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!

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