Plein Air Painters of the Bay of Fundy - Annual Event

"Blue Tug" 12x12, oil

This past weekend marked the fifth annual paintout of the Plein Air Painters of the Bay of Fundy.  Every year, we alternate between the US and Canada for the event, and in keeping with that theme, the 2011 event was in Eastport, Maine.  (See www.PleinAirFundy.org for previous years and locations.)

Ten of our group, which consists of over 30 committed outdoor painters mostly from Downeast Maine, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, had planned to meet Saturday.  Unfortunately, a world-class thunderstorm spent the day hurling lightning bolts and dumping torrential rains over the area.   I've seen some pretty strong storms during monsoon season in the mountains of New Mexico, and this one tied for first place.  Needless to say, the meeting didn't happen, and although a couple braved the storm from porches, most of us held back that day.   Sunday wasn't promised to be any better, so we opened up the painting period through Tuesday, and moved the "hanging" to Wednesday.

But Sunday turned out better than predicted, and several of us went to Eastport on our own schedules.  I ended up down by the wharf and painted in some heavy overcast.  Trina spotted an unusual blue tugboat for me, and I painted it.  There are a couple of tugs in Eastport, but I've never seen a blue one.  The color was just perfect for the weather conditions.  The painting is at the top of this post.  In the photo below, you can see that the tug rotated 180 degrees while I painted it.  Any boat that isn't tied up to a wharf requires quick drawing skills!

I ran across Evelyn Dunphy (below), who was painting at the opposite end of the Eastport wharf.   She was working on a large, multi-session watercolor.   After returning home, I later learned that Simone Ritter and Caren-Marie Michel had also been in the area.  If would have been nice to have had coffee with everyone, but Eastport is a cell phone dead zone, and there is no way to communicate other than by flare gun.  But that's why we love this area - the remoteness keeps things quiet.  (Except for the occasional flare gun.)

If you're in the area, please plan on coming to our opening reception at Next Door Gallery, 8 Boynton Street, Eastport, Maine, from 4-6 Eastern Time on Friday, July 1st.  (Add it to your Canada Day / Independence Day celebrations!)  The show will be up from June 29 through July 14th.  For details, visit www.PleinAirFundy.org.

More Lupines - A Miniature Plein Air Painting

Lupine Colors, 4x4 oil - sold

detail

I don't often do miniature paintings.  Some of my readers may argue with that, knowing my propensity for 5x7s.  But once in awhile, duty calls.  I was given a beautiful, 4-inch, hand-carved frame, and was asked to fill it.

So fill it I did - with lupines, en plein air.  I painted this on a piece of acid-free matboard that had been prepared with Gamblin PVA size and two coats of acrylic gesso.  The piece of matboard was much larger than the frame.  (I taped it to a 5x7 board and used my new Guerrilla Painter 5x7 Pocket Box.)  To make sure I was going to get a painting that would work, I first lightly pencilled a 4-inch square on the board.  Then, I centered my composition in the square but actually painted an area that went way beyond it.  I think I painted an extra two inches all the way around.  This gave me plenty of room to play with the final composition, cropping to suit.

Once I'd cropped the painting to size, I let it dry, sprayed a coat of retouch varnish on it, and then used a piece of acid-free foamboard for backing.   I did not use glass, since I consider the matboard/foamboard combination is more like a panel than paper.  (Works on paper typically get put under glass.)

By the way, the highlights on the flowers were done with Gamblin's Radiant Blue and Radiant Pink.

Acadia National Park Plein Plein Air Painting Workshop - Days 4, 5

Although the last two days of our workshop week were predicted to have rain, the rain didn't arrive until late Friday afternoon, and by then, we were back in the studio for critiques and final questions.  Thursday started off with clouds, fog and a sprinkle, but the clouds thinned, and some of us even got a sunburn.  That day, we went down to Seal Cove, which is a favorite for kayakers.  In the photo below, you can see my friend Pat LaBrecque, maker of the Art Cocoon, with the first of two groups of kayakers in the background.  Curiously, neither this group nor the next ever returned to the launch area.  I leave you to imagine their fates.

On Friday, we headed down to Steamboat Wharf in Bernard and the area around Thurston's.  Thurston's is a famous lobster pound, and we ended up having lunch there.  It's the yellow-roofed structure in the photo at the top of the post.  I like to paint this building, as it offers a nice spot of color on grey days.  Below is my rendering of it and also a close-up of the painting.  I originally painted the roof the color it was, a somewhat warm orangey-yellow, but it was much too warm a color for the cool painting; I ended up scraping out the roof and using a cooler and more lemony yellow instead. (9x12, oil.)

We had a strong wind off the water, and it was cool.  Pat and I found shelter behind a boatload of lobster traps:

One other attraction in Bernard is what I call the Stephen King House.  This was the house featured in King's made-for-TV movie, "Storm of the Century."  It's where the old lady lived in the opening scene in which Andre Linoge arrives and wreaks havoc.  Linoge has mostly one line throughout the movie:  "Give me what I want, and I'll go away."  It's one of my favorite movies.  Here's the house:

All in all, it was a great workshop.  I'm looking forward to my next one at Acadia Workshop Center in October 2012.  In the meantime, I still have space left in some of my Campobello Island workshops.  Visit www.PaintCampobello.com for details.

Acadia National Park Plein Plein Air Painting Workshop - Day 3

(Photo Courtesy Pat LaBrecque)

For our third day, we headed over to Manset again, this time to the town wharf.  We had a bit of wind, but that at least kept the moored boats all pointing in the same general direction.  One of the problems with painting boats, especially moored boats, is that they do  move.  Both wind and tide, however little of each there seems to be, will cause subtle shifts in perspective and angle.  It'll drive you mad.  The best approach is to do a quick, initial sketch right on your canvas to capture the angles.

Here's my little boat demonstration.  I treated the boat as a simple oblong, and then reshaped the oblong by painting the negative space around the boat.  It was also important to get the sense of strong sunlight on the hull; I used cadmium red light with a touch of cadmium yellow deep for the sunlit areas, and cadmium red light with alizarin crimson for the shadows. (5x7, oil).

Later, we headed over to a swamp near the Back Bay area, in Bernard.  (Mount Desert Island is filled with tiny towns with quaint names.)  I chose to do a tree demonstration there.  It was challenging, since the trees were all crowded together, making it difficult to see where one tree ended and the next one began.  The best approach here is to squint - really squint - and simplify the masses.  I like to treat trees as silhouettes and add the mid-values and highlights at the end.

We had a group dinner at Mainely Delights, right near the Swan Island ferry, and had a fine sunset view.  For workshops through art centers such as the Acadia Workshop Center, we usually have a group dinner.  It's a lot of fun, and we even talk about art!

Acadia National Park Plein Plein Air Painting Workshop - Day 2

Yesterday was another fine day on Mount Desert Island - a clear, cool morning followed by warm breezes in the afternoon and just a touch of cloud to make for an interesting sky.  We started off at The Moorings, a seaside resort in Manset with a fine view of Somes Sound.  The owner was kind enough to invite us on her property to paint.  Manset, which is near Seawall, is a quiet place, and we had plenty of room to spread out in, and even a bit of shade.

Here's a link to The Moorings: http://mooringsinn.com/

Later we went to the Charlotte Rhoades Park and Butterfly Garden in Southwest Harbor.  This small but spectacular garden by the sea was filled with blooming, early summer flowers.  We had it pretty much to ourselves.  One of the demonstrations I did included the following, a quick 5x7 pastel sketch of the garden.  I was drawn to the sense of light on the blooming catnip (the blue flowers) and on the house and greenery.  The point of this demo was to show how in 30 minutes you can capture a sense of light and color, and perhaps use this sketch later in the studio as a reference for color notes.

That evening, Trina and I headed back for Manset for dinner.  Here's a shot of the harbor toward sunset.