Had fun at Spring City's plein air...that is after my tent pole snapped in the wind, then I had to sleep in the cab of my little painting truck and got a $90.00 speeding ticket, nice officer but it was a typical small town speed trap...I wasn't speeding...ask
Dennis, he was with me,...plus I painted two bombs. Oh well, I was happy with two out of the four of them.
The upside was that I got to see friends I hadn't seen in a while and may thanks to the Anderson's for sharing their home and providing wonderful lunches and a final barbecue!
I enjoyed the open fields and sky:
Through the Pasture 12x9
I love painting structures:
House on the Corner 5x7
No ticket this time on my way to
Terra Nova Gallery's Plein Air Provo. I'm extra cautious now. (When you are stuck behind a slow, small Toyota truck on the freeway...guess who? :)
20 + artists attended. I was honored to get third place! Interesting that no honorable mentions were given? There were some terrific pieces. Spencer Budd had a couple of palette knife beauties and
James Gunter captured Provo's gestalt so well. The exhibit is up at Terra Nova until October 29th.
My adventure started Wednesday. Here, I enjoyed the lawn's foreground shadow and perspective leading me to the home and mountains:
Freshly Mowed 12x9
Thursday was a full day driving around Utah Lake's bay, by the Provo Airport. An interesting combination of wild places and airplanes flying overhead. The September colors really appealed to me there:
September Hues 9x12
Later that afternoon I painted an historic yellow house that has always called me to paint it whenever I turn east on 300 North going to David's gallery. Loved the foreground purple dappling and complementary light struck house:
Clark-Taylor House 8x10
3rd Place 2010 Provo Plein Air
After painting, I went to the
Museum of Art at BYU. If you haven't been...you gotta go! Right now they have a landscape exhibit downstairs, Wide -Open Spaces: Capturing the Grandeur of the Southwest. What a study after paint-battling the outdoors.
The day culminated in a wonderful, inspirational presentation at BYU's Harris Fine Art building by the great illustrator/painter
Greg Manchess. Thank you
Bob Barrett and the Design Department for inviting him. Manchess discussed the importance of WORK NOT talent. I loved his thumbnail sketches. He is a terrific draughtsman. Nice to hear him discuss the importance in exhausting design possibilities of a piece. He emphasized that students often don't do the preliminary work necessary for an effective painting. I'm currently in the middle of another batch of illustrations myself, so it really hit home to me. He also talked about his influences, and showed nice progress photos of his paintings. I was pleased to see a few of my students there. Good for them! (Where were the rest of you?...you missed out!)
