September at the County Fair

September will be a busy and interesting month. Labor Day has a different feel to it, now that the kids go back to school in August. Even if you don't have school age children, you may have noticed a change in the neighborhood patterns and social scheduling. The groups to which I belong are dormant during July and August. They all start up again in September with art club meetings, painting groups, charity work, singing, and teaching. (I love being retired!)

The Los Angeles County Fair opens every year in September. This year I have work on display there in the Millard Sheets Gallery with my colleagues from the Mid Valley Art League (MVAL). I remember visits to the Fair in past years as being fun-filled, energetic, endurance tests! I never even realized there was an art gallery. Too bad, because I would have loved the chance to take a break in a lovely, calm, air-conditioned space filled with beautiful and curious pictures to admire. This is my first year there. I am not sure if I will find the busy flow of people that I remember from my own visits, or if the art gallery will be as foreign to most Fair-goers as it was to me.

They asked each of us from MVAL to lead a one-hour workshop. I was hesitant. My oil paintings take much longer than an hour, and you need quite a bit of set-up materials.

What can I teach in an hour? I realized that I have taught drawing lessons to all ages of school children for many years. My lessons all fit within a 40 to 60 minute time frame because that's all the schedule would allow. Okay. I agreed. The children use pencil, fine line markers, and/or crayons. For this workshop we will use colored pencils which allow for more sophisticated use of color blending. So, if you are headed to the County Fair on Friday, September 18th, head on over to the Sheets Art Gallery. I'll be starting at 1pm and you will be taking home your drawing masterpiece in an hour. You will also take home an increased understanding of some basic artistic guidelines such as how to compose a picture, how to create a sense of depth and distance in your picture, and how to make use of the color wheel.

Most of my time at the Fair will be as an artist demonstrator. This will be a great time for me to get some work done! I will set up my plein air easel and work on paintings in the same way that I do when I am outside. I will have to work from photos, but the plein air work will have already been started when I gather my source materials.

September 19th will be the most interesting day. The California Art Club is organizing a daylong "paint-out" at the Fair. CAC artists will paint wherever they choose at the Fair throughout the day. They will bring their work to the Gallery in the afternoon for a showing. This is similar to my regular schedule on Thursdays, when I paint out with Mid Valley and we gather to show our work at lunch. The difference of course is that the showing at the Fair will be judged and awards given. I am looking forward to seeing which artists accept this challenge. Their paintings are sure to be an explosion of that fun-filled energetic endurance test that sums up the exerience of attending the County Fair.

Hope to see you there!

Recent Works

Eaton Canyon

18x24 oil

 Desert Reeds

12x9 oil

 Daisies

12x9 watercolor

Hello Everyone
I have been working on keeping my website current at rosinamaize.com. Sorry to have been quiet for so long on this blog

I decided that I really need to learn how to get my work out of the house and into locations where they can be seen. My art seen now! I spent the spring months figuring out what to do and applying to places. I put almost all of my paintings in the La Canada Public Library in July. They wanted some "playful, child-friendly" works to decorate the children's section of the library. I didn't have much time, so I pulled out my watercolors and did about 6 watercolor sketches. It reminded me how much fun watercolor is!

I have a busy schedule for Fall also. I was accepted as an exhibiting member of the California Art League. I have entered several pieces into their Gold Medal Show. Now I wait to hear if the juror accepts any of them. Through the Verdugo Hills Art League, we have a chance to show a few pieces at White's Gallery in Montrose. My teacher and mentor, Margot Lennartz has shown her work there for years. I consider it an honor to be able to put my work up there! Also through an art club, I will be an artist demonstrator at the Sheets Gallery at the LA County Fair. The Mid Valley Art League has several walls of paintings on display there, including four of my paintings. I am going to be there painting on September 17th, 18th, and 19th, and the following week on the 25th and 27th. Plenty of people should be coming through the gallery because it is indoors and air-conditioned!! Stop by and say hello when you visit the Fair. (Check my website for the exact times.)

Later in the Fall, I have been accepted to show my work in Sierra Madre at the Fall Festival hosted by the Foothill Creative Arts group. That will be on November 6, 7, and 8. I was also accepted to put up a booth at the Montrose Artwalk on November 21st.

Meanwhile, I am keeping a steady schedule of drawing, sketching, and painting. I am going to have to make a major resolve to finish a number of these paintings that are so close to being done. For now, I am being patient with myself and doing as much as I can. I look forward to posting them here and on my website. Stay tuned!

A New Stage

 The Blue Vase 16x12
This painting is in the "Splendors from the Garden" show at La Galeria Gitana. I am really proud that it made the cut to be included!

 Apple Basket 16x20
I have seen others paint a large basket with apples, but this one is my version. I was really happy with the way the basket has both the rough texture of the woven slats and the smooth texture of the polished wooden handles. I put it in a gorgeous ornate gold frame. It is so satisfying to sign, frame, and hang these pictures. Yay!

 Back Bay, Los Osos 18x24
This painting is still not where I want it to be. I have adjusted it since I took this photo. I got rid of the huge signature, for one thing! I also pushed back those distant trees to show them more as a unified mass in silhouette. I enhanced the sense of a beam of light coming from the left. I am tempted to try doing the dramatic, Renaissance thing with a huge obvious shaft of light. The setting sun was shining on the painting, creating the effect naturally. I might destroy the painting, but it would be a great learning experience. Do you think I should go for it??

Yellow Lilies 16x12
This is a beautiful painting with deep rich colors. I am still touching up small areas to bring up the details a bit and to make everything pop just a little more. I don't want to lose the fresh feel of the initial painting though. I'm happy with the way I organized the composition. It is a companion piece to the Blue Vase, but I like this one a bit better. I did a better job of showing the point of interest while downplaying the rest without being too "messy". This one also looks great in its frame - very professional! Which one do you prefer?

So why do I call this a "new stage"? These paintings look "ready" to me. There are about a dozen signed, framed, and ready to be sold. They look as good or better than many of the pieces being shown in galleries and art shows, in my humble opinion. So now the focus has to include developing a business plan - some way to connect with people who are interested in collecting art of this style. More on that in another post perhaps.

The Arroyo Seco Bridge

I began painting with oil a little over a year ago, starting with a class at Art Center At Night. Anne Seitzyk was a wonderful first teacher. We moved through all the stages of starting with oils, from materials to set-up, equipment to color mixing. We painted still-lifes, portraits, figures, and plein air.

Our first plein air class was at the Arroyo. Although I did not paint the bridge during class, I was motivated to go back and try it on my own. Here is the result:

I was pretty pleased with the result. It looks like a bridge, for one thing. And I will always remember the process of painting it because my daughter went into labor about halfway through the painting. As the phone calls went back and forth between us (...headed to the hospital... measuring contractions... going to be admitted...) I painted faster and faster just to get this little 9x12 covered.

I made it to the hospital in time to see my granddaughter's birth :)!

That granddaughter just celebrated her first birthday. Our Thursday En Plein Air group was scheduled to go to the Arroyo last week. So, once again, I set up and painted the bridge. Here is the result from this year:

I felt much more confident. I believe I chose a more interesting composition. I have better equipment so that I can go farther from my car. And I felt confident that I knew how to approach the whole process of creating a plein air painting. To the jaded artists and viewers who make a reference to how many paintings there are of this bridge, I say that it is a necessary rite of passage.

How many times did Monet paint his bridge?

Critique

I showed my plein aire paintings to Margot. She used to work outside, but now paints in the studio only. She really didn't like them. She was critical of the choice of the bridge - it looks like a sewer - and the strong hook shape of the composition. She told me to push the color when working outside. Hmmm. I really enjoyed working outside. I guess I wasn't so concerned about the final product as I was about the process of getting set up and painting. I liked working with the other painters. I got good feedback at the onsite critique for the Deukmejian trail.

I should demand more of myself. Even though each plein aire experience is an exercise, I guess I need to try harder to construct a complete painting.

Matt Smith said a good painting is a good painting, whether it was done en plein aire or in the studio. We should not set a separate standard for ourselves depending on when/how we painted. Matt also said we need to find the balance between working outside and working in the studio. Each experience should strengthen the other.

En Plein Aire

Here are some recent paintings I did with the Thursday painters. The first one is the bridge at York Street over the Arroyo Seco beside the stables. I was almost done when I heard that we could go into the stables to look around. The barn there was built in 1906!  There were a number of really interesting horses - unique breeds: a polo pony, a huge draft horse,  a smaller horse with a what looked like a huge head head of hair,  an ancient mule. I grabbed another panel and quickly sketched part of the barn in the time we had left. I took a number of pictures so maybe I will go back or work more on images from this site.

 

Another site where we painted was Deukmejian Park way up in La Crescenta. It was an interesting day, cool but warming up quickly as the morning went on. I was glad I could shift my gear into a backpack and head away from the parking lot without dragging my cart. This is another place where I would love to paint again. I chose a view looking up the trail towards an old oak. It would be fun to hike farther up, and paint the same area looking down towards the valley. We still have winter shrubbery on the hills. I don't know if Spring will bring many wildflowers since we haven't had any rain.

I didn't have a camera or my phone so no pictures to work from. I love the support of being with the paint-out group. With no phone, I wasn't worried at all about being out of touch or on my own. There were other painters all over the park nearby.

 

Busy schedule

I have been going out with the Thursday painters each week for about a month or more. It has really put pressure on my schedule. I paint with Margot on Wednesdays, en plein air on Thursdays, and with Sonny on Sundays. I can tell that I am gaining confidence as a painter. The more I learn the more I realize I have to learn.

I am fortunate that Margot and Sonny are like minded. I don't feel a conflict between their styles or their instruction. That said, they give different feedback on the same painting. It helps me realize something is wrong, and there are choices about how to fix it. I rarely ask for critique from both of them on the same painting. Margot does landscapes, and Sonny does still life and portraits.

I will photograph my plein air pieces to have a record of them. It is too late and dark outside to do that now. None of them is a finished painting. As Laura Wamsgans told me, it's like going to the gym. The goal is exercise not a performance. Chuck Kovacik manages to cover his canvas with conviction. It looks like he is aiming for a finished piece in the two/three hour painting time. He's a great resource and role model.

I'm also reading, reading, reading. Margaret Kessler, Chris Saper, Gregg Kreutz, Richard Scott, and of course, John Carlson. Some of it sticks in my head and some of it looks brand new the next time I look at the book! Richard Scott is doing a demo nearby in a couple of weeks. I look forward to meeting him. It turns out he is neighbors with one of Margot's other students.

It's daunting to realize that artists can't really be known until they publish and/or start teaching. Back to teaching! Maybe I need to publish my drawing book for the elementary classroom. Just like when I was writing that material, I'm too busy to put it all together!