A Quick Road Trip

My longtime friend Tawnie and her husband Al, who live in Sherman Oaks, rented a house near St. George for Christmas. Kathryn and I took a little road trip to see them before they left for CA.

It was so nice to see Tawnie's parents, get out of town and see some beautiful scenery.

Art Gals Christmas (Tamale) Party

For December's gathering we had a Tamale party. Laura makes a big batch of Tamales for friend's and neighbor's Christmas gifts and we had a great time helping her.

She appreciated the help as she was leaving to pick her son up from his mission three days later. We had lots of fun conversation and a nice dinner!

Art Night Out with the Gals

Our friend Sean Diediker had his book signing party on Saturday night. It was a great art night out. It is always fun to see our art friends. He signed our book "To the plein air sisterhood", which is better than "The sisterhood of the traveling pants" which is how he has referred to us before.

My Creative Endeavor for the Week

My friend Faunice loves flower arranging and teaches classes occasionally.

She invited me to her Halloween class. I had a great time and met people from my neighboring ward.

I learned a lot. My entryway may never be the same.

We Did It!

We are standing next to our paintings at the Terra Nova Gallery opening tonight.

Provo Plein Air 2010

A few days ago Marie let me know about the Provo Plein Air Event. Even though she couldn't participate with her busy schedule, I thought I would try it. Kathryn said she would try too.

This morning Kyle and I headed up the canyon to South Fork. He did an awesome job of helping me pack my stuff around and set up. He enjoyed being out in nature and getting a fair amount of reading done.

While he was up taking a break, I busily painted away. I happened to glance over in his direction to see if he was back yet and saw THIS about 25 yards away! It was HUGE!

After several minutes it was frightened away by the loud noise of the park workers on their big riding mowers. One of them rode up to us and asked if we had seen the moose. I showed him the pictures and he said that he thought it was the one that chases people around. But he said at first he thought it was the big black bear that had been up there last week.

I didn't have it left in me to stay much longer. We packed it up and headed down to the lake to meet Kathryn.

The animals seem less wild down there. So, I think I'll paint there all day tomorrow. The paintings are due Friday at 1:00 for the gallery stroll that evening at Terra Nova Gallery.

A Chance Encounter......Arts Retreat.....and Painting Today

Two weeks ago, on Saturday, August 28th, Marie and I headed up to Wallsburg to paint. We were joined by our other art friend Kathryn. She teaches art at a local high school. I was telling them that Linda Christensen painted some of the Oquirrh Mountain temple murals up in Wallsburg and I wondered if she had painted them in the old ward house turned Community Center.

Marie said, "Wouldn't that be neat if she saw us painting and stopped to say 'hello'? We got set up and within the hour a dark SUV pulled up and a woman got out and walked up to Marie and introduced herself as Linda Christensen! Yes! the very one! She talked with us and said that she would like to paint with us sometime and would show us some good spots!

http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/56198/Art-missionaries-help-beautify-temple-interior.html

This past Friday evening we went over to Kathryn's house for the first part of our Artist's Retreat. Marie, Laura and I enjoyed a wonderful dinner of Thai food prepared for us by Kathryn. We ate until we were full to the brim, including strawberry birthday cake made from scratch for Laura.

We intended to paint on Kathryn's beautiful pastoral land near the bird refuge. It had been such a wild day for me that I just soaked it all in and watched Marie paint. Her painting was fantastic.

The next morning we headed out early for the 2010 Artist's Studio Tour in Spring City. Kathryn and her husband joined Marie and I this year which made it more fun. We ran into a number of our friends that had participated in the Plein Air competition.

It was a great show again this year. We heard that 70 painters had participated this year, which was up from the 50 from last year. Marie and I renewed our desires to be there next year. With my new enthusiasm for landscape painting, I went out painting today. I was grateful that Kyle joined me for support. (He was great fun.)

He snapped this one of me while I was hard at work. My painting isn't good by any stretch. But, I do think that a few things are beginning to work out a bit better. It took two hours to paint.
This might be the first plein air painting that doesn't get wiped as Kyle wants to hang it in his room!

Some Results

After returning from painting Saturday, my husband mentioned that he noticed I have kept working at plein air painting even though it is still frustrating for me. He knows me well enough to know that I don't keep doing things that I'm not good at for very long.

So, it is nice to finally see a little progress. The first painting is from May 15th when Marie and I went down to the lake. The second is from Saturday, August 14th.

We have also started going with a larger group of painters headed by a local professor of art. The group includes some very good landscape painters and they are generous with their help, which is really nice.

I'm still painting!

This plein air painting is really challenging me. I told myself that I was going to keep at it all summer and then decide if I would continue with it or not. It is strangely addicting. Strange because, it's so frustrating. Why do I keep going out?

Marie and I had planned on going Saturday but neither of us felt quite up to it. She works at BYU full time and can't go in the day. I'm really too chicken to go by myself so, I got Kyle to go with me Tuesday morning.
He was going to read while I painted but the biting flies were bothering him too much. It was nice to have him along.This morning he didn't want to go with me so, I went alone! It wasn't even that bad. The bad thing is my painting. I am learning something new with each attempt but, my future as a landscape painter is in serious jeopardy!

Week #3 -Back to the River

Marie and I went back to the Provo river. She wanted to work again on the painting she started when we were there before.

The goal of a plein air painter is to keep the supplies as minimal as possible. But, how could I pass up this fabulous canopy chair? I keep adding more every week.

So far my painting is still working. It just might get past the danger point of being wiped.

Marie's painting from today.

This is Marie's painting from down by the lake.

Week #2 -Down by the Lake

This week Marie and I went down by the lake. It was beautiful! We went later in the day and the colors became more vibrant as the sun was setting. The air was rich with the sounds of nature. Birds, horses, cows and airplanes, to name a few.

Many painters complain about the conditions of outdoor painting sometimes. So, we knew how fortunate we were to have the PERFECT painting day.

This week my painting was much more successful. I even began to enjoy myself a bit. But because I made a big mistake that I'm too embarrassed to reveal... I think this one will be a wiper.

Plein Air Painting - Midway

For Mother's Day my sweet husband gave me some new painting supplies. So, I got to go try them out this morning with my friend Marie. She has a bit more plein air painting experience than I do and agreed to go with me.

We found a nice place by the Provo river. It was good to be out with the birds and fishermen and the sound of the running river.

It was a great Saturday morning with hopefully many more to come this summer.