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| Dawn on the Falls - 9x12 oil by Michael Chesley Johnson - Available - $500 |
Friday was our last official painting day for the Sedona Plein Air Festival. Morning dawned clear and cool with just a few puffy clouds. I didn't have a lot of time before turning in my final paintings, but I wanted to get in one last effort. I headed down to another secret spot on Spring Creek where there is a set of falls that is just gorgeous early in the day. I set up before the sun hit the falls, blocked in my painting, and when the sun came in most spectacularly, I brought the painting to a finish. Although this was a very quick piece because of the fast-moving light, it is one of my very favorites. It's at the top of this post.
After framing it up, I loaded the car with it and my other choices for the show and headed to town. At noon, I joined the thirteen other painters with hammers and nails to hang our work. Talk about noise! Passerbys probably thought it was a construction site. Here are my two "walls":
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| My "wall" of work painted this week on-location en plein air |
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| My "wall" of back-up work created prior to this week |
Afterward, I headed home to clean up and then drove back in for the evening festivities. It was a good night of visiting with collectors, interested folks and other artists.
Saturday was the last sale day for the event. I got in a little early for breakfast and coffee. We plein air painters spend a lot of time on our feet at these events, not just in painting, but also in the receptions and other meet'n'greet opportunities. Fresh coffee and fresh shoes kept me going.
(By the way, if you'd like to purchase some of this work, some of it is still available, and you can view it on my Facebook studio page, here. Just let me know if you're interested!)
Now that the event is over, I'm going to put my feet up for a bit. But then I'm going to dive right into my next project—writing up my interviews with the winners of the Pastel Journal's annual Pastel 100 event. I have the pleasure of working with the winners in the landscape category. After that, well, there's a lot coming down the pike. I'll post again very soon!
