Indoor Outdoor Sketching on a VERY rainy day

The North Woods outdoor painters met yesterday.  One of our favorite places to paint is Coon's Franklin Lodge in Arbor Vitae, Wisconsin (about 10 miles north of Minocqua on Trout Lake).  

This is one of those old fashioned lodges that has been passed down through several generations of ownership.  You know the kind, where families often come back year after year.  

Done in a Strathmore Visual Journal with 90# paper (9 x 12).
The hard part of yesterday was only that it RAINED all day AGAIN.  Normally that would put the kibosh on any painting as we often choose places with no cover.  The the lodge has many covered walkways and is generously covered with little color spots of chair/pillows and floral plantings.  

For me?  I headed straight for the lodge lounge area.  A fire was crackling there and a stuffed bear snarled in the corner as any good Northwoods lodge would offer. Mounted fish on the wall and plenty of overstuffed furniture and a wonderful old roll-topped desk in one corner.  There I curled up from about 10:30 to noon doing the above sketch.

The lodge area was large enough that guests could filter through now and then and people came down to read and visit quietly.  At 12:30 the noon bell rang in the charming and large dining room and the painting group gathered for a very hearty and lovely lunch!  

There we shared painting stories and complained about weather together.   The weather man has PROMISED us a nice 4th of July...with sun (if we can remember what that looks like) and temps in the high 70s.  And he says we could have a nice little stretch of sunny dry weather following that.  We would be ecstatic about this.
If nothing else, rain provides you with a reason to LOVE sunshine.
There might be a metaphor for life there somewhere.

We are off to garage sales (as usual on Fridays) and hoping the rain will hold off today until we are done!  

Hope everyone has a safe and joyful 4th.  
My BIG hoard of family will start arriving tomorrow.  And we'll be jam packed with activities for about 10 days.  Hope to get some sketching in.  

En Plein Air

What a lovely morning to be outside painting!  Wow.  Started at 9:30 with temps around 75 and ended at 11:30 with it about 82.  Gorgeous clear skies and bright sunshine.  

My neighbor Pete just put in a little waterfall in his garden in the yard so friends gathered around and we enjoyed visiting and laughing and drawing and painting. Birds sang...we saw an osprey fly by.  This was a group from my Hawthorne Park Art Club.  Painting right in the park.

Hoping to catch up with the Urban Sketchers NEXT Tuesday at Venetian Garden Park on Lake Harris.  

Urban Sketching in Leesburg, FL: Mote Morris House

8 x 10 watercolor on Multi Media paper

Sketch before color

Enjoying a gorgeous 78 degree morning.

We had 12 artists show up today to paint in Leesburg.  

Wonderful to see so many talented folks.  We started around 10 and had lunch at 12:30 at Blooms.  Some folks stayed on to paint on the streets of the town in the afternoon.  

My Palette

My palette colors follow Brenda Swenson's palette...mostly. Most of them are Daniel Smith brand.  Leaf Green, Hansa Yellow, Raw Sienna, Quin Gold, Winsor Orange (Winsor Newston), Scarlet Lake, Aliziran Crimson, Permanent Rose, Cobalt Violet, Ultra Marine Blue, Cobalt, Antwerp, Cerelean, Bamboo, Viridian, Quinn Sienna, Burnt Sienna, Magnetite (a granular black).  

You can follow Brenda' blog here.

En plein air painting in WI on Thursday June 9

Chippewa Retreat Resort in Manitowish Waters, WI

There were nine painters this morning.

I took some liberties leaving a lot of things out of the 

sketch but this was my first time in this size Moleskin sketchbook and

I did have some "issues" with the paper.

I drew everything in ink with a fountain pen….no pencil.

Added color afterwards.  I think the sketch needs a few more dark darks.  

En Plein Air

3" x 13" WC on Arches cold press

Beautiful day to be outside.

I met with some friends this morning to en plein air paint…we started about 8:30 a.m. in hopes of avoiding the heat of the day.  We are getting close to 90 most afternoons here in central FL now.  

My next door neighbor's hubby is a fantastic gardener and there is so much around you to paint it hard to decide.  Barb Sailor recently did Stargazer lilies and my neighbor's wife, Katie, loves hers so I decided to make them the center of interest in the tiny painting.  I used a little "Opera" to bring out the bright color!  It's not signed yet…a see a few little possible tweaks to it..a little brighter yellow on the one plant in the orange pot.  If you look REALLY close you will see a little ceramic frog sitting among the plants.  

I have a mat and frame the exact size of this painting which is why I chose this size.  

The background is "imagined" as the plants actually ringed their porch.  

Another neighbor dropped by at noon with warm chocolate chip cookies and icey lemonade.  How spoiled are we!!!  There were two other artist painting with me this morning.  We had fun chit chatting as we worked.  One worked in watercolor pens and one in colored pencil.  

Last En Plein Air Painting of the Season

8 x 10 wc and ink on gallery-wrapped canvas

On September 26 the temperatures in the north woods of Wisconsin flew up to 75 degrees.  Indian Summer had come (and lasted about 48 hours).  THAT is all you get in the north woods!  

I grabbed my folding stool and paint bag and went outside down the path turning back up toward our little cabin.  The photo of the painting makes the cabin color a tad more "orange" when it is actually more red but I decided to leave it as it…warm and cozy and glowing in the late afternoon sunshine looking as it was on that day.  I haven't signed this painting yet as I see a few tweaks I want to make. But that will come next spring.  

That evening Greg and I took our wine and crackers and sat at the lake's edge to watch the sunset. It was magical and we held hands.  We wanted to just hold that memory for ever!  

This is the only painting I've done of the cabin since the loft was added and that has been many years ago.  The painting is of the "main" section…the living area and the "breezeway" where the door is shown which connects the main dwelling with the "annex" which is the screen porch and the building set aside for our hobbies: Greg's train layout and my studio.  Hubby has built almost everything by hand himself over the years.  

The window just to the right of the tallest tree in the painting is where I am sitting right now writing this and looking back out and down to the lake.  It is raining and windy and temperatures are dropping steadily…we may get snow flurries tonight!  Greg has a cozy fire going in the fireplace.  (That is the big tall silver chimney near the center of the painting.)  This is a treat of it's own, as early spring and late fall are our times to use it.  Again, Greg put this in himself.  A do-yourself kind of guy!  

We are packing this weekend…soon time to head to Florida.  We take about two weeks to travel…have reservations at Pipestem State Park in West Virginia along the way, a ride on the Smokey Mountain RR and a visit to SC to see my sister and brother in law.  Many fun adventures ahead.  Stay tuned!  

A Fun Day Painting Outdoors at Hawk's Nest Canoe and Kayak Rental

Watercolor/ink on canvas  8 x 10

I got there a little late.  Most of the other painters chose to be down at the river but gosh…I just couldn't paint any more GREEN.  It was a pretty spot but FULL of mosquitoes. Nothing but trees and water.  I was not inspired.  

So I moved up to the rental building just up from the river side and found these lovely colors and shapes.

This was about an hour sketch (quite small) and fun.

Now I have to decide if I should put the dark background in behind them.  Or put in a light background behind them just inferring something growing behind them. It seems like some more verticals behind them might work?   Or some sky behind them and a horizon?  Or just leave them as is.  What do you think?  

We had a WONDERFUL weather day and lunch at the Pea Patch in Manitowish Waters afterwards.  What a nice morning.  

En Plein Air in Minocqua, WI

11 x 14 wc and ink on canvas board

The Minocqua, WI Museum

Every now and again a really pretty morning shows up on the day when the Northern Outdoor Painters have scheduled a day to paint!  How lucky is THAT!

AND due to the fact that the 12 of us that painted…were "in town" out and about in the streets of the town, the mosquito issue was not a huge issue!!!

I painted from 9:30 to noon.  

Everyone chose different spots…stores, parks, restaurants, etc. all over town.  

Then we all gathered at the Thirsty Whale for lunch.

I really wish we could get people to bring what they painted to lunch so we could have the fun of seeing the sketches and paintings.  

I have a few little tweaks to do to this painting but I like that it is just what it is…a fresh little watercolor sketch.  I'll spray it with clear mat acrylic medium and show it without glass.  

Next week is the turn over at the gallery in town…this might be fun to take over.  

Lots of rain in the forecast now for the next three days.  Lucky us.

Watercolor on Canvas en plein air

watercolor and ink on 9 x 11 canvas on board 

Absolutely gorgeous morning…85 with slight breeze.  This is in my next door neighbor's back yard.  He does a fantastic job of gardening AND he has a model sailboat that he enjoys  sending out on the pond (you can just see it in the background off the right side of my easel.  

This canvas is primed for acrylic and oil, of course, not wc…so you have two choices: one you can prime it yourself or just use it the way it is and let is bleed softly (which is what I did this time.  After it was dry I added the ink. I see a few little things I am going to change.  The darker green behind the pond on the top left should come out on the other side of the tree just a little…the "rabbit in-rabbit out" rule.  And I may add just a touch more dark green in the center of interest near the back of the chair by the red flowers.  

Incidentally in my view you can prep inexpensive (not for wc canvas) in two ways.  One you can use a wet wash rag and just wipe it fairly vigorously to remove some of the gesso priming before starting.  This seems to set it a little more.  Sometimes I prime the background colors just slightly while this is still wet.  

Or you can use watercolor "ground" made by Daniel Smith (some others may make it now).  You have to thin this and apply more than one coat and then sand it with VERY fine sandpaper.  Or you can buy watercolor canvas which is already prepared for you.  It tends to be a little more expensive but it is nice to work on.  (Fredrix is the most well-known brand).  

I will spray this piece at least 4 times with a mat acrylic varnish and frame it without glass.  

The Historic Howey Mansion

Ink and Watercolor 10 x 12 Arches 140 Cold Press

Today our Fine Arts group from Hawthorne park got together at the Historic Howey Mansion here in Central Florida in Howie-in-the-Hills.  

This was a really quick sketch with an .03 Micron pen and then watercolor.  About 45 minutes total.  This was the back of the house where there is a garden house.  

The mansion was built in 1925 by citrus grower William Howey.  Now, all these years later it is hopefully going to get restored and used again.  

You can find some wonderful info and photo on the Facebook page.  Click here.

We were given a guided tour of the inside.  I took a ton of photos and I will share some later, but there are really good ones on the FB page too.  

En plein air in the north woods...one more time this season!

5.5 x 8" sketchbook, watercolor

Having an autumn day in the north woods warm enough to sit outside and paint (Oct 9) is AMAZING.

I cannot remember when that has happened.  The gift has not gone unappreciated!  

This is Greg's little garage up the road a bit from the cabin.  We had just come back from our walk...shuffling through the piles of crisp leaves now.  More falling like dazzling confetti.  

Chipmunks scurry about and nuthatches and chickadees at our feeder are storing seeds somewhere for another day.  We got up to 72 today!

We might get one more day and then it starts to drop back down to normal..which is about 45.  

But we'll be happy to just get one more!  

En plein air on July 11

Kemp National Resources Station Woodruff, Wisconsin

Kemp Station Boat House on Lake Tomahawk...continuous line drawing 3.5x 8

Slightly different view of same boat house...unfinished 10 x 11" on Arches 140#

I can't remember a nicer weather day to be outside in the North Woods!  Wow.  Kemps is about 30 minutes from us on Lake Tomahawk in Woodruff, WI and you get to it on a 2.5 mile winding road through the American Legion Forest.

It is one of THE prettiest wooded roads around winding through thick gorgeous tall forests.  I saw 5 deer (one a speckled fawn)on the drive down.  The lakefront is gorgeous and has many lovely log cabin structures with stone foundations.  But we all congregated around the boat house and did various point of view on it or surrounding lake and forest.  One person did an abstract of the "feeling of the forest" in acrylic!  Four worked in oil and I was the only watercolorist I think.  Joan where were you????

Mosquitoes were not "too" bad.  I did spray up before starting and did wear long sleeves and long pants and socks.  I know how to dress for the woods!  We all went to Hoggie Doggie's for lunch and a critique and fun art discussion.  Sue took a nice photo of some of the art to put on the Outdoor painters blog.  Definitely a great spot to paint. 

My small sketch went fine...the larger painting needs more work...darker darks for sure...more interesting shadow work.  I may post it again.  

Continuous Ink Drawing On Location: June 13 En Plein Air

7 x 9: Watercolor and Micron pen on Arches 140# wc paper

Well today the outdoor painters group (about 15 of us) met at Marywood Spiritual Center in Arbor Vitae, WI.  It is a great setting on Trout Lake with lovely gardens, paths, architecture, etc.  What did I sketch?  
A motorcycle.

Well, I found it windy and cold down at the lake shore...so I headed up to the spiritual garden with the statues and wishing well and early spring flowers.    

I settled down with my stuff. (including my thermos of hot coffee which I poured right away while thinking.)

The flowers and the architecture looked inviting.  Then sun came out.  I was up away from the lake it wasn't so windy but enough to keep the mosquitoes off.  Really pleasant.  But then.... I turned around and there it was.  This gorgeous motorcycle.  Could I do a continuous line pen drawing of THIS?  I LOVE a challenge!  This was all free hand and "almost" continuous line.  I did pick up the pen a few times.  

I spent almost an hour on the drawing/wc.  VERY fun.  Then I changed locations and went over to the flowers and did a little pencil sketch (took a photo so I could finish later) and off to lunch with the gang. (I'll post the second sketch later.)  We had a great lunch at the Northern Cafe in Arbor Vitae on Hwy 51.  Home made bread!  Oh yum.  

I'll miss next week as I am headed to southern WI to visit my friend Kendra for a few days.  But I'll take my sketching supplies with me.  Ya never know when a motorcycle will be sitting RIGHT there!  :-)  

En Plein Air in Leesburg Florida!

10 x 11" on Arches, ink and wc

Landscape Moleskin notebook 5 x 8"

The "Fine Arts Gang" of Hawthorne Park en plein air on April 8
(me in blue and white striped shirt).  Eight of us gathered for a fun morning.

We all had a great morning painting.  Gorgeous Florida weather today.. 80-85 all morning.  Can't beat this!  

En Plein Air at Cross Creek

Ink and WC sketch (double spread 8.5" x 11")

Great day at Cross Creek (Marjorie Rawlins home) in central Florida.  The author of The Yearling and many other books lived just about a hour and a half north of Leesburg where I lived.  This is true "cracker" country again.  Tours are given daily on the hour (check the website).  

This is our third visit.  We like to bring company here to get a flavor of what it was like "in the old days".  We also watched the movie "Cross Creek" a few nights ago to see how she is portrayed.  

Since I've been through the tour, Greg took my sister and brother through the tour while I did a sketch.  Unfortunately we had an overcast and 65 degree afternoon following some storms that came through here.  Ocala area was about 15 degrees cooler than Leesburg yesterday!!!  Go figure.  So I painted in gray skies.  

I continue to practice doing the sketch IN INK first.  No graphite.  Always a challenge for me.  Especially when doing architecture!  Now I want to practice putting some people into the paintings to add scale! Thought I'd try a "double page" spread too..since it is rather small sketchbook.  I need to get back and do the printing in it as well.  It needs to be dated and a bit written about the day.  Today we are off to an Art Tour (driving tour) around the area, a tour of the Mote-Morris House, some garage sales, and other events.  77 and sunny today.  Should be great.   

En Plein Air Sketching again!

Landscape Moleskin Journal 5 x 8"

Everyone is an art critic.

Perry Ann's farm house.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to a lovely supper party out in the central Florida farm area yesterday.  The skies cleared and temps went up to 79!  It was a real "cracker" menu with fried alligator, venison stew, and several other entrées!  Lots of time for visiting on the the big wide veranda.  It was a thank you party for folks who had been volunteering all year in the Leesburg Elementary school.  Nice people!!!

As the party began to break up, I grabbed my sketching materials and spent about 40 minutes doing a little fast sketch of the farm house.  

I wanted to try out my new Brenda Swenson palette of colors.  It is not all that different from mine but there are some changes and that makes mixing colors different, of course. Especially grays and greens!  

I am pushing myself to do the ink sketches (with no graphite).  This is how Brenda works.  This is a challenge too!!!  And Perry Ann's friendly horses came to critique my work, of course.  

I was also surrounded by free roaming roosters, chickens, pea hens, and many goats.  Our back in the pen I could hear the donkey braying.  (I got some photos of him...such personality!)   

Don Getz Demo

Don demonstrates his "position" for the first ink sketches that he does on location.  Tilted up on his knee in order to get the perspective correct. 

He then drops his sketchbook down to a flat position on his knees to add watercolor washes.   Light washes of color and not too watery.  He carries a bag (similar to Brenda Swenson's) with his supplies.  

Don is traveling around the US doing demos and sponsored by Cheap Joe's Art Supplies.

He did a demo for the Leesburg, FLorida Art League today.  Just marvelous!  So enjoyable.  You can read more about his trip around the US here.  He squeezed us in after Winter Haven, FL.  

He also has a website and a blog. You will see a lot more examples of his fabulous travel journals on these sites.  

A few notes from the demo...he says he used to use an identi-pen for sketching.  But now he uses Sakura Micron Pigma pens (just like all the Zentangler's use).  Same pens.  He also likes to do some sketching with a china pen (which I found interesting). He does not usually add color to those.  

He shows his palette which is a converted Russian Yarka watercolor palette with the paint removed and his own American Journey paint squeezed in.  I seriously doubt that the palette is all that important...it should be one that is fairly small..has about 12-18 places for your tube paint to be squeezed in.  Brenda Swenson uses a Heritage folding palette with a lid that seals.  I have used that too for quite a few years.  Reasonable priced and sturdy and has a lift out mixing tray too.  

Hint: He suggested using only distilled water.  I have heard that before too.  You will never get mold on your paints if you do.  He mixes his colors on his paper. (He likes Cheap Joe's journals...I wonder why?)  I find them pricey but they are very nice.  

He always draws with his pen first (no sketches in pencil) who, like Brenda, believes this helps to make you draw better and keeps your sketches fresh.  He does sometimes add a little ink line here or there after the paint is dry.  

One of Cheap Joe's gray paints is named Getz Gray (I have some) and it is a lovely pre-mixed gray that can be added to any color to achieve a new tint.  He also like an American Journey colors called "Tangerine" and "Sky Blue".    

30 Day Challenge Day 8

Day 8 was one of those extraordinary beautiful days in central Florida (about 15 degrees above our normal temp in mid January!).  So 83!  

My neighbor's garden is just such a pleasure to paint in.  Here we can plant our poinsettias right out doors and they thrive! And I love he has lots of interesting pots and beautiful colors.  

So after my hubby and I had lunch out in the adirondack chairs under our umbrella I gathered up my painting supplies.  I took my folding chair and wc and pens and my umbrella and spent a happy hour here.  As I worked the shade moved in across the painting.  In the background you can see our little Serenity Lake (more of a large pond) around which our group of homes is built.  

You will see the ink sketch I did first posted second.

And a photo of the scene I was looking at.  This is small 5" x 8" in my Moleskin sketchbook.  

Cathedral Point Painting

Every now and then I JUST have to get back to acrylics. I love the feel. I really really need to make some color charts and practice mixing colors.

Cathedral Point is part of the Trout Lake Nature Center in Boulder Junction, WI near the Forest Ranger Station.

Today in such a hurry to get going I forgot a lot of things...I didn't realize I'd taken so many tubes out of my back pack and ended up with a VERY spare and limited palette.

But it was a small canvas and I had primed it with gold paint (something I've enjoyed doing all summer.) I love the little flashes of it that peep out. I walked all around the point after getting there and we had a GREAT turn out of at least 6 or 7 painters in the crisp autumn air (mid 60s). I am getting so I like carrying a hand towel and using that for wiping my brush and getting my water less muddy that way. I also wear a rubber glove on that left hand so I don't end up with paint smeared all over my left hand! That works great too.

I had Greg take my photo with the painting after I got home as I forgot to ask anyone to do it on site. (You can see my impatiens did well this summer!)

Anyway you an see it is small and I remembered to wear my new Outdoor Painters cap. Where is Florie when I need her?

I did "tidy" up the painting a little from this painting to the one above...adding the Prevent Forest Fires printing and fixing some of the trees and adding some darks in the background. It's not signed yet. But it was a fun project and did it in about two hours. (Stopping for my thermos of coffee in between.) I skipped lunch with the artists today due to a sinus cold. After lunch I slept for over an hour. Feeling better now. Putting a nice meat loaf and baked potatoes in the oven.

Rain is headed our way. We want to cozy up and watch the President's acceptance speech tonight.

Thursday means en plein air!

I've had some good improvement suggestions for this little sketch from other painters already.

10 x 12" on Arches rough.

Joan thinks the straight line across the bottom needs softening and blending out...too straight an edge in a fairly soft edged painting. Good point. Will do.

I also think I need a few more really dark darks near the center of interest behind the flowers. In the reference the dark area is off to the left and not where I want it so I am going to "invent" a doorway behind the flowers and make that really dark. Also maybe a little more definition on the flower pots just to the front of the table sitting on the seat.

The setting is JJ's nursery in Woodruff, Wisconsin just north of Minocqua.

We started out in full sun and then it clouded over and got cooler and then the sun came back out about the time we headed off for lunch! A very fun day and a good turnout of at least a dozen artists! It helps not to have to drive so far!!