcome painting

Wickford Welcome  5" x 7" acrylic

This painting I finished on Sunday. My best estimate would have to be 4 hours, but maybe it took me a bit longer on this one. I'm not much for architectural subjects, and my hands really want to make curvy shapes rather than straight ones. So I don't often paint such structural compositions, but this doorway just captured me when I walked by it in downtown Wickford, RI. The brickwork is actually yellow from flaking paint with a lot of the original brick color coming through.

Working on this piece and trying to get the lines both straight and casual looking was a challenge. I really don't want to add so much tight detail that you lose that brushy effect, and make a technical illustration instead of a loose painting. An artist that I admire who does this well is Mike Bryce in Pawtucket, RI. I've met him a couple of times through friends and at art events, and his style is just masterful. 

Looks like I need to paint a lot more hard edges and get my perspective down pat. 

Red Bridge painting

Red Bridge  7" x 5" acrylic

I just finished this painting Saturday. I think it took me between 2 and 3 hours to paint. I'm going to try posting right after I get these finished so that I can better track my progress and the time involved. 

This scene is from a photo I took when on an art vacation in Vermont. My friend April and I made it up to the Stowe area for a retreat, where we toured the area, took photos and created some artwork. The local visitor's guide had an article on waterfalls in the region, and we passed this little covered bridge as we were on the road.

As you can see I am using my new Utrecht easel (birthday present from my husband) for most of these paintings. The easel is pretty large, but can handle the little canvases too. I have a tabletop easel that works great for smaller pieces, but I am trying to get in the habit of using the full easel and it frees up my work table for the paints and my laptop, which I use to view my reference photos.