Plein Air Summer--Sweet!

How glorious it is to have such wonderful weather and two days a week outdoors painting beautiful landscapes. I have lots of starts and no finishes, but not a problem, I'll finish them and remember all these wonderful places when cooler weather arrives. I still have a couple of months left of getting outdoors to paint, and I see improvement in my abilities now each time I go out--what fun it is when you are pleased with your work.

I have not been able to update this blog much, even though it only takes a minute, but mostly because I don't have anything finished to photograph. I do want you to know that I am out there working. I spent one week in a workshop with Michael Chesley Johnson up at Grand Manan Island in New Brunswick, Canada. It was cold, windy and rainy most of the time. I have since recovered. It is a beautiful place, I have lots of pictures that will inspire me.

I've been to Rockport and Gloucester's Art Associations fairly regularly and my favorite artist of the month this month is Jeff Weaver http://www.jeffweaverfineart.com/Cape%20Ann.htm.

Nice weather for plein aire.

Finally spring has hit here in New England and I've been out twice a week with two different groups painting on location. It's been great. I'm trying out different easels and boxes, ways of carrying my gear, etc. This is going to be a great summer for me for working outdoors.

I am not able to complete the painting in the approximately 2 hours that I work on a painting outdoors, so more work is needed before I can put them up on my site or here on the blog.

I'm also experimenting with working off my new laptop screen to finish these paintings.

I entered my first show by way of a CD submission this week, and now I see that I need to improve my photography and well as learn more about the Photoshop Elements software needed to make these CDs.

Carol Marine is my new favorite artist, check her out http://carolmarine.blogspot.com/

Pennies from Heaven

Tonight is the reception for the current open show at NAA. If you are in the neighborhood, please stop in from 7 to 9 p.m. Also Newburyport has it's art walk today from 3 p.m. I have two paintings in this current show. One is early spring on Newman Road, a marsh painting, painted on a day that was cold and windy, around 32 degrees. The other is a happy interpretation of the theme for the show, pennies, etc..

I've been out painting this week at the Yacht Club in Manchester-by-the-Sea, a beautiful sunny warm day, my first expedition with Pam Giarritanna's a painting group. Kids were scurrying around the rocks with their little rubber clogs on and parents brought their kids to the park with a picnic lunch. I did a little 8 x 10 study of the very nice gazebo building with a view to the sea.

Commission Accomplished

I finished this painting yesterday of Judy Rehill of Punta Gorda, Florida. The setting was somewhat Sargeant-esque in the home of Harold and Evelyn Harriman.

What Spring?

The difficult month of March is finally over, and I'm looking soooo forward to getting outdoors to paint!

I'm planning to verture out with 2 different painting groups on a weekly basis and have arranged for two workshops, one in June and one in September. One is a mentoring workshop, a step up for me.

Florida Trip

I had a great and productive 2 weeks in Florida this year. I always want to paint a lot while I'm there, and this year I did! I did a portrait class, 2 classes with Michael Vires, and a 2-day plein air workshop with Larry and Judy Pumfrey. I also kept up with my 30-minute paintings although not every day, sorry to say. I took close to 1,000 pictures which will provide lots of inspiration in the future.

The main reason for my trip is to visit my friends, Judy Rehill in Punta Gorda and Harold and Evelyn Harriman in Bonita Springs, and to attend the Naples Art Festival.

Two paintings made it!

Two of my paintings have been juried into the Newburyport Art Associations' Winter Members Show:
1. The famous and historic Lowell Boat Shop (9x12), an oil painting that was started on location there last spring during the big storm that flooded all of New England it seemed. The mighty Merrimack River was only about 2 feet below the floorboards where I was painting, and
2. The famous and historic McCurdy’s Smokehouse (8x10) in Lubec, Maine. Lubec is a tiny town where I was painting around the Campobello Island area of New Brunswick, Canada last August. The tides there rise an amazing 15 feet or more. The light is wonderful there and the fog banks roll in daily. The smokehouse comprises several buildings on piles and is practically the centerpiece of the town and was undoubtedly the main source of employment in days of old. In the distance between two buildings you can see the bridge between the U.S. and the Canadian island of Campobello (and the summer home of the Roosevelts).

February 1st already!

I've been doing 30-minute painting sketches every day. It is a good thing to do and helps you to see where you need to improve. I don't care to paint this fast, but I can see where it is helpful to do these exercises.

I'm also planning to enter two paintings next Monday into the Newburport Art Assoc.'s juried members' winter show. I've chosen the Lowell Boat Shop painting and the Lubec Smokehouse painting to enter. We'll see.

This week I have been working on the "My Friend Judy" painting (shown above). I'm having problems with the background--that the dark shadows should be cool. Any advice?

Completing work of 2007

I finally had a cloudy day and could photo my paintings, but they didn't come out all that well. If you go to my website, www.marypychefineart.com you will see them. I've been framing like crazy and have run out of framing materials. New custom molding has been ordered.

I had my large duck painting in the January Volunteers Show at the Newburyport Art Association. Next week I'll be submitting for the Member's Juried Show. I have several in mind to submit, but I'm limited to two. More news next week. I hope I make the cut.

I have a bunch of ideas for new work, and I'm currently working on a painting of my friend, Judy Rehill. It's giving me lots of problems.

Happy New Year

A Fresh New Start: I've been trying to finish all my unfinished paintings and have 27 that are done and now I'm framing some that need frames. I'll be doing the photos and getting them up on my website in the next week. What a nice feeling to get these completed. Are they every completed? I am working hard, painting every day, changing and improving all the time. When I see a painting that was completed a while ago and I see things that I now can improve on, I go ahead and work over it. It's a never ending battle, but part of my process of being a better artist.

Happy New Year to all my fellow artist friends, and here's wishing you good motivation and inspiration for a great 2008.

Pigment of the Imagination--show at NAA

I have entered my "Carnival" a colorful abstract painting in the Newburyport Art Association's show that runs from October 19th to November 11th. It's a large format painting which you can view under the "abstracts" section of my web page. A young daugher of a friend of mine made up a whole story from looking at this painting about a clowd at a carnival. Happy Halloween.

Taos pictures

It seems my memory card is corrupted, but I took it to the camera store and they put them onto a disk, and I was also able to download them via my printer port.

Report on current work: I've sorted all my unfinished work from workshops over the past year and have begun to work on them. I want to clean up all these unfinished paintings (like spring cleaning) and then I can move on. I completed 5 so far this week. From this process I've learned that it's important to finish them while they are fresh in your mind.

Taos Painting Workshp

Well, I'm back from Taos and Santa Fe. What a trip! Lots of painting. Julie was great, scenery was great, the 9 people I lived with were great! I'm just getting unpacked and resettled. Today when I tried to download 396 pictures from my camera, it wouldn't download. Ohhh Noooooooooo.

I've put a painting in the current Newburyport show--trying to keep current with all these art activities and paint at the same time, what a challenge. I hope I can report soon that I've been able to download my pictures, and that I've been able to complete some of the paintings I've started.

Santa Fe and Taos AGAIN!

I'm pretty psyched. I'm headed to New Mexico again. I just love Santa Fe--will do Canyon Raod--and will be spending a week in Taos on a workshop with Julie Airoldi and hanging out with my friend Dale Partiss Greene.

I've been good lately, doing lots of value studies. Must have done at least 6 today. Since I like to work quickly, I've been using acrylics and might just take them to NM.

Newburyport Show

The 2007 Fall Members' Juried Show is now showing at the Newburyport Art Association from Sept. 21 to October 14.

I had a great August studying with Michael Chesley Johnson on Campobello Island in New Brunswick doing 5 x 7's and 8 x 10's in the most amazingly beautiful spots of gorgeous scenery and also in Lubec on the U.S. side. The people there are so nice. Michael paints in the method that I like and his instruction is right on the mark. He helped me with a lot of my problems. Maybe the biggest was to use more paint.

I'm getting ready to start a painting a day for 30 days. Let's see if I can do it.

Roller Skating Nationals 07

This is the only student I retained after retiring from coaching last October. I was very proud of her performance in Youth International Solo Dance this month in Omaha, Nebraska. My husband, George, had three placements. Nine of our skaters qualified to enter the nationals. www.skateland.com/instruc.html

August Adventures

This, unfortunately, has not been much of a painting month, but that is about to change. I've been reading art books fevorishly and now I'm headed to Campobello Island, New Brunswick, to do a plain air workshop with Michael Chesley Johnson! I also signed up for a 9 week class with Maris Platais at Lexington LACS starting the week I get home from Canada.

Pam and Charles

I just came home with my 5 paintings that were in the Newburyport Art Association's recent exhibiiton by the New England Abstract Group. It was a very nice show, many of my friends were able to attend, and I thank them for going. In the adjacent gallery an artist by the name of Pamela Giarratana was having a one-woman show. Her work is very inspiring and her colors are gorgeous. She mentioned an artist by the name of Charles Sovek and I looked up his web page to see if I could take classes with him, but very unfortunately, he recently passed away. I'm so sorry I missed working with him. His web site is the most amazing one I've come across so far: http://www.sovek.com/index.htm

I'm all out of paper but heading to the store to get some so I can print out probably 100 pages of excellent information.

Last Kevin Shea Workshop

May 29th was the last session of plein air painting and we have great weather out at Plum Island. Kevin showed why we should wear dark clothing as the white shirts would reflect a lot of light onto the canvas. Now if I can only get myself to go out alone and paint!

Kevin's Workshop, week 6

Market Square, Newburyport was the site for today's painting session. It was cold and rainey, but, like typical New England weather, it was clearing up by noon and very warm. Painting under these conditions was much nicer than I thought it would be. I'm a big fan of Gustave Caillebotte's Paris Street-rainy weather http://www.artic.edu/artaccess/AA_Impressionist/pages/IMP_4.shtml. Next week we plan to return to Market Square.

Last week I toured art galleries in Santa Fe, Taos and Albuquerque. It was a sensational trip. That is the place to go for every kind of art.

Chain Bridge Island - Week 4

We had wonderful weather today, best all week. Kevin chose to gather on the Chain Bridge side of the island on the Merrimac River between Newburyport and Amesbury. The discussion was about brush sizes and the use of brushes. I'll be away next week, but the group will probably return to this spot.

I'm going to Albuquerque, Sante Fe and Taos on an art gallery tour with four friends for a week.

I have a painting up at the "Painted Word" show currently hanging at the Newburyport Art Association. It's a good show, try to go if you can.

Newman Rd - week 3

It was a full house yesterday on Newman, everyone showed up. Painting the marsh is difficult for all of us and especially when the wind is blowing at 25 mph! Kevin kept us all in a good mood--we all deserve "A" for effort.

Annisquam plain air w/Margaret

Margaret and I went to Annisquam and found a beautiful spot and we each painted one painting and a quick sketch of a second one. We were there for probably 2 1/2 hours and the weather was perfect. I should have taken a picture of Margaret's work, sorry I didn't.

Tomorrow I take my entries to Nbpt NAA for submission to the "Painted Word" show.

First warm day

Gorgeous day today for the first time this year. After working in the yard for 5 hours, I started to work on studio paintings. I just had to celebrate and do something bright. It's 36" by 48".

Tomorrow Margaret Bernier and I are heading out to Annisquam to do plein air painting!

Lowell's Boat Shop

Kevin Shea's group met today at the famous oldest boathouse/boat builders in America "Lowell's Boat Shop". Joanne Gauthier from Hudson NH joined us today. We painted indoors because of the storm system that has been here all week. I didn't take pictures of everyone's paintings this week, sorry, I guess I was engrossed in my work. I only got the drawing and blocking in done before it was time to go. I like the composition and the darks and lights. My challenge will be to keep the darks dark and get my values right. I may try to paint a copy of this one from scratch and save working on the original for a return trip to the boat house. Next week we return to Newman Road--weather permitting.

Newman Rd

I am blocking in to begin these paintings and I'm trying to get the color scheme of the Pissarro for the marsh grasses. So far, this is difficult for me. I hope to report soon that I am getting the concept.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Four of us, Gini Littlefield, Jean Rohran, Allie and myself, showed up to paint with Kevin Shea’s 8 week outdoor painting class. It was probably 40 degrees upon our arrival with a little wind. We were all bundled up. We painted the marsh on Newman Road in Newburyport and will go there again next week.

We got right to business, with Allie blocking in her painting before the rest of us were even set up. She is busy with family schedules and had to leave a little early. We three got a good start on ours and did leave at noon as it was pretty chilly.

I was very surprised that the cold didn’t bother me at all. The biggest surprise was the gloves. I thought I would not be able to paint with gloves on, but I actually liked it. I think I’ll get a second one started in my studio so next week I can work on both on location.
I took pictures of today’s efforts.

my new blog

April 9, 2007, Monday

I am very excited with this blog idea. I can't wait to hear back from viewers about their art experiences or their comments on mine. I'll be going outside tomorrow morning to paint plein air from 9 am to noon in the Newburyport area (Massachusetts). It's supposed to warm up to the 40's, but that is still pretty cold for me. I hope you will enjoy my blog. Please reply.