Mill Creek

One last painting from the workshop. I had this roughly blocked in but not finished and had to finish it up mostly from memory.Not sure if it's my camera or the new brushes but this one looks soft too!

Tonite I met up with some artist friends to attend the preview of the MN State Fair Fine Arts exhibit. We celebrated Kris's piece in the show and the rest of us cried in our beer! Just kidding. We decided we were in good company because some of the local art stars didn't get in either. I submitted my piece French Twist but didn't get in. (I'm not sure what they were thinking!) You just never know what is going to happen when you enter these things.

I have to say we spent most of our time across the street at a picnic table with our wine, cheese and crackers, chocolate and strawberries. The only thing missing was some kind of food on a stick, which is what the fair is famous for. Seriously, this fair is huge! And it's always interesting to see what the food du jour is going to be.
It's a must see if you are here in August. While walking around I hear someone ask if my name is Debbie, (it's been a while since I've been called that) she recognized me from 25 years ago when we worked together. How do people do that? Nice to know I still look the same! Ha ha!

Mill Creek
8x10 Oil on canvas panel

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©2009 Deb Kirkeeide. All rights reserved.

Yellow House in a Field of Lavender

I had fun painting this one. Trying to keep loose sketchy strokes. I feel like I've been trying to hard lately so I just went into it without over thinking it too much. It would probably be beneficial to do more like this.

Yellow House in a Field of Lavender
8x10 on linen panel
SOLD!


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©2009 Deb Kirkeeide. All rights reserved.

Grandfather Tree - 08.23.09

This is another one from the deck. Got up early and headed out in my pj's. One advantage of not going far for plein air! Love it in the mornings. The light, the stillness. I can hear the birds -no lawn mowers out at that time. I am noticing the songbirds aren't around as much. Are they already heading south? Maybe the resident hawk is the reason. Today all I heard were some crows, the hawk who swooped through the yard and some Wookie bird that I'm thinking belongs in a jungle.

I tried a new type of panel and it just seemed to suck up the paint. What appeared to have a lot of color while I was painting ended up chalky and dull. At least to me. I also tried new brushes so it really looks different from my usual. Ended up looking a little brushy. Not sure I like the result by it may just be growing pains and I'll come to like it.

Grandfather Tree 08.23.09
8x10 Oil on hardboard panel

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©2009 Deb Kirkeeide. All rights reserved.

House on Angel Hill

This was our final painting of the week. Trying to put all the concepts to work. As I said yesterday, I was not feeling the love that day. It was the hottest day of the week and the hottest week of the summer. It was like standing in the furnace with the hot air blowing. I started this, wiped it, started over in a different format. I got it blocked in and by that time had to retreat across the street to the shade. So my perspective was a little different and the light had quickly changed.
But I got kudos from the owner of the house and from the two boys who flew by on their skateboards! What more could ask?

It's always a race for me when I am painting outdoors. All in all, it was a great week. It always is when I can devote that much time to painting and be surrounded by other artists - it's just so energizing.

And wouldn't you know it - this week's weather is wonderfully cool!

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©2009 Deb Kirkeeide. All rights reserved.

At the park and down to the river...

Day 3
This day we worked on shape and color. Keeping it simple but working on color temperature.




Day 4
We went down to the river this day and worked on memory and visualization. The first painting was done with our backs to the scene. We had 5 minutes to look at the scene and 15 to paint from memory. With this repeated 3 more times for a total of an hour.
Then we put our painting away and started another of the same scene with a time limit of an hour. This time we got to look at what we were painting. The exercise is meant to help tune out the extra stuff we tend to paint and get down to the basics and creating the essence of the painting without showing every little thing we see. It was a very interesting excercise.
I really do like the simplicity of these paintings even though they aren't very polished. Workshops tend to overload my brain and I don't really produce my best work with all that thinking!
Tomorrow I'll post the final -although I admit I was not feeling the love that day.

Do not adjust the color on your monitor!

Well I'm happy to report that I did find people to sit with at lunch (and dinner and even a glass of wine or two) and I think the teacher liked me.... good grades? I'll let you be the judge!

The workshop with Marc Hanson was awesome. He is a great teacher, artist, and all around nice guy. I finally learned those key ingredients that so many other workshops talk about but don't help you understand. Value, shape, color temperature etc.
This week kicked my butt. Lots of hard work, making my brain absorb all this new information...and wouldn't you know after such a cool pleasant summer we get the hottest temps of the summer all week!

So this was day one. We were only allowed to paint in black and white for value studies. It was a bit tricky getting my head wrapped around painting in black and white.

Day 2


Day2 we had to do two b&w value studies - one broken down into 3 values another taking that same breakdown and adding the subtleties to make a finished study.
THEN, we had to do the same thing in color - simplified shapes and values and a more finished painting. It was funny after getting our heads wrapped around the B&W painitngs when it came to color I found myself having to readjust. More concentration on my part to seeing the shapes and values and applying it to color.

We all met again after dinner in town for a session of nocturne painting. Once it finally got dark we set up along the street and proceeded to paint with just a booklight attached to our easel. Unfortunately I misplaced mine and had to set up under a street light. This turned out to be a very yellow light that completely neutralized a lot of my colors so it really was a shot in the dark! Here's my effort. Not great for sure, but it was pretty fun! I also think maybe I should have worn my glasses since I see even less at night!



I'll show more tomorrow.

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©20009 Deb Kirkeeide. all rights reserved.

Moonstone

I'm gearing up for my workshop with Marc Hanson next week in beautiful Taylors Falls, MN.
He is a wonderful artist. You can expect some landscapes coming up and hopefully a new approach to my paintings. I'm so happy to spend a solid week painting, although sometimes workshops are a bit going back to school after summer. Will the teacher like me? Will I have anybody to sit with during lunch? Will I get good grades?
Yikes! Some feelings never go away do they? They just change scenarios! Either way it will be good to be away from the routine.
Moonstone
6x8 Oil on canvas panel

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©2009 Deb Kirkeeide. All rights reserved.