4 Reasons Why I Love to Demo

I had the opportunity of performing a landscape painting demo for a local art club this week. Last year I judged an art show for them, and they invited me back so I could share my thoughts and process regarding painting.

The demo was well attended and was full of enthusiastic kindred spirits.  I thoroughly enjoy the entire demo process because of a love of meeting new people, telling related stories, sharing what I've learned on my artistic journey thus far and because art is a somewhat private activity teaching and giving demos helps me connect with the creative community.

My subject was a location that I frequent that never falls short of being inspiring. I chose this particular scene because it had unusual shapes, appealing light/shadow patterns and excellent depth due to aerial perspective.

I worked from a photo displayed on a tablet beside my easel. Among the many points that I covered, I explained how and why I chose to redesign a landscape formatted image into a square format.

Given the brief demo time allotted, this painting remains in a "work-in-progress" status. You'll see this one again in a future post upon completion.

One Thing I've Learned from Painting in Extremes

The record triple digit heat of summer in the desert has finally ended. The cooler fall temperatures are moving in, and it's safe to paint outdoors again without the risk of burning flesh and heatstroke. 

As much as I love plein air painting, I'm not an extremist when it comes to pushing boundaries to get a painting. I know and have seen plenty of artists who present themselves as performance artists or daredevils painting on the edges of sheer cliffs, under hurricane conditions, in sub-zero temperatures or the opposite. Kudos to the artists who can and do. They may reap high rewards if they make it back safe without incident.  

I feel these examples are opportune times to break out the camera, take a picture and head back to the studio. I enjoy the ideal, quiet breezes, comfortable temperatures, blue skies and cotton ball clouds.

Not to say that I haven't painted in snow, rain, and wind before because I have.  What I learned from working under those conditions is that overall, the more comfortable the environmental conditions, the more likely I am to produce a winning painting.

The photos above are from a very recent second day out in this plein air season. As you can see, it was a beautiful day, and I was able to lay the foundation for another potential gallery piece. 

I'll post the finished piece after some adjustments back at the studio.

Hot or Not

In case you didn't know, Arizona can and does get incredibly hot during the summer months. Sure, it's a dry heat, but after awhile hot is hot, and one can stand only so much air conditioning, so a lot of residents here are "snowbirds" and only stay during the cooler more agreeable parts of the year.

Those of us who are full-time residents break up the summer by taking shorter vacations a little closer to home. That being either traveling north to the Grand Canyon or further into Utah or Colorado. Others choose to head west into California.

I was fortunate to visit both California and the Grand Canyon this summer.  I will be sharing more paintings and photos with you from these trips in future posts.

Pictured above is yours truly working hard on location at a fantastic location overlooking Laguna Beach. Since moving, it's been a few years since I had been to a beach. The salt air and dynamic coastline were rejuvenating spiritually and artistically.

I was excited to explore this area because Laguna has a long history of plein air painting attached to it as well as being associated with some powerhouse California Impressionist painters such as William Wendt, Franz Bischoff, and Edgar Payne.

The painting I'm working on in the photo just needs a few minor foreground adjustments before I would call it finished. When I complete the painting, I'll be sure to talk more about it in a future post.

In the meantime, I'll continue working in the studio until the summer heat gives way to the fall air.