Toss the Mask- Go Plein Air starting July 1st

It has been a long studio season and I am ready to toss the mask and go outside! Here in Colorado we live for summer. Make it a lot more memorable by growing your skills, or by learning a new ones. Join us Thursday mornings, starting July 1st, from 9 am to noon for instruction, encouragement,  and mornings of outdoor painting,  in and around Alamosa.

Our first meeting on July 1st will be at the Alamosa Family Recreation Center and will include a paint-a-long demo.  Bring your painting toys, and I will have schedules with all of the locations for where we will meet in the weeks ahead. 

To register for entire class session, go on line at www.alamosarec.org,  or call the Rec Center at 719-589-2105.  Registration for the entire session gives you the best price at  $100. for 8 weeks of painting; or you can drop-in to each class for $15. a meeting (pay at the Rec Center before joining us in the landscape).
 

Who turned on the SNOW Machine?

 These photos pretty-much say it all.

Yes, I heard the predictions on Monday, but after record breaking heat - I did not pay a whole lot of attention. 

We woke up to at least 12" of very wet, and heavy snow in Alamosa.   We need the moisture, but it is not anticipated at this time of year and trees are down everywhere.  

It is a record for September 9 - and I surely HOPE - this makes a positive impact on the current fires here in Colorado. 

AND - Plein air Painting Class for tomorrow is cancelled because snow and rain is predicted for the morning hours. This time - I am listening

Plein Air- My favorite season.

 May has been a bit chilly in Colorado; a little snow as Spring blew through BUT summer is coming and I am looking forward to going outdoors. Plein Air season is almost here.
Two great opportunities to paint outdoors this summer:  
Tuesday Evenings, 6:30pm to 9pm, starting June 4th.
and Thursday Mornings, 9am to noon, starting June 6th.

If you are a painter, but never painted in the landscape . . . . .
or a beginner wanting to learn something new - come out and paint in and around Alamosa this summer.

We will have our first meeting of each class at the Alamosa Family Recreation Center and do a little landscape practice. I will also pass out the class schedules- so that everyone will know WHERE to go each week.
Locations for WHERE we will be meeting each week will also be posted on this BLOG - over to the right.

Many of us will spend a lot of time doing chores this summer, and taking care of business.
Take some time to enjoy the beautiful Colorado landscape.

Join us on Tuesday Evenings, 6:30pm to 9pm
or Thursday Mornings, 9am to noon - or both.
Register at the Alamosa Family Recreation Center -719-589- 2105
or register at the first class meeting.

Class Notes: Going Out to Play

In Colorado we live for the lovely days of summer. They go by SO fast and in a very short time Autumn will be upon us - and after that, well - You know. . .
but let's not talk about that here.
It's summer and all of my classes go outside to paint en plein air. For me there is no better way to enjoy the short season and embrace it. Every day that we paint out, we are snatching moments from the passing of time and forcing it to slow down bit. 
Sometimes I think it is less about executing a painting than just being OUT,  seeing what's out there.
Some painters see the landscape is as a large Still Life; others would say a Still Life is just a small landscape;
some approach outdoor painting as an athletic event, others as meditation.
What I hope to encourage in my students is the idea that going outside - "painting from life" -  is the norm, not the special occasion. We go outside because "real life"-  is not a static thing captured in photos but in the living, changing landscape.

Tuesday evening we painted from the Rec Center and this little demo is the view toward Alamosa as the sun dropped in the west.

Class Notes: Painting at the Marsh

Tuesday evening our painting class met at the marsh for some plein air work as the sun set. At first rain threatened and it was really windy - one reason why the evening class usually doesn't go out until September - but after a bit the wind died down to a mosquito foiling breeze and the evening was perfect. We have painted from this location, just north of Alamosa, many times and it always yields good stuff. The wetland is home to water birds of all kinds, the sunsets are always fabulous, and after the sun has set, Mt. Blanca lights up with alpen glow.
Photos cannot do justice to such a location at the absolute best time of the day. Who would not want to be us on such a beautiful evening out?

My piece is a 6"x 8", at the bottom.

Tuesday Evening - Paint Out in Alamosa

I barely got home from Santa Maria on Tuesday before taking off again to meet Dave Roepke and Richard Luckemeier for a paint out at the Alamosa City Ranch - an open space preserved for the use of residents. We were anticipating a full moon rising but the evening light unfolded in such a beautiful display that the moon was all but forgotten.
I never get tired of watching the clouds rise up to catch the evening light from a sun long set.
By the time dark really set in I was on the wane and ready to hit it home. From before dawn to well after sunset - it was a great day.

Class Notes: Let's Paint Out- Sort of

Plein air painting,
- where to start?
Painting from life, from direct observation is the best way to learn. In class we usually paint from still life set ups where value and color can be examined, light logic understood and compositional ideas hammered out. This can be done in the landscape but it is a lot harder. Many a happy studio painter can become overwhelmed and stymied when confronted by the great out doors. So can we get the best of both worlds?

Our class studio has 2 large windows that we use as big viewers, and a starting point for landscape work. Here are 2 simple compositions as seen thru those windows. The sketch at top shows a tree defining the foreground, a middle ground area at some distance, which is a band of trees and houses, and a background of mountains. Very simple and one was done at noon, the other early evening. It is about the tree.
The lower sketch combines the foreground and middle ground into one shape and is about the evening sky in the background.
The main idea here is to start with a very simple view, translate it into a simple composition and paint it many times. The largest of these is only 8"x 10" and in class we limit the time to one painting per hour. It is not about being fast, it is about keeping it simple so that you can learn to communicate, through observation the nuances of that landscape.

Is the great out doors a little daunting? Find a window view, sketch a reasonable composition (something as simple as: foreground middle ground, background) and paint it at all times of day and in every weather.
We painted clouds in our window last week and on the phone today, one of my students told me how she has been looking at clouds, seeing characteristics she had never noticed before. Wow!
Go find your window of opportunity!