Today I got a new studio easel. It is by “BEST” and its the “O’Connell” model. I took a nice drive out to Continental Art Supplies on Reseda Blvd. in the VW Beetle. I was only planning on getting a couple of new brushes and some of new tubes of paint that is missing on my palate. I ended up with this beauty. The only problem was that it would NO WAY fit in my little car. Steve Aufhäuser, the owner, was giving me a tour of the store, and showing me this easel, when he discovered that it would not fit. Hmmm… I said “Do you deliver?” he smiled and said… “I’ll do anything for a beer” we laughed and I told him that I had a couple of bottles in the fridge waiting for him. So, he said he could stop and deliver it to my home in Camarillo on his “way home.” I can’t suggest that he would do it again to anyone that asked, but I was sure grateful that I got to start working on it tonight.
He ended up staying around for about an hour while we talked about brushes, gesso and what is best to use to clean out your oil brush… his suggestion… boiled linseed oil that you can get at any hardware store. Just make sure to rag out as much of it as you can when its all cleaned out. Solvents are much too harsh.
I also picked up a couple of new smallish filberts from a brand I never even heard of… Escoda, from Spain. They have been around for 75 years. Steve says that they are one of his favorites. I got a couple #8’s and #2’s of the no-frills model “Natural” a non nickel-plated brass ferrule.
I will be testing them out this week. {smiling} I will be in a three-day plein air workshop with Ryan Wurmser. I am so looking forward to this. We will be talking about composing light and natural form outdoors. Looks like we have three beautiful days in a row, all sun and about 70 degrees. I hope to come home with a few new paintings from Malibu Creek Canyon, El Matador State Beach, and one other location.
Today the Huntington Beach Plein Air Festival closes. I had the three paintings below in the event, plus one that was offered up for the “Painting in the Streets” event. I love
Central Ducks, Always Welcome, Triangle Sun
Lucy and this guy
So, on Friday (June 19th) I will be leaving the daily grind to be a gypsy artist for a week. I will take my newly gesso-ed birch panels with me to San Onofre Beach where it will be my outpost for the week. San Clemente hosts a week long Plein Air competition and I will be taking the entire week to get some sun and painting done. I always look forward to my little trips about once a year… usually alone. It is a necessary thing for me to be in solitude. Distance from the stuff of daily life has a way of giving a new perspective. Interestingly, Saturday evening will be Summer Solstice. I do not necessarily “celebrate” this, but it offers a reminder that seasons do change and life goes on even after drastic life changes happen to us. There are these threshold moments in our lives that we can look back on and see where everything became different. We can not prepare for everything that lies in the path of our future, but we can know that the trail that we have been on so far has brought us to where we are now.
My artist friend Michael Pearce has a spool of shoelace material. Stitched into the lace is the word “Solitude” which is a word that I cherish. It is idealistic of me to think that I can have solitude in the chaos of my life, but I try to be reminded of its value. In the book “The Way of the Heart” Henri Nouwen has an entire chapter talking of the importance of solitude in our busy lives. It is a way to spiritually re-charge. It is infact the first step on a path that he describes as the way of the heart. (the next steps are silence and prayer) Of solitude he says “Solitude is the furnace of transformation.” He goes on to say in another book “In solitude we discover that life is not a possession to be defended, but a gift to be shared.” It is there, in solitude that I do recharge my gift. I am able to go back to the daily life of family, work, community and share the gift of life. I am truly looking forward to filling up with grace and the suns vitamin D boost as I paint along the coast next week.
So the Huntington Beach Plein Air Festival is coming to an end this week and today I delivered the three paintings that I felt were my best efforts. The first two I have already posted, and below is my third effort that was entered into competition. Being nearly alone on the beach, away form the day-to-day life with a book and the sun, I call this “Solitude“. Thanks to Teresa for being a good sport and enduring the sun and a good book for over three hours while I worked this all out. I added the pattern on her bikini after the white underpainting had dried which did not take long because of the Cobalt Dryer I used. That was nice because I was able to rag out the lines in the brown patch on the right hip.
So, there I was, really enjoying painting the trunk of this fat fruitless Mulberry. I had the blue brush in my hand when I reached to the ground to get more red paint when I noticed that my brush hit “something” as I reached over to the ground. I paused and took a deep breath and slowly looked over to my freshly painted trunk, and as you see here, there was a long blue stripe across it. Not just any blue mind you, but PHTHALO blue. This particular blue is only good for doing blue awnings and boat covers, and also for that rich gem-like water that needs to pop. When mixed with anything, it kills it. I have to keep it far away from anything, then I go and stripe my tree. <DOH!!>
I slowly wiped it off with a fresh paper towel, and then re-painted the missing bits back in. I will finish up some of the details in the harbor in the background tomorrow, and I will post the rest of the painting then.
So, I got two paintings in this weekend at my first entrance into the competition. I was invited last year, but was unable to make it. The competition is through three weeks, but as I have a day job, and live so far away, I can only paint on weekends. I will be glad if I can get three new paintings worthy of entering when it is all said and done. Here are the first two sketches I did, and will likely go back to both locations later and paint again. I love the Bolsa Chica wildlife preserve. There are some awesome birdlife wondering around there. Pelicans, egrets, and many smaller shorebirds were there watching me while I painted.
Today I got a new studio easel. It is by “BEST” and its the “O’Connell” model. I took a nice drive out to Continental Art Supplies on Reseda Blvd. in the VW Beetle. I was only planning on getting a couple of new brushes and some of new tubes of paint that is missing on my palate. I ended up with this beauty. The only problem was that it would NO WAY fit in my little car. Steve Aufhäuser, the owner, was giving me a tour of the store, and showing me this easel, when he discovered that it would not fit. Hmmm… I said “Do you deliver?” he smiled and said… “I’ll do anything for a beer” we laughed and I told him that I had a couple of bottles in the fridge waiting for him. So, he said he could stop and deliver it to my home in Camarillo on his “way home.” I can’t suggest that he would do it again to anyone that asked, but I was sure grateful that I got to start working on it tonight.
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