SECOND FRIDAY’S STUDIO WALK TGIF AND BYOB

 

Harvest Snows 8 x 16 Oil

 With the dire financial situation hanging over our heads, we simple, pleasure-giving artists stretch our creative efforts into exotic marketing maneuvers. I offer a Newsletter, this blog (thanks for checking in) and now I offer SECOND FRIDAY’S STUDIO WALKS! I love having folks in the studio so this isn’t a stretch. Okay, here’s the deal – If you live in the Denver area or are visiting the area, check out this. On February 13, March 13 (oh no not Friday the 13^th) and April 10 I am hosting the:

SECOND FRIDAY’S STUDIO WALK TGIF AND BYOB

4pm to 9pm

We provide some snacks

Everyone is invited so bring your friends and neighbors. Just remember, to get here you must email or call me for directions and give your name, thanks! info@gingerwhellock.com will do the trick.

 Let’s get together on second Fridays, drink some wine, talk about art, look at my new work for the month (up close and personal) and enjoy laughter and friendship. You need this – light moments are precious during “hard times”.

Find my ads in the April issue of Southwest Art– and the March/April issue of Art of the West both in the Oil Painters of America ad section. Costs a bunch so please take a look and tell me what you think.

 Otherwise, though I haven’t found the time to complete many paintings, spending time at the easel brings me the most pleasure. These paintings, still under construction of course, are small and kind of fun to paint.

On the Easel Thaw 16 x 12 Oil

I’ve worked at this in fits and starts! Not a good way to approach a painting. Forgot to take photos as I went and here it is ready for the fir trees’ needles which were absolutely shocking spring green. 

On the Easel Lagae 9 x 12 Oil

Development consumes every bit of ground around this windmill and soon it too will disappear. I didn’t paint in the highway in the distance, the large electric poles marching into the distance, nor try to capture the sounds of earth haulers. I just wanted to remember this view as it was, with good pasture grass and contented cows with their newborn calves.

On the Easel Lagae 9 x 12 Oil b

Ghostly windmill seems appropriate and symbolic of the future of this piece of open space. I’ll finish the windmill supports, I promise, and work out some finishing touches too. Just you wait.

Emigrant  12 x 16 Oil

I made a couple of small changes to color here and there to bring it together since you last saw this one. I learned a lot and think, if I do a large one of this scene (or one similar), I will come equipped with better information and understanding of the subtleties of the lighting.

 Thanks for checking in. If you’re around, come to the Second Friday’s Studio Walk. 

Until next week – or the week after – happy painting, collecting and enjoying art.

Cheers!

Ginger

Dream Lake – Rocky Mountain National Park 

Welcome!

Thanks for visiting my new blog.  I aim to slowly introduce you to who I am, where I have been and what I think about various art related subjects.  Artists, collectors, casual observers, and anyone else who drops by, can tune into my approach to painting, learn how I choose a subject and what important elements caught my eye when I took photos or stopped to plein air paint.  I’ll share with you my methodology and mental wanderings as I begin a painting and probably throw in some incidental stray thoughts that pop into my head as I write.  I taught middle school academics many years ago and now teach workshops once in a while, so please accept that I will sometimes take the teacher role…it’s only natural.  

I write for you.  You can help guide me in my subject matter by asking questions or just making comments on my ramblings.  Anyway, welcome to the first…..

Good news came on Friday, when I learned that 5 of my oil paintings had been accepted into PaintAmerica 2008 National Traveling Exhibition.  Only two of these, “Not for a King’s Ransom” and “Fall Anthology” will join the traveling show.  The others are in honorarium only.  You’ll find my work in PaintAmerica last year and in Paint the Parks too.  These are the folks who took over after Arts for the Parks came to an end and they are working hard to make their traveling shows first rate.  

Because good painting habits flew the coup during the holidays, I felt a tad uncomfortable back in the studio.  So instead of boring you with my current painting efforts, I thought you might enjoy seeing the painting progression for one of my current PaintAmerica Top 100 paintings.

Last summer I zigzagged across Montana, staying a day here and there with good friends, eventually arriving at our cabin along Rock Creek.  After years of drought and wildfires, this spring brought abundant moisture and the multitude of tributaries which weave their way toward Rock Creek were still flowing in early July.  Unbelievable greens covered the ground and hillsides.  The cottonwoods, loaded with foliage, camouflaged their dead branches completely and the timothy grass heads swayed in the breeze at about 4 feet high – incredible. 

Please excuse this terrible photography from my easel.
Instead of drawing, I use transparent oil paint to place the key elements and shapes of the composition onto the canvas.  Notice that I always mark the center – with my astigmatism, I need this reference point to keep things level.


Next, using a thin wash of oil paint, I add color shapes close to the value I think will be necessary.  In this way, I test my concept of the painting, composition, values and color strategy before too much paint has been applied.  Here too I locate the dark colors which will eventually lead you into the painting.


I painted from top down on this painting because, with the trees, being rather feathery, I thought it important to get that nice flat sky in first.  More frequently, I key the sky to the rest of the painting later on in the development.  Fantastic atmospheric perspective (provided by the amount of moisture in the air) helps give this painting depth.  Usually I have to create it as in our dry West, little moisture means little atmospheric perspective.  I’m also testing the bright green on the right and eventually will tone it down a bit.

Not for a King's Ransom  14 x 18 Oil on board
Now complete, will you join me and walk up this shallow stream to see what is just around the corner?  The day is hot, but the water is refreshing on your feet and memories flood through your mind of days just like this when you searched for crayfish or wonderful colored pebbles – the smell of grass fills the air, caught in the gentle breeze and brookies tickle your feet as they glide by.  

I will paint this scene again and again.  The day will stay in my memory forever.  I hope I have successfully brought you with me on our journey.up this small stream.

Don’t forget, you can sign up for this blog with the RSS feed and you will be notified by email when I post a new one.

Thanks for checking in.    Ginger