More photos from Firehouse Plein Air

I was having so much fun painting and watching everything going on that I didn't notice how strong the sun was. Later I notice a nasty patch of sunburn on my left shoulder. Do you think maybe next time I'll remember the sunscreen? Maybe....



Photos courtesy of a nice man named John who was taking photos at the event.

Engine 51 Plein Air painting

I went to the local park this morning to do some painting.

And what a lucky surprise....

The firehouse next door to the park was having an Open House.






Engine 51 here was parked right where I could set up on the grassy island in the parking lot and get an clear view of it.

I had a fun time. Got to see all the demos they put on. And a number of people stopped to chat or kids stopped to look at what I was doing.




Engine 51 at the Open House, 8x10" Acrylic on canvas board

The painting didn't turn out too bad. I had to stop after 2 hours of standing in the direct sunlight, my paints were just so hard to work with. They were getting too tacky & sticky to move around. Also, I didn't bring any small detailing brushes. I'll finish this in the studio where I can put the decals on the truck.

A wedding present

A Starting Point

Cray Pas Specialist oil pastels, 11x14, on paper



A friend recently got married overlooking the Pacific Ocean. She sent me photos. I made this painting using those photos.

She was very surprised and happy when she recieved the panting. Hearing how much she liked it made it even more fun for me.

There is something about weddings that pulls me to paint them. Maybe it is the emotion of the day.

Last year another friend got married on the beach. I only saw photos of the wedding for about 10 minutes. I made them a small painting as a present. Not as detailed as the one above. Because I was going from memory on that one, it was more of an impression.

But in both cases, it must be the romantic in me that I love doing wedding portraits as  surprise presents.

Oil Pastel in mixed media

I've been doing a lot of photo manipulation in Photoshop lately.

I got the idea to try using the digital manipulation (digi-art) and oil pastels as a mixed media.

I started out with this photo of puppies I took at The Buddy Foundation

http://www.thebuddyfoundation.org/







I cropped the photo in close, removed distractions and started playing with filters to get this:







At this point, I felt that I had a nice image to use as a logo for an online store I just create.

http://www.cafepress.com/Buddyforlife

I've recently begun volunteer work for The Buddy Foundation and wanted to create a way to help them out with my artwork. Hopefully, over time, I will be able to do that.



So back to the mixed media idea.



I cut down a piece of Bristol Vellum paper to fit in my inkjet printer and printed out this digi-art.  I used it as an underpainting to my oil pastel.

I like the way it worked, although not too happy with my color choices for the puppy on the left.







This idea of oil pastel and digi-art as a mixed media is one I will explore more.

Jurist for Cray Pas Wonderful Colorful World contest

Recently I had the privilege of being a juror at the 2009 Cray Pas Wonderful Colorful World contest sponsored by Sakura of America (makers of Cray Pas oil pastels).

http://sakuraofamerica.com/

This contest is a national art contest for children grades K-8.

Sakura of America began this art contest over twenty years ago.

This year 4000 entries were reduced down to 150 finalists. These were put into 3 age groups: K-2, 3-5 & 6-8. These three groups of 50 were then hung on the walls of The Museum of Children’s Art (MOCHA) in downtown Oakland California.

http://mocha.org/







MOCHA is an art gallery and hands-on teaching workshop for children and teachers alike.

Once all the finalists paintings were hung on the walls at MOCHA, then the 6 jurists had to decide which were the top three award winners in each group.

This was so hard!

We each went through and graded each painting. Then we got together as a group to discuss our top picks and decide on the top three in each age group.

Here are some of the finalists on the wall in the Grade 3-5 group.

This piece  won 1st place in the K-2 group for his creativity. Every judge walked away from this painting with a huge smile on his or her face.

Here are the finalists in the grade 6-8 group.

And these are the 2nd, 3rd & 1st (L to R) in the grade 6-8 group.

All 150 of the finalists received a t-shirt with their own artwork on it from Sakura of America.

The 9 award winners, their teachers and their schools all receive a generous supply of art materials.

To view all the finalist paintings, go to

http://sakuraofamerica.com/?q=Craypas-winners-2009-k-2

So if your child’s school could use some art supplies, and you’d like seeing your child’s artwork recognized in a nationally, ask your child’s art teacher to think about entering the Cray Pas Wonderful Colorful World contest next Fall.

Go ahead, make it even harder for me to pick a winner next year! I’d love it!