Gilcrease Museum- Collectors' Reserve

I am pleased to say that these three pieces are headed to the Collectors' Reserve Show & Sale at the Gilcrease Museum this fall. The Gilcrease has a fabulous collection of American art including some beautiful examples of Hudson River School paintings and holds what is considered among the world’s largest and most comprehensive collections of fine art, artifacts, and archives dealing with the American West. Located in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the museum grounds include 23 acres of thematic gardens showcasing the gardening styles of different time periods in the American West. It is an honor to be included in this exhibition.

 Aspen Brook Study

6 x 12

 Late Afternoon Light

12 x 16

Farm Pond Morning

16 x 20

New Work- Chroma is In the Midtones

This painting was started a year ago- either at the workshop or just after. The underpainting sat in my studio unfinished. Last summer I used it as a demo piece for the "scumble with rag" video I made (the back trees). Then it sat around again. With the coming of spring I felt inspired to work on it again. I was particularly interested in working with some of the concepts we have been studying in the Color II class and which I discussed in this post on the Field Notes blog - obviously vibration but also the idea that the mid tones can hold more chromatic color.

I lightened the value range from what I might typically do and tried to keep the color rich in the mid tones, while keeping the lights a little darker and the darks a bit lighter, narrowing the range. I am interested in exploring this further and am working on two other pieces now which include these ideas.

 Spring Morning II

24 x 18

New Work

Winter came back with a vengeance this week, giving us our first snowfall. My favorite haunts were covered in four inches of snow.  Here they are, back in November, shrouded in fog and rich with the color harmonies of late autumn.

 November Fog

20 x 20

 Foggy Morning

20 x 24

November Morning at the Pond

20 x 24

Spring Workshop!

Hi Everyone! Hope your new year is off to a grand start. We are busy making preparations for our annual spring workshop to be held March 27- April 2, 2015. This year promises to be better than ever - our new studio on the historic square of Clarksville is finished, our printmaking studio is ready to go, and as always our beautiful spring landscape is just steps away. Come enjoy acres of beautiful fields of lush spring grass, huge oaks, pines, hickories and elm starting to leaf out, and blooming dogwood and wild plum. Barn buildings, wildlife and farm animals complete the list of motifs available to paint. Plus, of course, our gorgeous sunsets and twilights!

Our spring workshop includes daily instructor demos, help at your easel, access to our 700+

volume art library and some fine hospitality and home cooking too!

This workshop is organized as a field to studio learning experience for painters of all levels. Our first few days in the field will include several instructor demos (both drawing and painting) and learning a diffferent way to collect reference for studio paintings which will reduce your dependence on photography and bring authenticity to your finished studio work.

During the last half of the workshop, we will work in our brand new beautifully equipped 4000 square foot studio, finishing paintings begun in the field, as well as starting new paintings and learning about indirect painting techniques like glazing, scumbling, velatura and transparent grisaille.

Come join us for an exciting week- one that is guaranteed to introduce you to new ideas and techniques for taking your work to the next level!Registration and information here. 

Want to hear what students have to say? Click here.

Questions? Please email me. Hope to see you this spring.  Happy Painting!

Deborah

Check out Field Notes!

As some of you know, we recently started a blog  Field Notes over on the website for The Landscape Atelier. The plan is to post some great articles on drawing and painting the landscape, some art history and natural history stuff, video demos, as well as exhibition and book reviews from time to time. There are already several posts up that I think you would find informative. So,click on over and have a look!

New Website for The Landscape Atelier

 

While I have been shockingly unproductive in the studio since the Lennox Woods Show opened on March 29, I have been busy teaching and doing lots of things that have needed to be done for a long time. Years, in fact, in some cases! One of those things was to create a stand alone site for The Landscape Atelier. It is still a work in progress but it's up, so click on over there for a visit!

Remarked Lennox Woods Catalogs

I have been having a great time this week filling orders for remarked catalogs, that is, Lennox Woods catalogs which include an original pen and ink drawing. Each one is different and includes a personal note. Click for larger view.

  If you would like one of your very own, click here.

The Lennox Woods film

I am still decompressing from the show and the week long workshop at our new Atelier space immediately afterwards, But I do want to share the final film which played at the opening in both venues. Allen Phillips did a great job!








The Ancient Forest from Archfern on Vimeo.

Lennox Woods Show Schedule

Only a few weeks away from the opening of Lennox Woods- The Ancient Forest. This project has been two years in the making and it is hard to believe we are almost at the finish line!

For those of you who are in the Dallas-Ft Worth area and plan to visit the show, here are some details. The show is in two venues- Galerie Kornye West and The Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT), both located in the Cultural District of Ft. Worth. March 29 is Spring Gallery Night, an annual event sponsored by the Ft Worth Art Dealers Association., so there will be other galleries hosting events as well. Spring Gallery Night runs from 12:00 noon to 9PM on March 29. The Lennox Woods show will open at noon at both venues.

I will be at the gallery from noon to about 5:30 and I will be giving two gallery talks, one at 2PM and the other around 3:30 PM. 

BRIT is hosting a member reception from 6-8 PM which the public is also invited to. I will be there from 6-8 PM and will be giving a talk at 6:30 PM.

The show will hang in both venues through May 8.

Catalogs (which include five essays about the Woods and the work, as well as color plates of most of the paintings ) will be available for sale at the opening and are also available for purchase here. A portion of the proceeds from catalog sales go to benefit the Red River County Historical Society.

You can read the Southwest Art Magazine article about the show here.

Hope to see you there!

Lennox Woods Exhibition Catalog

I am happy to say the Lennox Woods Exhibition Catalog is now available! It contains 64 pages, with five essays about the history and ecology of the Woods and of course, the art. It also has over 40 images of drawings and paintings.

You can purchase the catalog here. 

Please note that the catalog will be available for shipping in mid March. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the catalog will benefit The Historical Society of Red River County.

Southwest Art Magazine Article

I am thrilled to say that the Southwest Art Magazine article is now out. It appears in the March issue. There is a link to the article below.

Link to Article

Less Is Not Always More

 Whose Woods These Are

54 x 72

(click for larger view- pardon the homemade photography)

Sometimes it's just less. One of the great challenges of this project is to find a way to convey the Woods in a way that is authentic but still suggestive and full of mystery. And to do that in sizes ranging from 12 x 16 to 72 x 96.  In a 12 x 16 you can use one brushstroke to describe what requires a complicated passage in a larger work. But more importantly, you have to find the right balance between what Asher B Durand called imitation and representation. There are some things which can be imitated and some things that can only be represented (I would use the word suggested perhaps). The right balance is essential to capture a sense of place and yet retain the mystery and mood you want to convey. I wanted the paintings to look like the Woods without being literal portraits- to convey a palpable sense of what it feels to be in this place. That requires something more than suggestive generalization and less than simply copying what you see.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!