Fundraising Paintmonkey Style!

I've been asked to participate in Fernbank Museum's silent auction again this year for the annual Lost Oasis.  I kind of knew what I wanted to do but last night I hit upon the right idea and stayed up until 2:30 for this:

I will be posting more on the Paintmonkey Facebook page as it gets closer to completion.

Then a few weeks ago as the missus and I were planning a trip down to Zoo Atlanta, I noticed on the zoo's website a call for artists to participate in a plein air event called Art Gone Wild.  I've been wanting to paint at the zoo for awhile so this was perfect.  I applied, got accepted, and went down a week or so ago for what they called the "Find Your Muse" day.  The artists sketched and started getting the feel of the zoo.

Here's a few of mine...

Now unfortunately both of the events and silent auctions are on the same night (June 14th), but if you want to help out some very important institutions in Atlanta...just pick one and go!  You can't go wrong!

Alumni Weekend and Plein Air Practice

This weekend was alumni weekend at Young Harris College which is my spiritual home. I needed to get in some plein air practice for an upcoming event (details to be revealed very soon) so what better place and time than to go see old friends at my very favorite enchanted valley.

I got there right around 10ish so I parked and grabbed my gear and set out for the patio in front of one of the dorms.  I love the Susan B. Harris chapel but everyone always paints it from the same couple of places.  I wanted a different view so I chose the one that most people know but I don't feel they think of as often.

Here's the photo from where I set up...

And here's the painting I got from this vantage point...

So after this, I met up with a couple of friends and we headed over to the gym where we were being served lunch.  Had a lovely time chatting with friends and talking to some students about school and then it was back out into the sun for more painting!

I crawled up the back of campus (holy crap, I am not as young OR in shape as I used to be) and found what everyone pretty much said was the best view of the valley and campus.  After finally wheezing my way up there, I am inclined to agree.

The view...

And what I took from it...

So once again, I had a great time at my alma mater and got some pretty decent pictures out of it.  Not bad for someone who used to be TERRIFIED of landscapes.

First Plein Air of the New Year!

Thanks to the psychotic weather this year we are a little over a week out from being snowed in last week and today it was 70 degrees out.  So I took advantage to get in the first outdoor painting of the year!

There is a tree next to where I park at work that I am obsessed with.  It is a gnarly, bent, kudzu covered old thing that is just fascinating.  This isn't the first time I've painted it and it probably won't be the last (perhaps a nice pen & ink?).

So I did that this afternoon. 

Hope and Joy

I went to Young Harris today.  It was a complete coincidence that I had today off.  But once I realized what day it WAS...I wanted to do something positive.  I wanted to do something to make me and other people happy.  So I packed up the painting gear and headed out.

I got to the campus about noon and set up.  I worked for about 2 hours and in that time several of the beautiful, curious children stopped to talk to me about painting and the school.  (I am not using the term "children" in a condescending manner.  Quite the opposite.  I use it in the manner of wide-eyed children eager to take in everything.  They really were lovely.)  And during those conversations I realized something.  They are so proud of what they have.  They wanted to know if I liked the changes.  They were excited to talk about the changes and just as excited to hear about how it used to be.  And I told them truthfully that there were very few of us who would have gone anywhere else and we are actually a little jealous that they get to have four years there.  They seemed to appreciate that.

Then they went on to class and I finished up working on my painting.

As I left the school I realized that my day had been spent exactly the way I wanted...I went to a place that I hold very dear but it actually turned out better.  Change is inevitable.  But sometimes the best stuff stays exactly the same.

I finished my schooling at LaGrange.  I could've gone anywhere with a degree from Young Harris,  but it didn't matter where I went.  I am always a Mountain Lion at heart.

Grr!

St. Simons Island Trip (cont...)

There actually was much more to the evening AFTER the Jack Davis event.  Robby and I were guest "geeks" on a podcast I have mentioned here before called Dinner 4 Geeks.  We had a ball doing it but it deserves it's own blog post so I will get to that later.  I think the episode will air somewhere around August 18th.

The next day, the art gallery was having a slide presentation about Jack Davis which I tried to RSVP to, but I did it too late.  I went over just on the off chance I could sneak in but at worst I got to see the Jack Davis drawings again in a much less crowded atmosphere.  Again...if you have the chance to ever see his work in person, just go.  His sense of humor is contagious and you can NOT leave without a smile on your face.

HOWEVER...I had waited too long so the presentation was full.  But I did get to see Mr. Davis again.  So I looked around a little more and then headed out to paint.

I literally just walked across the parking lot to the St. Simons Island lighthouse area and set up my little rig.  I got my little portable folding chair and set up my paints.

I actually had my first people come up and see what I was doing.  It wasn't nearly as weird or uncomfortable as I thought it would be.

So I got this one done and I wanted to paint a little more.  So I started wandering around the area.  There was a nice road scene that had live oaks forming an interlacing canopy which I really liked.  However, I kind of had to sit in the road and then the mosquitoes showed up.  Nope.

Back to the pier in front of the lighthouse.  There was a cluster of trees and there was this one beautiful REALLY old live oak off by itself.

I was fighting this one originally.  I drew it out in pencil and then started the watercolors.  It wasn't working.  It irritated me to the point that I just grabbed an ink pen and started scribbling over it.  And then magically it got better.  Once that happened, I put more watercolor on and it felt much better to me.

I was really pleased at how well my little painting rig worked and it was pretty light to carry around and I felt comfortable working on it.  I look forward to doing more.

Plein Air Practice

I've been working more on my plein air painting/sketching. For those that don't know that term, it means "paintin' outside". Which is usually what I call it. Anyhoo...

So I had today off as a co-worker is having her wisdom teeth out this week and I'm working the weekend for her. I thought I would take advantage of being off on a day I normally am not and try to go outside on one of the (semi) drier days we've had in a while. (As I type this the thunder is rolling in followed by what I presume to be another 8-10 inches of dampness.)

So I have seen this section of shops every day as I go to work and one day a few months ago, I thought to myself "you should paint those". So today I did.

As I sat there ALMOST done, A Clarkston police officer pulled a woman over for running a red light. Naturally she pulled over right in front of me so the police car was directly in front of what I was working on.

This next one is from last week. We took my Dad to dinner (belatedly) for his birthday. As we waited I got out the kit and the wife waited in the car, every now and then telling me I was going to get sun poisoning because I forgot a hat. (I didn't.) Here's what I got out of that one.

I'm still getting used to painting on my lap and the general hotness of it. I can't just confine my painting to those four days a year where the weather is perfect. But it's getting there.

Plein Air Coincidences

I went to see my parents yesterday, mostly so I could see my mother for her birthday today (happy birthday again, Mom!) but also to support their fire department's fund raising barbeque.  While on my way I was going over in my mind what I wanted to try and paint.  There's a great giant old tree by their house that I want to document as one enormous limb after another keep falling off.  I thought I might paint the firefighters sitting around the barbeque pit.  Finally though I decided to paint the old chicken house that I grew up working in.

I got to the house and spent an hour or so talking to my mother and brother.  At one point my mom asked me if I "knew what I was doing 35 years ago today?"  I did not.  I was 7.  I barely know what I was doing last week.  "We were waiting on our first batch of chickens."  Weird...did I subconsciously remember what the date was and THAT was why I had decided to paint the chicken house?

No, it's probably just a coincidence.

Also...I got some pencils I ordered in the mail.

So, I sketched one of our dogs while we watched a movie. A good day for art practice.