Libby Caldwell - Journal Pages of New York

This is an illustration in the hand made journal I took with me to New York in May. As I was walking over the Brooklyn Bridge I took a photograph looking to my right, of this skyline, and used that photo as reference for this ink and watercolor illustration.

Betsey Nelson- Two Boats

Betsey Nelson - Two Boats 9x12 oil NFS
This is a start that i like and will go back to work on. If successful i will post the finished piece or successive steps to the finished piece. The intent of the piece has (thus far) been achieved. I was attempting to get the feel of dappled light on the two boats. As a painting gets worked and reworked the first steps of the painting,the start, can be destroyed in later stages. The artist can lose sight of the original intent and become engrossed in some insignificant parts/part usually only appearing on the artists radar and not at all important to the bigger picture. It can become just a figment of the artists obsession and on the larger scale insignificate to the viewer. This is one of the reason the student (and that would be all of us) needs to STEP BACK and view the painting as a whole.

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Carol Marine - "Olive Shot"

Carol Marine - "Olive Shot" - 6x6in. - sold

I have to admit I hate olives. But I LOVE painting them! Color-wise, I tend to be drawn to complimentary colors a lot, but also often colors near each other on the color wheel, like the green of the olives and the turquoise background. I particularly like this combination.

Adele Earnshaw - "Promise of a Hot Day"

This 8" x 10" oil was done plein air while on a painting trip in north San Diego county, California. I was painting with my friend and fellow SAC instructor, Joe Garcia (come to our workshop in Italy next September!). We started early in the day and went to one of our favorite painting spots. I found the most perfect motif and had just started the painting when an official looking truck arrived on the scene. The driver rolled down his window and asked, 'do you realize you are tresspassing?'. It seems we were painting on a 43,000 acre privately owned 'irrigation district'. It was ten in the morning before we found another perfect place to paint - and by then the sun was intense and the shadows had shortened.

When I'm painting plein air, searching for just the right motif, I often think of the French impressionists who walked, loaded with their painting gear, yet managed to find very paintable landscapes. Yet some days I can drive for twenty miles and not find quite the right spot.

Vince Fazio - Workshop in NYC

Acrylic and Oil on canvas 18x24

This shows three phases of one of the paintings I worked on during the very unique workshop instructed by Morton Kaish,N.A. "Lessons from the Old Masters for Our Time", the workshop was held at the National Academy of Design in NYC. We were led through a step-by-step process of working back and forth between realism and abstraction to create paintings that allowed both to coexist. During the week we were also guided to look carefully at certain old master works in various museums. At the same time there two significant exhibitions of Francis Bacon and Picasso in town which we took in. The workshop and the visits to artworks all around the city was a heady mix. In addition to everything else, the Academy holds its member show at this time of year which was a major boon to all.This workshop was held in a partnership with the Sedona Arts Center. I will have quite a time distilling all that I saw and experienced. I am working on another adventure with this partnership for next year. Please Email me for purchase information.

Libby Caldwell - Less is More

Oil painting over acrylic.

Last week I attended a Sedona Arts Center workshop at the National Academy of Design in New York: 'Power Painting in New York City - Lessons from The Old Masters for Our Time.' The instructor was Morton Kaish, N.A.
For one of the exercises we worked from reproductions of Old Masters' paintings. The one I worked from was 'Juan de Pareja' by Velasquez. In the first image you can see I had just painted the eye; the background was created using acrylic paint. The outline of the head has been indicated in charcoal. Then in the middle image you can see that one eye has been fully developed and the nose and mouth have been painted. I used oil paint for this. Then in the third painting the background has been developed but not finished - using acrylic. The tie around his neck has been indicated. Some of the charcoal lines have been erased. What I am left with is a painting with areas that are highly finished, against areas that are quite abstract and unfinished. As the instructor said 'Less is more'.

Adele Earnshaw "Olives & Nuts"

A few weeks ago, I spent a week in San Diego County, painting plein air with artist Joe Garcia. I painted 'Olives & Nuts' at Santa Ysabel - a wide spot in the road near Joe's hometown of Julian. It was hot for early May, but I had a productive week. This 8 x 10 oil is on gessoed Ampersand board.

Vince Fazio Stage 4 - Tower

"Tower" 24x30 oil on canvas NFS

Stage 4 is now an oil painting but the mood and palette has changed from where I started. I will have to revisit this when I have spent some time at this spot in the spring weather. Painting takes you to interesting places.

Betsey Nelson - Field Pastel Sketches

Betsey Nelson - Field Pastel Sketches
These are two small (5x7) or smaller field sketches out of multitudes of sketches i sometimes do while scouting areas for plein air painting. Sometimes just the act of doing them looses up my color senses and some wonderful surprises happen. Plein air painting for me is about discovery not about just recreating the scene in front of me. There really needs to be more to make it stand on it's own. My search is to find that and i can only do that when i open up to allow it to happen.

Vince Fazio - Oils Over Acrylic

"Tower" 24x30 oil on canvas NFS
Stage three has oil on most of the canvas now but I can still see the underpainting influencing the color,(see my two previous posts). Hopefully there will be just one more stage...but I am thinking of changing some things...