Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Wet Paint and Corny . . . everything!!

Decided to stay an extra day in Minneapolis and get new tires on the trailer - one of them had a little bulge and we decided we didn't dare take it any further.  I mean, not that a bulge here and there isn't an acceptable thing!  

Doug ventured out onto a back road to paint and seriously, when he got back and I saw the cornfield, I got a little choked up.  This whole trip has been about corn.  Cornfield after cornfield.  Doug and I met in Iowa, as many of you know, and so I'm a little sentimental when it comes to the cornfields.  AND it's something I've never seen him paint.  Directly.  I remember taking pictures and I would think "I can't see the barns and cool silos for all these cornfields.  How brilliant to paint the cornfield and hide the barn and silo behind.  I just loved it.  So, if you're interested in this cornfield, I'd love to hear from you and you can help us pay for those damn tires!  hahaha

"Corn Field"
8 x 10
Waiting to get the tires on, we decided to venture down to the Mall of all Malls . . . the dreaded Mall of America!  Holy Malls of all malls!!  4.2 million square feet and we had 20,000 parking stalls to choose from!  It has an aquarium, an indoor amusement park, a monster lego display and well over 500 stores to meander through!
A cool "panoramic" shot on my iphone with Doug starting on one side and ending on the other - smarty pants!!
This place was huge.  Doug described it as a giant game of "mouse trap" for those of you old timers who remember that board game!  All the rides intertwined and we almost felt like that, at any moment, we were going to have the "cage" drop down over us!!  

A 7-foot Lego "girl" I tried to bring home to my boys but they said it would take a little while to put one together! 

The stores were so unique - one was just based on PEPPERS!!  Doug was in HOT heaven!!  They had a display in the front of their store with tortilla chips and "ketchup" bottles filled with every kind of pepper sauce you could imagine.  I thought he was going to ask for a straw and a 32-oz mug to go!  

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, we find out from neighboring trailers that Max chooses to "howl" the whole time we are gone.  "We are so sorry!  We hope it wasn't too annoying," Doug apologized.  They said "well, it was annoying for a while but we got used to it!"  Bahaha!  Apology sort've accepted!  Maximillion!!  I love you a hundred . . . for now!  He's gotten so used to being able to go everywhere with us that leaving him to veg in the trailer with his chewy ball wasn't quite enough.  It's so hard because there are just times you can't take the dog with you!  So yes, we had to resort to a Bark collar.  We tried it out by putting it on him . . . leaving in the truck . . . driving around the campground and coming back and sneaking up on the trailer without him seeing.  Voila!!  It worked.  

So with new tires on the trailer, we are feeling like we could probably go another 2000 miles . . . but . . . we are pretty homesick!  I miss my kids bad!  So next stop, somewhere about 400 miles west . . . hmmmm let's see . . . how about finger lands on Mitchell, SD here!  

So I start researching Mitchell SD a little and, well, you wanna know what is the main attraction in Mitchell, SD?  I'm pretty sure someone asked . . . yeah, The freakin' Corn Palace, that's what!!  I know, huh?  What? THE Corn Palace, you ask?  Yes, the one and only.  I mean, when Stephen Colbert has been here to see it, it better be on YOUR bucket list!  As of yesterday morning, it got added to mine and crossed that baby off all in one day!  Do you ever add things to your to-do list AFTER you've done them just so you can cross it off?  bahaha  

I'm not sure how much corn I can take in on one 3-week adventure.  After the corn painting, seeing the Corn Palace was quite the spiritual experience.  Corn cobs everywhere.  They decorate this palace every year with corn and their "agricultural bounty" to prove to the world the fertility of the soil.  This year, they used 3000 bushels of rye, oat heads and sour dock (that's farmer talk . . . I'm really catching on quickly, so try and keep up) along with approximately 275,000 ears of corn and all made into patterns.  Here's a few pics to get the feel!  

Corn stuff EVERYWHERE!  Kids, hope you're up for a "corny" souvenir from the Midwest cuz baby, I got 'em comin your way!!  But not these, they were a little pricy!  hahaha



And a picture for posterity . . . and we're outta here!  
 So after the 30-40 minutes in the Corn Palace, we headed to the local market for something wonderful to throw on the barbie-Q!  Pork loin wrapped in bacon.  OMG!  Can it get any better?  

Off to see Mt. Rushmore today and probably stay at Devil's Tower at the recommendation of Brandon Cook.  Doug said he had one more board to paint on . . . maybe he'll paint Mt. Rushmore, he said.  I said "hahaha, maybe paint a mustache on one of them!"  Dang, I'm funny first thing in the morning!  

Sorry only one painting to post, and that you had to suffer through this whole corny post with no other paintings to see!  Maybe tomorrow! 

Talk soon!!

J'net




Monday, July 29, 2013

Wet Paint left it's mark in Door County!

There is no doubt Doug left his mark in Door County this year.  hundreds, probably thousands, of people were wowed by this "newby" to the area.  Amazed that he came clear from Utah to participate in this event, they were awestruck by this last quick-draw painting on the pier of a cold and windy morning.


It was probably 40 degrees and a pretty stiff breeze blowing.  I guess Doug was feeling right at home.  I had a chair set up but I stopped at a coffee shop up in town to get warm and wrap my hands around a warm cup of hot chocolate!!

The foghorn blew and they all started at 9:00 sharp.  I thought to myself, "no one is going to be walking out on this pier to watch these guys paint.  It's just too stinkin cold!!"  I was blown away at what Doug took on as subject matter and thought there would be no way he was going to finish this painting in two hours with all those boats.  I thought maybe he'd work on one boat.


The temps started to climb slightly by about 9:30 and I was actually thinking some of the clouds were starting to separate a little and maybe, just maybe, some sun was going to peek through them!!  I was hoping.  A few people started trickling out onto the pier and I walked around to see what other artists were painting.  The drawing was pretty much sketched in and yeah, there were going to be a few boats in this painting.  Good luck there, maestro!!

Indeed, the sun did peek through those clouds and the temps started rising.  Nice!!  But, for a rookie plein air painter, that's an incredible challenge!!  I'm thinking - hmmm, what's going to change on this painting now?  The sky is now a different color.  The water is now a different color.  And the boats are different.  In fact, one of the boats started up it's engine and scared the living daylights out of me!  I thought a few easels were going to fly into the water!  bwahaha!!

Well, Doug takes this stuff in stride and soon the people started swarming around him, ooing and awing as it started taking shape.  "Look at the detail!"  I would hear.  A dot here, a quick line there.  A boat pulled out quickly and I said "Quick Doug, get that boat!"  5 seconds later, I said "Ah, you missed it."  Everyone laughed.  I'm sure people were thinking I was just heckling this poor artist!!


I ended up handing out the rest of the cards that I brought.  I think I brought close to 200 business cards and at least 200 of the bigger cards that had a picture of either "Court of the Patriarchs" or "Calf Creek Corridor" on one side and all of the website/blog info on the other side.  I kept one last one so people could at least take a picture of the info on the one side!

At 90 minutes, people were stopping to ask about the board and how it was set inside the "cradle" that he mounts it in.  He seriously was just taking his time - stopping to show people how it worked and how the frame worked.  He actually had drawn a picture on his easel because so many people ask about it!  The final painting was the best of the entire week!  One guy said "That's by brown boat right there!  No one has ever painted my boat before!"  It was just a couple of paint strokes but it was definitely his brown boat.  So cool how so many boats were identified by so few strokes.  In the last 15 minutes, the sun was out the the sun was shimmering on the water.  He did a couple of big bold strokes through the water and the "baby blue" strokes through the sky changed.  It was seriously just magical how it transformed from this "dismal" morning to this bright shimmering day.

The foghorn sounded at 11 and everyone stopped.  Here's the final product:

"Dockside"
8 x 10
We had 30 minutes or so to get this baby into a frame and back to the tent where the 40+ paintings were waiting to be viewed by hundreds and hundreds of people to be auctioned off.  The tent was filled with anxious buyers.  The coordinators strategically chose a painting that showed a lot of interest from buyers and guess whose painting was auctioned first?  Braithwaites.  Lots and lots of bidding action on this!  They started all the bidding at $300 and this went for $1,200!  Wish I knew who ended up buying it.  I couldn't even get close to the tent it was so packed but whoever it was, congratulations!  It was the prize piece!  (Love the two people on the dock on the right side and the American flag on the left).

So all in all, an incredible week.  Doug definitely left his mark in Door County.  He didn't win best of show but hey, when you win it all the first year, what do you have to aspire for the next year, right?  I could not have been more proud of him.  It was so wonderful to meet so many incredible artists as well as some wonderful people who were gracious enough to buy the art there and encourage us to return again!  The staff at the Peninsula School of Art who put this all together were just amazing.  Probably the most well-run event we have ever participated in (and we have been in a lot of them!)  Huge Kudos to Cathy, Kay and the whole staff at the Peninsula School of Art.  What an incredible job you did.

We are now meandering our way back home.  Stopping off in Minneapolis - maybe for a day or two.  Doug is actually out taking some pictures or painting this morning, I'm not sure which.  As we were traveling across Wisconsin yesterday, I got his camera out and was taking pictures.  I'd see something I thought he'd like and he'd say "Oh you missed that - that was good light!"  I'd say "huh?  I thought THIS was good light."  He laughed and humored me.  I still don't get it.

I finally got some wifi here in my campsite and Max is curled up by the door waiting for Doug to get back!  I'm going to post this along with the painting below of the last painting he did on that last morning that I missed showing you!!  Another beautiful "backlit" painting that is so hard to capture and paint.  You painters out there appreciate how hard this is!

"Sunrise"
12 x 16
Thanks for your faithful following of our blog and our website.  All of his paintings are on the website now!  I love love love your feedback.  Send me an email if you'd like to be on my mailing list for workshops, updates to blogs, etc.!

all my best,

J'net

PS - Doug just returned!  OMG!!  The painting he did made me cry!  Seriously!!  I can't wait to post it!

Friday, July 26, 2013

Wet Paint and Approaching the Finish Line in Door County

So we are approaching the finish line.  The paintings have to be turned in by noon today and he's out painting one last one this morning.  Wednesday was fabulous!  We fixed a little breakfast and enjoyed the perfectimundo weather!  Got things together and headed to the Clay Bay Pottery location where we set up and painted.  We moved up onto the little road above the shop and I gave Doug a puzzled look.  "What are you going to paint up here?"  He said, "That tree."  I still gave him the puzzled look.  "Hmmm."  But holy hannah, the dude made it all look pretty awesome!  Check this one out.  It was so fun to still have so many people stop by to watch him paint.

"Still Standing"
10 x 8
This is an old poplar tree that was so cool looking.  Loved it.  We spent some time venturing around and exploring more places and we met up with one of our students and friends, Scott Shearer, who took the rest of the week off to come hang out at the Door County festival!  Good times!!

The evening event was a Sunset paintout at Sister Bay in a marina with lots of boats, lots of people and a rock-solid painting!  There were so many people trying to work their way in to see him paint.  "Who's this guy?  What's your name?  Where you from?  Have you been here before?  

Doug was overwhelmed with the kind comments as there are so many great painters here - he just wanted to paint some good stuff.  Which he's definitely done and the feedback from so many has been great - so if you're one of those who gave us some kind feedback, THANK YOU!!  It was much appreciated!!  The painting started out, as usual, with a dark purple background and the paint came off quickly with a q-tip or a paper towel - wiping away the lighter "values" and starting to "draw" the painting out.  It was fun to see it start to take shape and the painting was actually done in just under two hours.  I love the final 20-30 minutes when he adds the highlights!  This is fabulous!!

"Harbor Traffic"
8 x 10
Seriously beautiful!!  We couldn't get away from the Harbor - it was just so beautiful and so many people to talk to.  Literally hundreds and hundreds of people wanted to talk and look.  We went out with Scott afterwards for some latenight pizza and wings at Husby's!  It was really delish!!  The biggest pizza I've seen in a long time and, as Scott said, Doug didn't even make it past the 50 yard line!  There was lots of leftovers for a few breakfasts to come!!  

Had a "sunrise paintout" the next morning at o-dark thirty at a lighthouse that didn't end up being very inspiring for Doug.  Funny what makes him tick and inspires him.  We ended up walking around a few minutes and then moving on up the coast to Whitefish Bay where it was very quiet and pulled in.  Seriously we were the only ones on this little quiet beach.  Course, most of the beaches are private and only a small portion was actually public so it was probably so quiet because most people are still asleep at 6:30 am!!  

I walked down onto the beach with my chair and ipad to read and Doug set up further up on shore in some brush to paint a little boat and the shoreline.  It was a little breezy and Doug was set up to do a little bigger painting (12x16) so this was going to take a little longer.  At least four hours.  I decide the glare to read was tough with sunglasses so I put on the "Sound of Music" video and started watching / listening to Julie Andrews sing "The Hills Are Alive" when I was startled by what appeared to be manna from heaven!!  Well, no.  But close.  A diet dew appeared right before my eyes!  Scott had found us and I couldn't have been more thrilled!!  
We chilled and hung out and watched Doug paint.  Doug completely zones out with his headphones, ignoring us completely which works great for all of us.  We can talk about him all we want and he doesn't hear a word of it.  

The painting took about 4 hours.  The harbor was absolutely beautiful and I took some fun pictures with his nice camera of the harbor and some cool boats that were out sailing.  So gorgeous in every direction you look.  

Here's the picture he ended up with.  I thought "Breezy Morning" was more what we felt but no, "Windy" was the title.  haha  His prerogative of course!!  And this ended up being one of my favorites. Seriously captured the feel of the day beautifully.  So amazing!

"Windy"
12 x 16
Cleaned things up and went and got some lunch at the Blue Ox with Scott!  Good food, good laughs . . . again!!  

**I digress . . .  I just saw Doug pull in from painting - I'm sitting here at the pic-a-nick table at the front of the campground!  Gave him a big grand wave!!  He waved back!!  Then . . . I realized it WASN'T Doug - cuz Doug pulled in right behind him!  bahaha!!  Friendly folks here in Door County!!  

We took a couple of scenic routes and saw Cave Point which was absolutely gorgeous!  Time for a rest as it got windy.  Came back and framed the pictures up.  Scott came over and had dinner with us - an awesome rib eye steak compliments of Doug the chef-master!  Delish!!  And I destroyed the two of them in a game of Bloody Smash - a "progressive rummy" cardgame.  Not as "easy peasy" as you thought, was it Doug?  Winna Winna, chicken dinna!!  That was me!  

Off to see the last painting!  If Doug likes it, it will get posted.  If he didn't like it so much, you will never see it!!  haha!

Talk soon!!  Wish us luck - we find out tonight how he did compared to competition here in Door County.  Lots of great painters - I'm very proud of him!!

xoxo

J'net

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Wet Paint, Barns & Rhubarb Jelly!

Day Two was incredible in Door County!!  The morning took Doug back to County Road EE again as there was just too much to take in for just one sitting!  He had a great size board which let him do a wide painting - an 8 x 16 I believe.

"Bus Stop"
8 x 16
The venue for this plein air event is so fun in the sense that you get to meet a lot of people!  They have two places each day where artists will be painting.  This way, the artists get to not only meet each other, but viewers and admirers also get to watch the artists paint.  How fun for them to get to see the process go from start to finish rather than just the final product.  

For lunch, we decided to venture out to try some local restaurants.  I had a white fish sandwich with some fresh local fish and it was UHHHH-mazing!!  I also went for the mighty splurge and treated myself to a leaded AND loaded Pepsi (caffeine AND sugar!)  haha I know, I'm pretty easy to please!  

We came back to home camp and chilled while the wind rocked the place (check the weather, it really was the wind - 20-30 mph I think!!)  Max refuses to come inside.  He sits sprawled out on the grass and watches people as they go by and watches the slightest movement.  He doesn't sleep for fear he will miss something!  

Doug ventured out around 2:30 for painting #2 for the day.  Moonlight Bay.  I worked some laundry and spent 48 minutes on the phone with Frontier Airlines to cancel my one-way flight (that I was supposed to be on today) but as you can see, I came early and was here for the WHOLE trip!  Lucky me - or even more lucky, lucky Doug!!  Oh yeah!!  And I keep reminding him just how damn lucky he is!  

"Moonlight Bay"
8 x 10
So this morning, we've been out already but with no wifi so I will post the two paintings from today in the morning!!  Prepare, again, to be wowed!  We are going tonight to a Sunset Paintout at Sisters Bay.  Should be some spectacular paintings to post tomorrow!

By the way, thanks to Scott Shearer (or his lovely wife) for the delicious rhubarb jelly that went absolutely perfect with my toast and peanut butter this morning.  What a treat!!  It won't last till I get home, I'm certain.  I bought a fresh loaf of bread last night and have a nice hiding place in the trailer!  

I love hearing from you!!  If you're new to reading the blog, please send me an email and I'll add you to our mailing list so you can be "in the know!"  

Thanks friends!  I've heard back from so many of you and I LOVE it!!  Talk soon!!

xoxo

J'net and Max-a-milllllion!!  I love him a millllion!!  and sometimes just a thousand . . . hahaha sorry Wesley, I couldn't resist but I knew you missed hearing me say that!!  haha  

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Wet Paint in Door County!

The first day of painting was a great success!  Doug got up and outta here at 6 am and found a great barn on County Road EE!  I'm learning more "painter talk" as we talked about naming this painting "Back Light" but I think he's used that name a few too many times!  He could have painted in 4 different directions and had a killer painting!  I loved this view tho!

"Morning Highlights"
12 x 16
When he finished and got back to the trailer park, apparently he drove right by Max and I as we were right at the entrance at the picnic table!  I decided I should head back and he was already having lunch and was already to head to the Artist's paint out at Woodwalk Gallery!  So we jumped in the truck and headed up there.  What a beautiful gallery and grounds!  There were about 15 artists scattered all around the grounds with some stunning paintings.  Doug decided to paint the house.  Lots of people came to watch the artists paint and it was awesome to meet some more people.  Met a great couple from St. George, Utah!  Wahoo!  


People were intrigued, as they always are, at the way Doug takes a painting from the "purple hue" value study to the final product.  If you look closely, you can probably see some of that purple in the tree still showing through.  

"Woodwalk Gallery"
8 x 10
The weather held out while Doug finished this great painting and Max met some great four-legged AND two-legged friends!  Everyone here, it seems, are real animal lovers.  They all know how to approach a dog and wait for him to "warm up" to them before they pet him.  Max was in heaven with all the attention!!  We have found out something, however.  When he's on his leash, he doesn't like to go potty.  Shy?  Not enough privacy?  I don't know.  But as he walks by a tree or even a fire hydrant, he's like "oh yeah, let's mark this spot here" then he looks around and you're standing there and he gets gun shy!  I thought the dude was going to pop before he finally emptied his bladder!  

Got back to the home-sweet trailer and collapsed.  Doug was beat from 8 straight hours of painting in the sun.  I was beat because, well, I had been busy.  I mean, handing out business cards, keeping Max under control, well, it's just plain exhausting!  

Doug made some fajitas for dinner that were delish!!  Then we decided to go for a ride and check out the rest of Door County.  One minute, you look like you're deep in the forest with trees completely covering both sides of the road and you're going through a tunnel - then the next minute, you're on the pier and there are boats and docks and what appears to be an ocean that goes on forever!  We have Green Bay on the one side of Door County (that's the side we're on) and the other side is Lake Michigan.  Here's a few pictures we took along the way:


We pulled off and into this little "beach area" and walked down inside to the beach.  We were amazed to find the beach that we were walking on was ALL shells!!  Seriously!!  


Is that incredible or what??  Piles and piles of shells!  And as you get further out, they get finer and finer because they've been crushed up so much by being walked on!  Crazy!!


Where we're standing are pretty crushed up shells.  The little "mound" near the water is totally uncrushed sea shells that get washed up.  Anyway, gorgeous!!

The drive back took about 45 minutes to meander our way back.  A brilliant sunset over the water was breathtaking but no photo as I was driving!  You'll have to take my word for it!

Stay tuned for some killer paintings today!  Thanks for following!  

Talk tomorrow!!  

J'net and her sidekick, Max

Monday, July 22, 2013

Wet Paint on the Fox River!

The final day of the workshop couldn't have been better if we had custom ordered the weather!!  It was fabulous!  A cool breeze took us down to the Fox River Valley for Doug's demo starting at 8:00 am.  The Fox River is beautiful and home to this darling gaggle of geese (notice the two babies hitching a ride on Mama's back!)

Doug's demo was on the bank of the river looking up the river at a bridge that crossed at Main Street.  Max was thoroughly enjoying the smells of every kind and the people watching as well!  


"Fox River"
8 x 10
Here's the group L-R Doug, Scott Shearer, Ken Davy, his wife, Joanne Davy,
Jeff Kennedy, Karyl Shields and Joy Richmond. 
Doug, as usual, kept his hands very clean of all paint, chemicals, etc. while painting.  He's a neat painter, I'll tell you that!  


We took a quick lunch break and came back to the river and spread out a little.  Doug made his way around to everyone but we were wowed by the paintings that came out of that last session.  Very impressive!!  


I think everyone felt much more comfortable and, as Joy mentioned, she made some "breakthroughs" that helped get her to a new level in her painting.  Here's some of their paintings that came out of that session:

Joy's painting:


Jeff's painting:


Karyl's painting:  

Ken's painting:


Scott's painting:


It was a really great day and we were so proud of everyone's work!!  Mostly very grateful to have met new friends and share our love of art and painting!!

To add to our fun circle of friends, Doug being the outgoing soul that he is, went and introduced himself to our RV "neighbors" the night before and seriously, they were the cutest couple ever!  Gaby and Brian and their two cute "kids" (two black labradoodles!)  As Grandma Griffin would say "we visted and visted!"  The next day, they came and found where Doug was painting on the Fox River and watched him paint for a while!  Then, they were gracious enough to BBQ us some delicious steaks for our last night in Illinois and we just laughed and giggled into the night!!  Who'da thunk??  Well, we already know that some of our favorite people have been met under what seemed to be very random conditions but I was indeed grateful that Doug walked over to say hello.  What delightful people we have met thus far!!  Not sure what we've done to deserve such wonderful friends, but thanks to all of you who follow our blog, our painting "stuff" and allow us to call you our friends.  We love you!!  

We got up early Sunday morning at o-dark thirty and were here in Egg Harbor, Wisconsin by noonish! And oh my, Scott, you were right.  This is beautiful!!  We went to a fun "welcome" dinner last night and met some neat artists and sponsors and everyone was ready to hit the ground running this morning!!  Doug was out early and I'm here at the campground up near the pool where I can get wifi!! 

 
Max is like, what are you doing?  aren't you supposed to be working??  

Okay - Doug will be back soon and we're heading over to do another painting at a gallery - I like how I say "we" are going to do a painting!  haha it's such a tender thing how we share everything!  

Talk soon!!  Wow - two posts in one day!  This is record-breaking!!


Wet Paint and Dundee Awards!

Doug and Cynthia with the Barn painting. 
So the Iowa Barn painting was snagged by a great friend, Cynthia Lippincott, who wasted very little time in calling to claim her barn!  She lives here in Illinois so we were thrilled that she was willing to drive up to meet us for dinner! Thanks so much, Cynthia!  That was such a treat for us and we are so glad the barn painting found such a good home!  


We got settled into our camp and met our students.  Scott Shearer is a prior student from last fall's Southern Utah Tour and is from Wisconsin! 

Jeff Kennedy was the coordinator of the workshop. He is from this area and has followed Doug's work for a couple of years. He emailed us and asked if we would do a workshop if he coordinated it.  He is a very talented artist and the oil and plein air painting is new to his tool box!  Check out some of his work at his blog http://drawingflies365.blogspot.com.  We were thrilled that he was able to pull one together!  Ken Davy, Karyl Shields, and Joy Richmond were the other three students, all from within an hour drive from the Fox River Valley here.  What a great fun group!

The first demo was done Friday morning on the corner of Lincoln and Washington in West Dundee.  We're sitting in the parking lot of the village squire and across the way is Dundee Supermarket. Its reminding me of Michael Scott and the Dundee awards! 
  
We were graciously delivered an 81 degree morning with only 74% humidity and 14 mph winds so it only feels like 85!  heavenly!  . I may need a jacket it's so cool!  We were expecting thunder showers that afternoon so we were playing the schedule and weather by ear.  The heat was still brutal and I had to force myself to drink the water as opposed to what Scott brought for breakfast, a diet mountain dew, which I believe is the breakfast of champions!  Haha 

I sat in the shade typing on my iPad while Doug worked on the value study in the sun.  I'm thinking that if Michael Scott were handing out the fashion award for painters, Doug would win for sure. He is sporting a bandana under his hat looking very "sheik-ish" and then the soaked-through t-shirt from his ACS (automatic cooling system - uh yeah, that would be sweat!)  It's hot looking!!  and I mean that affectionately!! 

It's fun finally getting done with the "big picture stuff" and when he can start with the "tight stuff".  Thats painter talk. Try and keep up!  At this point, he starts doing some serious color matching.  Showing the students how to find those true colors and mix those colors using his pallet knife.  Cool stuff.  Another Dundee award for cool stuff, big guy!  

Finished painting was fantastic but brutal to the end especially for Doug in the heat as the paint was drying quickly in the heat.  Adding the cars was a great finish and, as Doug later admitted to the students, "I wasn't sure I was going to pull this one out.  The paint was drying fast and I had to keep adding paint to keep it workable."  
"Post Office"
8x10
We broke for lunch and went just down the street where we could eat outside so Max could go with us. In the shade and with a breeze it was very nice. We only took a short break because the forecast predicted rain around 4 or 5 so the students started their paintings in the park around 1:00. 

Jeff and Doug looking things
over.

4 of the 5 students paintings in the park.
Joy's on the left, Jeff's, Ken's and
Scott's on the right.  Very nice!!  
Doug walked around to each one helping them all afternoon. My job, of course, was to keep Max in the shade and keep the students hydrated. Their paintings turned out great and I think they all had a great experience. 

The evening ended with some great dogs from Portillas and the most incredible lightning storm I've seen in nearly 30 years!  The sky was lit constantly and the rain came down in sheets, and for the first time in five days, the night cooled down to under 70 degrees!  Heaven!  Let's see what tomorrow's weather forecast brings!!  

Talk soon - I mean very soon!!  I'm already a day behind but I'm posting this one anyway!!  Next day coming shortly!!

xoxo

J'net


Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Wet Paint and Humidity!

Will this paint ever dry in 87% humidity?  Holy humidity!  Who needs a shower, just walk outside, lather up, wait a few minutes (that's the rinse) and go back inside and dry off!  Crazy!!

If you've been following my posts on facebook, you see we are on our roadtrip and are now in the heart of the beautiful, but humid, midwest!  The truck and trailer and doing great and so are Doug and Max!  Cheyenne the first night (400+ miles), West Omaha the 2nd night (400+ miles) and last night, Galena, Illinois.  We are just a mile or so from the Mississippi River.  It is seriously gorgeous but the humidity is brutal.  We think 24% humidity in Yew-tah is rough!  bahaha!!

I'm ready to play, whenever you have
a minute.  Just waiting. . . still waiting . . . 
Each of the campgrounds we've stayed at have a doggie park so Max has loved going to play fetch!  Doug posted this picture on his FB a week or so ago but I'm going to repost it because it is Max to a T! He is ALWAYS eager, ready and available to play fetch.  He races like a mad-man to get the ball, brings it back, drops it at your feet.  If it rolls or isn't close enough, you say, "right here, Max, bring it right here," and he grabs it and brings it closer.  Then he sits down in this pose.  Backs up a bit.  Then if you wait to decide where you're going to throw it, he starts to shake and shiver with anticipation.  I'm so glad we decided to bring him.  He sits between us in the cab of the truck.  Occasionally, scoots over and puts his whiskery chin and paw on my lap.  Ah, a dogs life.  Doesn't get better than that!!

So as we were driving through Iowa and Illinois, we were amazed at the literally thousands of "barn paintings" at every turn.  Just incredible!!  So today was the first day we didn't have an 8 hour drive ahead of us so I am sitting comfortably in the trailer with some cool air while Doug is acclamating himself to the heat and is out doing a plein air study this morning.  I've had many of you ask about purchasing these plein air studies so I've talked Doug into letting me offer this little plein air study to my blog readers FIRST for the "wet paint plein air" price, which is straight off the easel, unframed and will be ready to ship within 3-4 days.  (We will give it time to dry so Doug can put a varnish over it).  Saw Wheat!!  (say it fast . . . )  Sooooo, first person to call, text or email me with dibs . . . I'll list those numbers and addresses below.

We went into a great little town last night - Galena.  I came to this town almost 30 years ago and I was always thinking "I want to come here for my honeymoon!"

Well, 27 years after the "first" honeymoon wasn't half bad!!  It is the cutest little town ever tho.  We walked all over and finally found a restaurant we wanted to try only to find out it is closed on Tuesdays!!  bahaha!!  Just our luck!!  I sent the picture of "Poopsies" to my kids last night.  Wesley said "I'm glad you didn't go there for dinner, I heard the reviews were kinda crappy!"

Below are a couple of paintings that are ready to head to a gallery soon.  First one is "Sculpting" and is heading to Terzian Gallery.  Hoping we can get it to Salt Lake City while we're gone so Amy and Karen can coordinate a pick up curbside on 2nd South and State!

"Sculpting"
18 x 24
This other one is for the Zion's Plein Air Invitational in November.  We are looking forward to going down to that the first week in November!  In the meantime, it will be sent down to Zion's to be in their museum in August, I believe.  It is for sale down there.  If you're down that way, stop through and look at the incredible work of the artists that will be participating in the plein air event in November.  It is growing each year.  Such a fun event.

"Zion's Arch"
18 x 24
The Art-Teest is back!!  Wahoo!  He went back over the Mississippi to Iowa - ahhh!!  Good choice, hun!!  It's incredible!  I'm waiting impatiently while he takes a picture.  Can you see my fingers tapping on the table.  I'm almost chilled in here with this AC going . . . oops, that's going to get me a dirty glare!  sucks being a plein air painter, doesn't it?  ouch, that's gonna hurt!  

K - going to post this beautiful little painting.

"Iowa Barn Painting"
8 x 10
For Sale - Blog Readers first dibs!!
K - we're heading to the Paul Wolff Campground to start scouting out for our workshop that starts tomorrow.  Talk soon!!

Hope to hear from you!!  If you can't get through on my cell, send me an email so I can check time stamps!

xoxo

J'net

801-668-3409
jgbraithwaite@hotmail.com
jgbraithwaite@me.com
or post a comment below - but just be FIRST!!