Plein Air Excursion on Dauphin Island - Nov 2nd-4th

For the past couple of months, my artist friends Missy Patrick and Gail Bramer and I have been planning to spend a few days plein air painting on Dauphin Island. We decided to spend 2 nights at a Bed and Breakfast (Dauphin House) on the island and thus spend 3 days painting to our hearts' delight. We completed our trip last Wednesday through Friday. Although cool and breezy, it turned out to be perfect for some intensive plein air painting, and there were endless subjects to paint on the island. We also had a few others join us for the day the first day or two of plein air painting. This turned out to be a wonderful way to learn from each other and hone our plein air painting skills; figure out what type gear was best; and scratch the surface on painting subjects on the island. Once we started painting, the cares and worries were left on the other side of the bridge. The island has a slower pace and a definite laid-back atmosphere; and parks and scenic views abound. The days started with the hearty B&B breakfast; ended with relaxed conversation and a glass of wine; followed by seafood dinner and early to bed. As Gail said, she was suffering from DI withdrawal once she returned back to Mobile. I completed a couple of watercolors in my journal the first day; and spent the rest of the time trying out my oils and palette knife. I don't know how well I captured the scenes, but it was definitely fun trying. We are looking forward to our next foray into some intensive plein air painting, and planning some day trips back to the island before too long.

Two views of the pond in the Audubon Bird Sanctuary.

Below is marsh view next to the Ferry Landing on the East end of the island.

Below is photo of Missy and me painting the marsh scene.

Below is scene in Little Billie Goat Hole looking toward the Estuarium and the Gazebo overlooking the marsh creation site.

Below is fishing pier and weather tower on the East End, with natural gas rigs in the background. There was a grey sky as a weather front moved through for these two oil paintings on the water.

Below is bench along one of the nature trails at the Shell Mounds park. This was such a meditative place to explore.

Plein Air Painting in Downtown Mobile

Last month, my friend Satomi and I decided to do some plein air painting downtown on a Thursday morning, in an attempt to capture some of the downtown "flavor" - this was in anticipation of doing some drawings for a fund-raising cookbook to be put out by the Cathedral Square Gallery. I did a couple of quick studies of The Spot of Tea cafe on Dauphin Street; and the Saenger Theatre (looking out from our sidewalk lunch at Cafe 219). A couple of weeks later I spent another morning photographing several other historic structures as resources for future drawings. I was never able to finish some black & white drawings for the cookbook (due Nov 1st), but here, at least, are the 2 watercolor sketches I completed on that beautiful fall morning.

The Art of Reading Show

On my way out the door to head to the library to help take in artwork for The Art of Reading show on the morning of Oct 1st, I received a call that my Mom had just fallen and broken her leg - the same leg that was just beginning to heal from a hip implant she received a couple of months earlier. I headed straight to the emergency room, but Kathy, Phyllis, Tori and Ed came through and managed to pull together the show - in an outstanding manner. I've spent the past month or so doing hospital duty and eventually helping my Mom get back home and hopefully on the road to recovery; so am just now beginning to get caught back up on things. Here is a photo of me at the reception beside my monotype print, "Remember, It Is a Sin To Kill a Mockingbird". Kathy's wonderful photo of bridesmaid reading as bride preps for the wedding is over my shoulder.

The library staff furnished a beautiful cake, which was a work of art in itself, with a 3-dimensional artist urchin sitting atop a pile of books - I was lucky enough to be able to save it and bring her home with me. We had a wonderful selection of artwork in the show, and I commend those artists who took the time to share their love of books and reading as reflected in their artwork; and to the Friends of the Mobile Public Library for donating funds for several purchase awards (providing $800 in purchase award funds!) The show will hang at the West Regional Branch Library until December 2nd, so be sure to go see it if you haven't already. This is a bi-annual show, and already looking forward to doing this again in 2013!

Anticipating The Art of Reading Show

My friend Kathy Friedline and I are working with Phyllis Jeffery and the Mobile Public Library Staff to put together the second biannual Art of Reading Show. This is a wonderful opportunity for local artists to show work celebrating the love of books and reading, and also provides for artwork for the permanent collection of the library. The Friends of Mobile Public Library will be sponsoring up to $800 in purchase awards, with the purpose of providing artwork to hang in the branch libraries. The take-in and jurying/judging of the show will be October 1st, at the West Regional Branch Library in Mobile. So I hope all my artist friends have been working on their pieces and that we will see you then.

I thought I'd give a progressive report on the piece I prepared for the show. I tried something new for me. I've always been intrigued by the printmaking process, and decided recently to teach myself how to do monotypes. I just finished reading a wonderful book, Monotype Mediums and Methods for Painterly Printmaking, on painterly monotypes by printmaker Julia Ayres, which includes very straight-forward and easy to follow instructions for the monotype process - and it is not nearly as difficult as I had feared. My favorite book and movie has always been To Kill a Mockingbird, so that was my theme for my piece.

1. I rewatched the movie and picked a scene near the end for my inspiration: Scout is walking Boo back to his house after he rescued her brother Jem and revealed himself to her. I took some liberties in my depiction of Boo, but prepared a watercolor sketch of my scene. Because the printmaking process will reverse the image, I prepared this sketch oriented on the reverse of what I wanted the final print to show. Here is my completed sketch.

2. I then prepared my plate. I used a thin sheet of acrylic plexi-glass, cut to size, and then sanded to smooth and bevel the edges and provide a curve at the corners. I then coated the working side of the plate with a coat of gum arabic and allowed it to dry. Since I was planning to prepare a watercolor print, my guidance was that the gum arabic would allow the watercolor to cleanly be lifted off the acrylic surface and transfer to the paper.

3. I then placed my watercolor sketch underneath the prepared plate to use as a painting guide, and then applied watercolor on the surface of the plate (on top of the gum arabic) to complete my water color painting. Here is a photo of the completed painting on top of the plate. I used regular watercolor, but also applied some outlined areas using a Pigma archival ink pen. The areas I want to remain white were left unpainted.

4. In order to provide a clean edge for the print, I cut out a paper mat and placed over the painted plate, and taped to the plate so it would stay in place. I then soaked Arches cover paper (cut to same size as the plate) for approximately 20 minutes. I then removed the paper and let it drip most of the water, and blotted it with paper towels so it was damp wet but not dripping. Then placed the damp paper over the matted plate and also taped on the edge so it would stay in place. Then I used my rubbing tool to press the watercolor image from the plate to the paper. I found the perfect rubbing tool - an antique marble doorknob - which has a smooth curved rubbing surface and the knob stem provides a firm grasping handle for you to hold onto while rubbing the entire surface.

5. And here is the completed watercolor monotype print (Remember, it's a sin to kill a Mockingbird). I was quite impressed with the brilliance of the colors. I think that is because the gum arabic allows all of the pigment to be transfered from the plate to the paper. The printing process also adds an interesting textural effect to the pigmented areas. After the print dried, I scribed some favorite quotes from the book around the margins of the print, and then prepared my mat for framing. The finished print is 8 1/2 in. x 11 in.

I'm very satisfied with this painterly method of printmaking, and am looking forward to trying some more printmaking techniques. Using the watercolors makes it an essentially non-toxic process, and you can complete this without any expensive or complicated equipment.

The "Come Get the Skinny" Fundraiser

It's the beginning of the cultural arts season in Mobile (although I sometimes think the season never stops - there's always so much going on nowadays!) - which means it's time for the Mobile Arts Council fundraiser. This year they are doing a silent auction of artwork donated by local artists - called the "Come Get the Skinny". I have donated something a bit different from my normal work. I mentioned previously that I took a workshop/class from my friend Mary Elizabeth Kimbrough this summer on the use of acrylic gel mediums. Using some of the techniques I learned from this class, I prepared a gel transfer print of my recent watercolor of Grandaddy Goat, and adhered it to a canvas board to which I had applied several acrylic mediums to create multi-media work. This was kind of fun to play with. Here is my completed work: "Grandaddy Goat Takes His Nap No. 2". Come see it and lots of other wonderful donated work on Thursday, 6-9 PM, at the Mobile Arts Council. Additional details and representative artwork that you can bid on are on the Mobile Arts Council Facebook Site.

The Last Flings of Summer?

I have some more catching up to do, and you will see that this has been a busy summer all the way through.
In August, the Watercolor & Graphic Arts Society of Mobile (WGAS) held our juried exhibition at the Eastern Shore Art Center in Fairhope. We had a wonderful juror, Paula Payne of Pensacola, FL, who is a signature member of both the Florida and Louisiana Watercolor Societies. She had her hands full, since we had 70+ entries and had to jury it down to around 45 pieces - and all were wonderful. We also had 7 prospective members showing their audition pieces in this show. It turned out to be a wonderful show, and we got some fantastic press coverage in the Mobile Press-Register. Here is a link to the article in the Sunday arts section: http://blog.al.com/entertainment-press-register/2011/08/eastern_shore_art_center_pumps.html

I entered two of my figures in this show: a pencil drawing of a Figure with Braid in the graphics section; and a watercolor figure of a Figure in Repose in the Aqua Medium section.

On August 20 the WGAS participated in an Art Expo at the Mobile Museum of Art, sponsored by the Mobile Arts Council, in the morning - showing the local community what our organization was about and our current/recent shows; and we also presented a Hands-on Demo/Workshop at the museum in the afternoon in association with the Shared Expressions Show. We worked with approximately 20 participants demonstrating various watercolor techniques on 3 different types of watercolor paper. Our left-over supplies were then donated to the museum's art education department.

Also on August 25th I volunteered to help with VSA Art Partners at the Independent Living Center. My art partner was Javier, and we painted a frog on lily pads. They will have an Art Partners show and auction on October 20th at the Eastern Shore Art Center to raise funds for art supplies for this program. This is a very rewarding experience for those of you who have not yet volunteered to paint with these very special and very appreciative artists. Any much credit is due to my artist friend Carolyn Greene who coordinates this program. Javier was a delight to work with. Here is a photo of me with Javier at work.

In July and August, I attended a class presented at Space 301 by artist friend Mary Elizabeth Kimbrough on various techniques using acrylic mediums. Learned some interesting ways to create texture, and how to transfer images using acrylic gel medium. This was a different twist for me but was alot of fun. Using some of these techniques, I created a piece for donation to the Mobile Arts Council "Come Get the Skinny" art auction fundraiser - turned the piece in on Sept 15th and the auction party is on September 29th. All of you should come out for a good cause and to bid on some really neat art!

In early September, we started back up with our Figure Group, which has just moved from the downtown Space 301 facility to a bright and spacious classroom in the Spring Hill College art department. In a future post, I will include some of my recent watercolor attempts at the figure.

And last week, Satomi Kamei, Ainsley McNeely and I met downtown for some plein air painting. Here is my watercolor sketch of The Spot of Tea, which faces Cathedral Square.

Satomi and I later captured the Saenger Theatre.

The Cathedral Square Gallery artists are working on putting together a cookbook that will feature artists' recipes as well as recipes from some of the downtown restaurants, and will include original artwork of some of the downtown historic buildings and popular eating establishments. More on this later.

Tomorrow I have Figure Group in the morning and then my Paint Day with the Mama Lisas in the afternoon. And Sunday afternoon we have the WGAS Members Meeting, and this will be my first members meeting as President of the Society. It was a busy summer and we will discuss plans for our future shows in the upcoming year.

Having some fun learning to do monotypes, and working with my friends Kathy Friedline and Phyllis Jeffery to put together the second biannual The Art of Reading Show, which is coming up on October 1st. I've completed a monotype for this show. More later on all of this . . .

Shared Expressions

I can't believe it has been so long since I last posted. I took a long trip to Colorado to visit the grandbabies right after the reception for the Mama Lisa show (in last posting), and when I got back I immediately began working on putting together two shows for the Watercolor & Graphic Arts Society (WGAS) - one was the Shared Expressions exhibit at the Mobile Museum of Art - a community show of the several of the local arts organizations in the Mobile area; and the other was a juried exhibition at the Eastern Shore Art Center in Fairhope. And then my Mom fell and broke her hip and had hip replacement surgery abut 1 month ago. I've been helping her recover from the surgery in addition to keeping on top of the art goings on. Anyway, we had the opening reception for the Shared Expressions show on Sunday, July 24. Here is the watercolor painting I entered into the Shared Expressions show. I called this "Grandaddy Goat Takes His Nap". I did this painting pretty quickly (within a week), and tried very hard to keep it loose - at least it is looser than most of my recent watercolors.

Here is a link to the newspaper article about the Shared Expressions show.

http://blog.al.com/entertainment-press-register/2011/08/shared_expressions_exhibit_rev.html

Other arts organizations represented are the Mobile Art Association, the Sumi-e Society, Camera South, Azalea City Quilters, and the Coastal Clay Collective. Also three artists are honored with retrospective exhibits: Lee Hoffman and Jack Sanders, who both recently passed away, and Frances Mutchnick - all previous members of WGAS. This show will hang at the Museum until September 25th. It is a really nice exhibit - lots of diversity and some beautiful work - so be sure to check it out if you haven't alrady been there to see it.

Here is a photo of me and my Dad at the opening reception. We both made a quick run from the hospital to attend the reception. It is really amazing what they can do nowadays with hip replacement surgery. My 81-year-old mother had surgery on a Friday and went home walking on a walker the next Monday! She's come along way in the month since the surgery, and has graduated to use of a cane at times, and should eventually be able to walk without any assistance. I'm proud of how well she's doing.

My next posts will cover other activities associated with the Shared Expressions exhibit, and also the WGAS juried show at the Eastern Shore Art Center. Also, more about the Art of Reading show coming up!