Long absence, acrylic and plein air

It's been a tremendously long time since I've posted anything. Unfortunately, I'm still not painting in a serious way, but I've tried to dabble in a couple of new things to try and restart my creative life.

Yesterday, I took a plein air class at the Museum of the Shenandoah Valley in Winchester, Va., taught by a local art teacher, Cindy Redmon.

I've not really done plein air before (I did a plein air demo of sorts years ago at the local craft co-op, where I mucked around tremendously), and certainly not painted in a group setting for a while.

The other spin on this class was that the medium was acrylic, which I have no experience with.

Add in the triple-digit heat index in the Shenandoah Valley, and it certainly looked like it would be a very long day.

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However, it ended up being a very enjoyable experience. The gardens at MSV, which are part of the Glen Burnie estate, are magnificent. The class coordinator, Courtney, was great at taking care of our needs (and providing lots of water). And Cindy did a great job leading the class.

The sketch I've posted here is of the statue at the end of the Pleached Allée. I completely lost the light as I moved down the figure, so it doesn't make a lot of sense, but I did move quickly enough to get the light set on her face. I think that's the biggest challenge of plein air....the sun moves so quickly that the scene completely changes in no time.

The acrylic was really frustrating for me at the onset, and still was frustrating by the end of the day (the value shift as it dries is maddening), but it was oddly fun to make a different kind of mess. I'm not switching to acrylic, but I think I would like to play with an opaque medium a bit more.

If you are traveling through the Valley, take time to visit MSV and see the gardens. Learn more at https://www.themsv.org/

Mark making with markers

The folks with the Grant County Art Council hosted a "paint-out" last Saturday at Welton Park near the Grant-Hardy border.

Not very many people participated, but those who came had a good time and worked on some scenes of the South Branch, which borders the park on its way through Petersburg Gap.

I was meeting someone, so I could not stay for the entire session. I decided that I would use my limited time to play with my Prismacolor Markers and sketch -- it would be quicker and less messy to clean up when my lunch partner arrived.

The top scene is of a stand of trees lightly kissed by the bright noon sun.

This bottom scene is mostly made up...I'm getting better at imagining and simplifying scenes, so this one deserves a small pat on the back. Several canoes went by while I was working on the tree drawing, and I thought it would be fun to play with very simple shapes and reflections in an imagined scene on the river.

The markers are a little hard to get used to. I really wanted to smoothly transition from light to dark in places, and with the markers that sort of nuance is difficult. They're best in a posterized sense..mass strong, simple shapes, and use a minimum of values.

I bought the markers so I could develop thumbnail value drawings as a precursor to painting. As usual, the markers have remained in a coffee cup on my desk, and the brushes have reigned supreme. But, this was a good opportunity to play, and I like some of the results. I really had to think about moving shapes forward and back based on values and relationships to surrounding shapes.

Mill at Babcock

Glade Creek Mill at Babcock State Park

So here is the colored sketch of the mill at Babcock. I'm not very skilled at these on-site exercises, and I really need to practice more to get better. I'm all for another weekend at one of West Virginia's state parks to give it a try!

Vacation sketch

We had a great time at Babcock State Park this year. Unfortunately, it rained more that we would have liked, so our outdoor activities were somewhat limited.

On our only sunny afternoon, we were quite industrious, hiking to the famed Long Point to see a spectacular view of the New River Gorge Bridge. On our return to the park, we wandered down to the Glade Creek Mill to enjoy the scenery and sunshine.

I settled on a rock by the creek's banks, and drew this scene. I then tinted it with my handy travel brushes that carry a water reservoir in the handle, but I have to admit the results were less than stellar. I've used the brushes before while on vacation with some success (see this post to understand what kind of brushes I'm describing), but I was unhappy with this effort.

So, the sketch you see below is actually a new drawing based on the original sketch, and I will tint it using my regular watercolor brushes. When drawing I use pencil first, then go over that sketch with Pigma Micron pens in three thicknesses.

When I've added the watercolor, I'll post a new image.

Mt. Hebron Cemetery

I wandered up the street at lunchtime earlier this week and positioned myself on a comfortable bench in the Old Lutheran Cemetery portion of Mt. Hebron Cemetery in Winchester. From this vantage point, I sketched the striking Mt. Hebron gatehouse.

The gatehouse, dressed in locally quarried bluestone, was designed by architects James Stewart Barney and Henry Otis Chapman of New York, the same men who created the stunning Beaux-Arts Handley Library a few blocks away.

The design of the gatehouse, however, certainly does not match the flamboyance of the Beaux-Art library. A recent application to the National Register of Historic Places describes many of the gatehouse's elements to be Chateauesque, with additional nods to medieval castles, complete with decorative arrow slits and rounded turrets.

I completed this sketch in about 20 minutes. I don't think could have focused much longer given the blinding sunlight that afternoon.

Vacation sketches

I gave my sketching kit a workout last week as my husband and I took a wonderful trip to Holly River State Park for a weeklong vacation.

Holly River is in an isolated area of central West Virginia, and it is our favorite of West Virginia's many wonderful state parks and forests. There are only 10 cabins, clustered in an amazing grove of old-growth hemlocks, and the soothing sounds of water rushing through Laurel Fork, down the hill about 20 yards, sends me peacefully to sleep each night.

We easily fell into a routine. After a morning of hiking, we would wash up and then venture out in late afternoon to find a comfortable swing or bench. I would then sketch or paint, while my husband read. Evenings consisted of lazy strolls through the park grounds, card games or a jigsaw puzzle.

I completed four sketches. A view of our cabin is at the top of this post.

Below is a view of the park office. All of the buildings at Holly River, most of which were built by the CCC boys during the Depression, are made of log or smooth river stone, or a combination of those materials.


My sketching kit performed admirably, and after the first sketch, I was able to adjust to the challenges of rendering linear perspective. Since I've fallen into the pattern of working from photographs, I find myself using the print's edges to develop vanishing points when drawing. For plein air work, that visual reference is gone. These sketches are a little off, but generally accurate, and I was pleased to make the adjustment.

For more about Holly River State Park, visit their Web site, www.hollyriver.com

Sketching kit

I've put together a little sketching kit that's easy to transport and uses some interesting brushes that carry their own water supply.

Sketching works better for me if I start with a pen drawing of a subject. I'm using Pigma Micron pens with black waterproof ink. I use three nib sizes to create some interest in the drawing with the thicker and thinner lines.

Then I wash over the drawing with my watercolors. The final paintings have the look of book illustrations, but I enjoy the process and the final result. They feel very fresh.

For my travel-size kit, I'm using a postcard-sized watercolor block with Canson Montval paper. I also have a 4H pencil for initial drawing, the three Pigma pens, and a kneaded eraser.

The traveling brushes are moderately priced. These are made by Royal Langnickel, but I've seen other manufacturers offer them as well. The handle of the brush is a clear plastic tube. The plastic is somewhat flexible. Water goes into the handle, and then you squeeze the tube at a point near the brush tip (which screws onto the brush handle). Water then comes through the brush hairs.

It takes a little getting used to it, but, for this kind of light wash treatment over the pen drawing, it works well, and it's great to not worry about balancing a separate water container on my knee.

The brushes came in a package with three brush sizes.

You can see the entire kit, plus a paper towel and my travel-size watercolor palette, in the photo below.