Plein Air Invitational exhibit at Riverrun Gallery

Plein Air painting is done on site, not in the studio, and is usually finished while the artist is on location. It can be demanding, as light and weather can change quite unexpectedly - not to mention things like bugs, snakes (ugh!) etc., etc. . It's taken me years to get to the point where I'm comfortable doing it, but it is sooo worth the effort! You just can't get the same visual, emotional or physical information from a photograph.

I was recently asked to participate in an invitational show at the Riverrun Gallery in Lambertville, NJ. The show opens Saturday, August 8th with a reception beginning at 7 pm. Regular gallery hours are daily from Noon to 5 pm, and they are closed on Tuesdays Additional information can be obtained on their website. Many of the regions finest Plein Air painters will be participating in this show, I look forward to it!

I will be offering 3 small works that I did on site in Cape Cod. Unfortunately, I will be in Wyoming the day of the opening, but will be going to see the show after my return. The works shown here will be available at Riverrun Gallery beginning August 8th.

From the Top:

Title: Study for Cape Cod Sunset (2008)
Medium: Oil on Panel
Size: 8 x 12

Title: Sunset Study, Cape Cod, North Side
Medium: Oil on Panel
Size: 6 x 9
SOLD

Title: Salt Marsh, Barnstable, Cape Cod
Medium: Oil on Panel
Size: 8 x 10

The New Studio

The process of having the new studio built has been daunting. Over a year in the works, it is almost ready. The construction itself has not taken that long, about 2 months, it was all of the other stuff from working with the architect last summer to going through the hell (and high cost) of dealing with the township to get the permits and zoning variance to have this built.

It looks like I'll be moving into the studio sometime next week. There are a few finishing touches to be completed, and of course the occupancy inspection (more township stuff . . .) before I can shift all my easels, paints, etc. into this new space. I'm lucky enough to have North light in this space, which is about 16 x 20, so I have lots of room to move around.

The first level will be your standard "garage" - car, motorcycle, and all the normal nonsense that needs to be stored, the second level is my studio.

The Next Adventure . . .

The trip to Cape Cod was wonderful - the weather was a bit more than uncooperative for the last few days, but I came back with a large number of field studies and about 200 photos to work with in the studio. Currently, I'm working on several large paintings and a few few smaller ones. That's the way I work - for some reason I work on anywhere between 3 and 7 paintings at a time - go figure. As the works are completed, I'll get them posted here on the blog and on the website.

On August 01, I leave for Wyoming - two weeks in the wilderness - painting and horseback riding through the mountains. I've posted a few photos from one of my prior trips so that you can get an idea of how "out there" and how magnificent the area is.

Traveling as an oil painter poses a few challenges. First, you cannot fly with your materials - they are potentially explosive so I ship them out via ground about 2 weeks prior to my trip. I'm lucky in that I have a permanent easel out there, so I don't need to worry about that . . . In Wyoming, at the "base camp" we are at about 7500 foot elevation - so the sun is very strong and it is technically desert due to the low rainfall and humidity. This means that everything dries fast, sometimes too fast, so I cut my medium with poppy oil a bit so that the paint is "open" long enough for me to work it. Poppy oil oil takes forever to dry - used alone it would takes months, or even up to a year to dry, but cutting it with another medium, such as linseed oil, makes it much more manageable to work with and in this case, is a benefit in the very dry and hot environment.

Top photo is the view from a mountain ridge, second photo down is the view from the same ridge facing out to the the mountains,and you can just barely make out the glacier that feeds the lakes in photo one, and the last photo is a view of the ranch dining hall, about 3/4 way down the same mountain. It's pretty awesome . . .