Lighting the show

Thanks to everyone who posted comments here or emailed me with well wishes for the show at M Gallery. I appreciate it more than I can say. Despite torrential rains on Friday afternoon, the reception was well attended and the response to the work strong. Working with gallery owner Maggie Kruger and her wonderful staff Karen and Crystal to hang the show was an interesting and instructive experience.

I have been aware for some time that my work needs to be lit in a certain way to show to its best advantage. The glazes on the top layers of the painting will be completely washed out by harsh spotlights or even glare from windows. When that happens, all the mystery and drama and "glow" are gone! Low, indirect lighting works best. When the show was first hung, we adjusted the lighting, and then again. Finally about an hour before the show, we adjusted it again. The change was striking-so much so that both Crystal and Karen sort of gasped when we lowered the lights the last time.

Tomorrow my five day workshop starts. We'll be working out of the studio of local artist Sue Foster, who has graciously allowed us to use her studio this week. It is located on a lovely spot on the Braden river, a gorgeous"old Florida" location. Looking forward to a wonderful week!

On the Road

Showers Offshore
9 x 18
Available at M Gallery of Fine Art

I'm leaving early tomorrow for Florida but I wanted to post a few more paintings from the show. The opening reception at M Gallery of Fine Art in Sarasota is Friday, February 5 from 6-9PM. If you are in the area, please stop in!

Moon Over Myakka
18 x 24

I also wanted to mention that I have two online classes coming up- Painting the Luminous Landscape and The Painted Sky. Info and registration is here.

Myakka Evening
18 x 24

In the Pines

In the Pines
24 x 20
Available at M Gallery of Fine Art

This is another painting for my solo show at M Gallery of Fine Art in Sarasota, Fl opening February 5. At first glance, it may seem an odd subject for a show featuring Florida landscapes. But, Florida is (or was) home to some of the largest stands of pines in the South, and they loom large in some very particular memories from my childhood growing up there. As I've written before here, when I was a little girl, my passion was horses (and drawing horses). In the afternoons after school and on Saturdays, I'd ride out on my horse into woods filled with pines and blackjack oaks. At dusk, riding back to the barn, I'd watch the light flickering through the trees and the warm glow at the bottom of the sky.

Morning on the Flats

Morning on the Flats
16 x 30
Available at M Gallery of Fine Art

All up and down the west coast of Florida, there are bays, inlets, and saltwater flats- the skinny (shallow) water where the best fishing can be found. For years, my dad and my husband Steve would meet in Cedar Key or Homosassa in the hours before dawn to head out into the Gulf to fish. My dad, born and raised in Florida, had been a bass fisherman all his life, and had never spent much time on open saltwater (unless you count that little trip from England to Normandy in 1944). It was a new challenge and one he readily embraced in that last decade of his life. So, I was thinking of them, out there on the flats at dawn, when I painted this.

Who Will Paint Florida?

Hazy Morning
20 x 16
Available at M Gallery of Fine Art, Sarasota

As I've been preparing for this show I've been rereading a couple of books I have on Martin Johnson Heade. Heade was one of those very underrated 19th century American artists who had always been loosely associated with the Hudson River School. New scholarship in the last 40 years has rescued him from obscurity, and placed him within the Luminist school. Today his star is rising. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he wasn't particularly famous during his lifetime, so discoveries of Heade's in thrift shops and attics has been a common and profitable occurrence over the last few years.

A number of well known 19th century artists visited and painted Florida -Inness, Homer and Sargent to name a few. But, Heade was the only one who made a permanent home there. He lived in St. Augustine for the last two decades of his life and painted exquisite marsh scenes as well as still lifes of tropical plants and birds, particularly hummingbirds. Its important to remember that when Heade came to Florida in the 1880's it was the last frontier left in the east. The extension of the railroad into Florida facilitated its growth and the presence of patrons interested in collecting landscapes depicting its tropical beauty.

When Heade came to Florida it was not only a tropical frontier but virgin territory artistically as well. There were no artistic traditions or schools upon which to draw. Heade's voluminous output during these two decades was not only unique but the first aesthetic exploration of Florida motifs, from landscape to flora and fauna. Although there are many who paint Florida today, Heade was the first to answer the call.

Moon Over Myakka

Moon Over Myakka
7 1/2 x 10
Vine charcoal and white conte on Twinrocker handmade paper

I made this drawing as a study for a painting for my solo show at M Gallery of Fine Art in Sarasota next month. My husband says its hokey- well actually, I asked him if he thought it was, and he said yes. Note to self: don't ask questions you don't want the answer to. I prefer to think its romantic.

The trouble is that images of Florida can seem trite even though they are of real places that actually exist (like this one). There is a sort of image overload out there that can't sort out what's real, photography, fine art, or a plastic place mat at the diner. But, of course, there are people out there that think the landscape itself is trite, and how sad is that?

I was born and raised in Florida. I am intimately acquainted with both her real beauty as well as the cheap dime store lipstick and plastic alligator version. I just hope I can do her justice.

Road Through the Pines

Road Through the Pines

8 1/4 x 9 1/4
Vine Charcoal on handmade Twinrocker paper
Available at Deborah Paris Fine Art

I've been working away on the paintings for my solo show next month at M Gallery in Sarasota. But, I'm still finding time to continue this series of drawings.

I've also added a new class- The Painted Sky- to my offerings of online classes this spring. Its all about learning to paint beautiful, atmospheric skies. More information about this class can be found here.

Blue Moon

Blue Moon - 11 x 9
Vine charcoal and white conte on Twinrocker handmade paper
Available at Deborah Paris Fine Art

The full moon - the blue moon- was incredibly bright this week- lighting up the night and making for some wonderful moonlit landscapes. This drawing was made on one of several new papers I received from Twinrocker last week. I've been doing a little research on laid papers which were used by late 18th and early 19th century artists like J.M.W. Turner and Thomas Girtin. Both Turner and Gertin used a blue laid paper similar, I think, to this one. This one is called Cornflower Blue and is actually bluer than it appears on the screen. I'm getting great pleasure from experimenting with these different surfaces.

I've only a couple of spots left in the Drawing & Painting Trees online class starting in February. I've also scheduled a new Painting the Luminous Landscape online class which begins March 26, and a brand new class called The Painted Sky. Information and registration for all classes is here.

My very best wishes to all for a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas

Morning Fog- 8 1/4 x 10 1/4
Vine charcoal on Twinrocker handmade paper
Available at Deborah Paris Fine Art

I'm about 24 hours behind on this post but I did not want the day to end before wishing you all Merry Christmas. After a lovely Christmas Eve with family we woke to a dusting of snow here in northeast Texas. Tonight was cold and starry. God bless us, everyone.

Christmas Comes Early

Stream Study -7 1/2 x 6 3/4
Vine Charcoal on Strathmore paper
Available at Deborah Paris Fine Art
Sold

For artists there are few things that can match the excitement of new materials. A trip to the art supply store is like a pilgrimage. Living in a very rural area has curtailed that particular pleasure for me, as my supplies these days arrive in bundles from the UPS guy. Still, one of the first things I do when a new roll of canvas arrives is unwrap it and unroll just a little so I can feel and smell it.

A few weeks ago artist Brian McGurgan mentioned on his blog a source for paper-Twinrocker Handmade Paper. As I am teaching an online class on drawing and painting trees soon, Ive been trying out different papers for pencil and charcoal. So, I ordered their sample swatch set and a few small sheets of one of their papers. What pure delight to open that package and find such beautiful papers! That day the UPS guy looked a lot like Santa.

Why Draw?

Tree Study 5 1/4 x 9 1/4
Vine charcoal on Twinrocker handmade paper
Sold

Landscape painters often think they don't need to draw. Or, if they do, they study life drawing but leave the drawing materials in the studio rather than taking them to the field. In the 19th century artists often used drawing as a way to record information which would later be used in studio paintings. Although we think of the 19th century as the time when droves of landscape painters headed outdoors, often they brought their sketchbooks rather than their paints.

Drawing lends itself to both the sketch -what John Constable called "that which you were at the time" -and the more considered study. In both cases the economical time and materials invested in a drawing can bear much fruit.




Study of Mangrove Trees
7 1/2 x 9 3/4
Vine charcoal on Strathmore paper

Thumbnail sketches help us explore compositional ideas, sketches can quickly record a fleeting effect, and studies provide raw material for studio work. I've also come to see recently that my drawings often help me work out the visual shorthand I need to describe something in a painterly way.

My new online class- Drawing & Painting Trees- filled so quickly that I've opened up a second section for those who missed out. Information and registration is here.
Update: 5 spots left!

Reboot

Autumn- Rick's Pool

8 x 12
Vine charcoal on Strathmore paper
Sold

Every once in a while you have to shut down and reboot your artistic energy . I've just come off an intense three months in which I completed almost 40 paintings for various shows and events. Although I have a solo show coming up in February at M Gallery in Sarasota, this week I just couldn't pick up a brush. Instead, I made a series of charcoal drawings- some studies for paintings I have in mind to do for the show and some simply for pleasure. I feel better already!

Drawing & Painting Trees

Southwest Corner
7 1/4 x 8 7/8
Vine charcoal on Strathmore 500 paper

For landscape artists, trees are arguably the most important raw material of our craft and art. Their very individual character, their attitude as living beings within the landscape make them a source of endless fascination and challenge for the artist. Artists in the 19^th century routinely sketched and painted studies of these sentinels of nature in order to understand their structure as well as their artistic bearing. These drawings and studies were then used to create larger studio works.

I have a new online class scheduled- Drawing and Painting Trees. I plan to structure it as an online atelier for the study of this most important subject. You can go HERE (scroll down) to read more and to register. Class is limited to 10 students - 3 spots left!

More Inspiration

I was walking back to the house from the studio a few days ago, watching the late light flicker through the trees on the southwest corner of our property. I turned around and saw this- the rising moon. The white oak still holding onto its autumn color provided a beautiful warm note. Of course what the photo didn't pick up was that lovely pinkish hue at the bottom of the sky. And that, of course, is why you have to get out there and see it for yourself.

Finding Inspiration

As I've written here and here, for many years I painted all over the West and routinely sought inspiration in the big views it affords from the Rockies, to the high desert of New Mexico , to the splendor of Big Sur in California. When we moved to northeast Texas in May 2007, the landscape here felt comfortable, much like the north Florida and Georgia landscapes where I spent my early years. What I never expected was to be so utterly and completely captivated by its ordinary charms. As I've described before, this part of Texas is where the prairies of north central Texas meet the piney woods of the South. Its also a very rural, agricultural area which was once dominated by cotton and logging, now by a variety of crops and ranching. There are wide expanses of ranch land, cultivated fields, woods full of pines and oaks, streams and ponds- scattered around gently rolling hills, all in a distinct four season climate. While there is nothing dramatic or majestic about any of it, it is a constant source of inspiration for my work.


Perhaps most surprising of all is how close to home my favorite painting grounds are. In fact, the southwest corner of our property is my favorite place of all-particularly at this time of year. The sun has migrated far enough south that it streams through these trees in late afternoon. Every evening is different and often different minute to minute. I sometimes think I could paint this- just this- forever.