Two for Small Works shows

"Knitting", 8x6 oil on linen panel

     I mentioned earlier that I need to concentrate on small works and with that in mind I spent the afternoon in the studio creating this small painting of Jesse knitting.  This summer I took you through the process of creating the painting "Jesse Waiting" so the model may look familiar to you.  As I explained then, this is another image from the photo shoot I did along with three artist friends of our wonderful artist model, Jesse.  Jesse also happens to be my granddaughter! 
     It is interesting to me that a photo of the painting points out some little adjustments I should make that I did not see in the painting itself.  In my defense, the light had changed dramatically and I can see how I might have missed these things.  I am talking about the shadow under the leg of the bench and also Jesse's shaded right arm.  There appears to be a line there near her shoulder that I didn't see. Also the leg of the bench where it meets the stone wall should be a different value.  Small things, an easy fix.

"October Morning, Wide Water" 8x10 oil on panel

      Also touched up and ready for a small works show is this painting from my last post about our paint out at Wide Water in Potomac, Maryland.  All I did was lighten the foreground shadows and I am happy with the resulting painting.  I haven't decided yet which paintings are being submitted to which shows as I would like to complete a couple more before making that determination. 
      This Friday the Art League Plein Air painters will be painting on Roosevelt Island on the Potomac across from Georgetown.  I am hoping for a good view of the city across the water but the trees may not be bare enought yet to provide that.  We shall see.  I can always paint from the footbridge over to the Island. I am going to attempt to upload the promised images from Friday's paint out but I am not optimistic:(  Once I get to the third image things go haywire and I may have to contact Blogger for some assistance.  Here goes.....If you don't see any images then I failed.
http://www.jeanschwartzpaintings.com/

Lynn Mehta

Lynn's painting



Well, at least I got the images of Lynn Mehta up.  I had added all the others successfully and then the last one came up over everything and resisted all attempts to remove it until I removed all but these two.  Frustrating. I will have to look into it.   











Another Great Day at Wide Water!

"Late October at Wide Water" 8x10 oil on panel

      The Art League Plein Air painters had a strong turnout today at Wide Water on the Potomac.  This spot is located just down from the C&O Canal in Potomac Maryland.  Also located here is the historic Old Angler's Inn which played a pleasant role in today's outing.  Not everyone was able to stay for lunch but eight cold and hungry painters enjoyed the warm Inn and delicious food!
     Because I want to enter a couple of holiday small works shows I am keeping my paintings to 8x10 inches or smaller right now.  This photo was taken at my stopping point.  When I got home I lightened the foreground shadows which I think helped a lot.  I tried to photograph the painting to post but it was dark and under the studio lights everything got very orangey.  I will take it outside tomorrow and try again.  I am rather happy with it and think it will frame up nicely and be an entry for one of the shows.  You may remember my last painting from this spot which was focused downriver.  Today I was standing in about the same placed but turned to catch the view upriver with the morning light hitting the rocks. There was a lot more color in the trees today. Boy, did we luck out with the weather this morning!  By noon the sun was gone, the sky gray, the wind blowing and it was downright cold.  Maybe we are going to get the predicted snow tomorrow after all.  Weird for October!
     
      Yesterday I received some very good news.  I have been juried in to the Salmagundi Club in NYC as an artist member!  If you have been reading this blog then you know that I have had paintings accepted in a couple of national shows held at the Club.  I did a lengthy blog in August about our experience at the reception there for the Salmagundi non Member Show and recently one about the upcoming American Artists Professional League's 83rd Grand National which will open on November 1st at the Club.  I liked it there so much and the quality of the paintings was really impressive!  I now have a number of exhibition opportunities there at the Salmaguni and one of the small works shows I want to enter will be held there.  It is the Annual Thumb Box Show and I would like today's painting to be one of my entries. http://www.salmagundi.org/

The lunch bunch with Jean 

The lunch bunch with Ellie

     Since I am usually behind the camera Ellie was good enough to take my picture with everyone so I have included one with me and one with her:)  Left to right around the table are Caroline Town, Lynn Mehta, Susan Johnson, Kim Stenberg, Theresa Miller and me in the first photo and then Ellie Kilcline in my place in the second photo.     
     I just tried to upload a sampling of today's great paintings but I only got two of them uploaded before everything went bananas.  The only way out was to remove those two and right now I am too tired to start over.  I will do a fresh blog tomorrow and show you those paintings (there were some stunners!) and the finished version of mine.  Time to crash and watch some "crap telly". http://www.jeanschwartzpaintings.com/
   


      




Small Works



"The Falls" 8x5 oil on linen panel

      As much as I like to work large I am having a good time doing tiny, 6x8 paintings. I want to have work on hand for whatever Small Works shows come up over the holidays.  They are quick and give me a chance to try new things without a large investment in materials and time.  I find it is a good way to play with different techniques and I am already getting ideas for larger paintings.
     This small  painting of  a portion of the Great Falls in Virginia was not done on site but was culled from one of my larger paintings of the same subject. I painted it in the studio today. I have done a number of very large pieces depicting areas of the Falls and I have done very well with them.  I haven't done one in a while and now I think I would like to do a series of small ones.  The texture of this linen panel is just right for them.


     Tomorrow morning I plan to go out riding and since my horse lives on the property where we painted on Friday I will bring my unfinished painting with me and see if I can complete it on site.  Not, however, from horseback:)

     Speaking of horses......I have had two life long passions, horses and art.  Horses came first and my obsession for drawing them had a lot to do with my becoming an artist.  I was that horse crazy kid I am sure many of you have known.  My parents said I started begging for one about the same time I started talking.  I am not sure that is an exageration!  Owning a horse was not possible and my folks were advised that I would eventually grow out of it.  Right!  I became very creative as a kid in finding ways to ride and when I couldn't I made myself happy by drawing horses and reading every novel ever written about them and seeing every movie.  I still tear up when I watch "National Velvet"!  Happily as an adult I have been able to be a horse owner and have been for 31 years!  So...where are the horses in my paintings you ask?  Good question.  I get asked that a lot and I am not sure what the answer is.  When I was a kid I always painted horses in a very romantic way, galloping with their manes flowing.  I don't think that is how I want to paint them now.  I will ponder this from the back of my mare Gypsy and see what I come up with.

Gypsy and Me, October 7, 2011

                                                       

Turkey Run Park and Madeira



Part of the view I was capturing




"Turkey Run" 14x11 oil on panel

                 
           Thursday morning I met Linda Beardsley, Jack Dyer and Dick Neff at Turkey Run Park which is located along the George Washington Parkway overlooking the Potomac River.  We had hoped for some spectacular river views to paint but found the trails to the river almost vertical and slippery with leaves.  We opted to try our hands at the woodland views instead. It was a windy day making the light really shimmery and appealing but somehow I just didn't rise to the occasion.  I didn't make the right decisions early on and things got pretty muddy instead of the desired golden, flickering light.  I lightened things up when I got the painting home but the freshness was gone for me.  I have painted a fair number of woodland themed paintings but I usually hone in on rocks and streams and do them very close up.  I think I need to get out and practice in the woods a little more!



"Winding the Bend" 12x16 oil on panel (in progress)

       Friday morning I was happy to head to a more familiar scene.  I met Susan Johnson, Ellie Kilcline and Kim Stenberg at the Madeira School where we set up behind the chapel on the heights over the Potomac.  I have painted here many times and I think the view here is one of the most spectacular ones of the Potomac in the Washington DC area.  However, instead of painting my usual view I was surprised to be able see clearly down river for the first time and set up apart from my friends to capture this scene.  This is thanks to the fact that a tree went down and took a lot of the uderbrush with it.  I hate to see trees go but thank you Mother Nature for the new subject to paint!    
      The painting is incomplete and since I forgot to take a photo while I was working I will either have to go back when the light is similar or just finish from memory.  I will post the final painting when it is finished.  I am much more satisfied with this painting than the one from the day before! http://www.jeanschwartzpaintings.com/

Ellie

Susan

Kim

     

The Happy Ending!

Erik's Pond, 30x40 oil on linen

     Well, here is Erik's Pond all dressed up in it's beautiful new frame and hung in the place of honor over Erik's mantel! 
      Those of you who read my blog this summer would have followed this painting from the very beginning.  Actually before the beginning since I started posting about the commission when I showed you the four 8x10 studies I did for Erik to choose from.  After that I posted the progress of the painting from the underpainting, through the "tunnel of ugly" to it's emergence as the finished painting.  I am very pleased with it and more importantly Erik was:)
                                                                                                                                                                Thank you Erik for sending this photo.  It is great to be able to see it in place!  I have no idea where most of my paintings are and I sometimes wonder about them.  I hope it will live in this place and be a source of pleasure for Erik and his family for a long time.
      
            Tomorrow I will show you what I have been doing for the last couple of days.  The fall weather has been spectacular so I have been outdoors virtually all day everyday and have been off painting with friends and riding my horse.  I got one good painting under way thanks to Friday's paint out but the painting from Thursday is screaming for help! http://www.jeanschwartzpaintings.com/

Berry Strawberry!



"Berry Strawberry! 8x6 oil on panel

       Today was a very rainy and windy day so it was a great time to stay in the studio and get going on those small works I was talking about.  This little 8x6 inch painting was the result of today's efforts.  I had some great looking strawberries (now a little worse for wear) and I always like to paint reflective surfaces so the little pewter bowl seemed a good pairing with the berries.
      I guess the title is a little corny but once it entered my mind I couldn't come up with anything else:) 
     I plan on painting out both tomorrow and Friday unless rained on again in which case I will do another couple of 6x8 paintings in the studio.  I guess I should start thinking of subjects.  Maybe a trip to the grocery store is in order....Back with more tomorrow! http://www.jeanschwartzpaintings.com/

Plein Air Show and Tell

"Wide Water at the Old Angler's Inn", 12x16 oil on panel

     Today I was confined to home waiting for our plumber.  Somehow when I think of the great artists I have studied and admired I don't think of them doing things like waiting for plumbers, walking and cleaning up after their dogs etc. I think of them leading romantic lives and completely devoting themselves to their art.  What a fairy tale!  I am sure there are some that fit that mold but I am betting more of them had concerns similar to mine and most of the artists I know.  Even Vermeer had a business to run and struggled to find time to paint. So, I turned a sows ear into a silk purse and had a great day in the studio instead of getting out to paint.  I did the finishing on yesterdays plein air painting that I had posted I would do and here is the completed painting.  I hope you enjoy it!


"Festival Tents" 11x14 oil on panel



    I forgot to show you the finished painting from last week's paint out at the Alexandria West End Art and Wine Festival. "Festival Tents" captures the brilliant sunlight on the tents and the dappled shade that inspired me to paint it.  This is a better image than the one I posted on my website because this is in natural light.  I will have to replace the other with this. 

     Below is a painting I completely forgot about and it was sitting in it's wet paint carrier since September. I painted it from our porch at the beach.  I may actually hold on to this one and hang it in the beach house, I think it belongs there.
http://www.jeanschwartzpaintings.com/


"End of Summer" 11x14 oil on panel