2nd Annual Milford Paint-Out

Nancy Achberger, on behalf of OPAS, organized another hugely successful paint-out yesterday in Historic Milford, Ohio. More than 45 artists turned out to participate, and the weather was perfect for both the paint-out and the wet paint sale along Route 50 in the late afternoon. In the photos (top to bottom) are Nancy Nordloh Neville, Marion Corbin Mayer, Monica Achberger, Michelle Walker, and finally Michelle Walker, Nancy Achberger, Chuck Marshall, and Ray Hassard.

Ya Know...

Turns out plein-air painting is like any other skill. If you don't do it regularly, you get really, really rusty. Really.

Cabbages and Kings

My new friend Greg and I had a great time painting in Miamiville this morning, and my friend Mike and I braved the wind and cold for a good morning of sketching in Rowe Woods last week. Today Greg found a very cool little garden full of cabbages and purple iris, and I painted a wonderful old house dappled in sunlight. It was awesome as always! 

Last Saturday Summer Paint-Out

Yesterday saw the last of the summer paint-outs on Saturday mornings. I want to thank my friends Ray, Mike, Monica, Rosemary, and Carol for coming out and joining me on many occasions. You made it so much more fun to be out there, and of course, I treasure your insights and advice.

The plan is really a testament to how effective accountability is. When I started sending out the invites to the summer paint-outs, I specifically did not ask people to RSVP. I know myself well enough to know that I wouldn't get my behind out of bed if I didn't have to, so by not knowing who might show up and wondering whether people were counting on me to be at the scheduled locations, I didn't have any other option but be there. What great discipline! And I'm really thankful for that because I know I would not have painted as much or learned as much without the discipline, and I'd be sitting here regretting every lost opportunity.

Instead I'm sitting here surrounded by about 15 paintings from all the paint-outs. Most of them are pretty bad. Does that matter? Not one bit. It's about the process, not the product.

O Happy Day!

Many thanks to Nancy Achberger and Ray Hassard, both OPAS members, who arranged for a fantastic day of painting in Historic Milford, Ohio, on the banks of the Little Miami River. We caught a break from the 90+-degree weather we've been having all week, and it was comfortable and beautiful. Cloudy but still a perfect day. More than 40 artists came from all over Ohio and beyond to participate in this one-day paint-out that ended with a wet-paint sale. Congrats to all those who sold their work right off the easel!

In addition to the fun of meeting fellow artists, I had a great time painting the same subject as two other watercolor artists--an old white house surrounded by a fantastic wildflower garden. It's always fascinating to see how each artist puts her (or his!) own unique spin on something. 

One-Hour Paintings

Ah, the joys of plein-air painting in Ohio. If the bugs aren't biting, the sky is threatening. But I wouldn't change a thing about it!

It just so happens that my last several Saturday morning paint-outs have coincided with cloudy days, which is what prompted me to paint super fast. All of these are one-hour (or less) paintings. I seem to be able to move faster with the palette knife than with the brush, so I used one of my favorite tools for all of them. It's a great exercise if you've never tried it. It really forces you to focus on your big shapes and get to the essence of your subjects. But I still paid attention to harmonizing the color relationships.

Painting Green

So here is the painting I started last Saturday morning. It started to rain just as I finished my block-in, and I had forgotten my camera so the only other reference I was able to get was a pencil sketch. But I finished the painting on Wednesday night, and I'm actually really happy with it. Maybe not having the real subject to refer to enabled me to focus on bringing out the thing that moved me -- the cool morning backlight casting that dappled shadow below the silhouetted trees.

One thing I'm really happy with in this painting is the variety of greens. I know that painting greens in the landscape can be a big challenge, especially here in the Midwest in the summer where it is nothing but lush greens everywhere. I've asked many artists about working with green, and they've offered many good solutions, but here's what works best for me:

I use a limited palette -- not as limited as Kevin Macpherson's -- but still limited. My palette consists of Cadmium Lemon (cool), Cadmium Yellow Medium (warm), Alizarin Crimson (cool), Cadmium Red Medium (warm), Ultramarine Blue (neutral), and Titanium White (cool). I do not use any pre-mixed tube greens, like Sap or Viridian. With this palette I can mix a huge range of greens, from warm to cool, light to dark, and intense to dull. The advantages are that the greens never get garish, and because all of the greens are mixed from the same root color (the Ultramarine Blue), they always harmonize with each other.  If you're having trouble with your greens, try it - it works!

Great weather predicted for tomorrow morning's paint-out!

A Closer Look at Kevin Macpherson's Painting

Here are some closer, bigger pix of Kevin Macpherson's demo:

A Day with Kevin Macpherson

There's nothing more enlightening and inspiring than watching a really talented artist paint, and that's exactly what I got to do today. Kevin Macpherson, the author of two of the best art-instruction books around, was in town (well, in Middletown, close to Cincinnati) for the opening of his exhibition at the Middletown Arts Center. While here, he gave a lecture and a demonstration. He showed us how he translates a small field sketch into a larger studio painting, although some of his students in the audience had fun teasing him about being too chicken to tackle all this Midwestern summer green in a plein-air demo!


One of the most valuable things for me was watching Kevin do his block-in. I tend to do the block-in very quickly, trying to cover the canvas with big shapes as quickly as possible. I try to be accurate with the values but I don't take much care with variations in color and I really don't think about the edges. Kevin takes an entirely different approach. He thinks of a painting as a jigsaw puzzle, and his objective is to lay in each small piece (shape) as accurately as possible in value, color, and edge.


He starts by putting in all of the shadows, and as you can see in the first photo, he allows the shadow shapes to be much larger than they actually are. That's because in the middle phase he goes in and paints in the medium value-shapes negatively. This allows the colors to intermingle, creating entirely new colors right on the canvas. His finished block-in really represents all of the dark and middle values very accurately, including beautiful color and temperature variations. He then goes in and adds all of the lightest shapes, highlights, and details, reworking some edges as needed. Because he's so careful with the very first layer of paint, he doesn't have to go over every shape to create the form--he only needs to add lights where needed. It's a very economic, efficient, and direct way of painting.


I'm really inspired to try his approach, taking greater care right from the start. I'm thinking of using it to re-work the plein-air sketch I started yesterday morning. We got rained out after about 45 minutes but I felt like I was off to a good start with that painting so I'm going to give it another go.

I DID IT!!!

I finally painted! I know there are a million things wrong with this little painting. And I made the classic beginner plein-air painter mistake of painting in the sun without an umbrella, which threw off all of my values. But none of that matters. The point is that I made a commitment to paint today, and I did it! And I was with my friend Ray, which made it even better!! Please join me next Saturday if you can.

Holding Myself Accountable

Okay, so another month has passed, and I still haven't painted. But now I have a plan! I am issuing an invitation to all plein-air painters (and those who want to give it a try) to join me on Saturday mornings for paint-outs throughout the summer, all within the Cincinnati area. Knowing that you'll be counting on me to show up will definitely make me get out there. Keep checking the list to the left for the latest schedule of locations.

Speaking of accountability, have you seen what Marc Hanson has been doing? He made a public commitment through his blog to return to painting from life by painting four plein-air paintings every day for an entire month. And he pulled it off! Be sure to visit his blog (link below in my list of favorite blogs) for a healthy dose of inspiration. 

See you on Saturdays!