Plein Air Painting Workshop at the Booth Museum in Cartersville Georgia

Last week I attended a Plein Air Workshop at the Booth Western Art Museum in Cartersville, GA. The actual workshop was held at the Booth Art Academy which is about a block from the Museum. The workshop featured three well known artists: Kathie Odom, Lori Putnam, and Dawn Whitelaw. When we signed up for the workshop, we had to select one of the artists to be our primary artist/instructor. I chose Kathie Odom since I had been in her mentorship group for three sessions last January and already knew that I related well to her. However, although I spent most of my time with Kathie, the workshop was designed so that we had sessions with the other two artists as well. A 3-for-1 deal.

It started on Thursday evening with each instructor introducing herself and telling about her art journey. We also received our schedules and information about the activities for the rest of the workshop. There were free samples of Gamsol and Galkyd Light - plus a gift bag with lots of Booth Museum and Cartersville Chamber of Commerce goodies. After about two hours that evening, Day 1 was complete.

Since my Mother lives in Rome, GA (about a 45-minute drive from Cartersville), I stayed with her and drove back and forth to the workshop each day.  I spent a lot of time in the car. I enjoy that, though. I listen to audiobooks, and it's a quiet time alone. The minus was that I didn't spend any time with the other class participants outside of class. Some of them got together at the hotel in the evenings for dinner, drinks and talking. I got to spend extra time with my mother, though. So it all evened out, and I was thankful that I could spend my days painting and learning with other artists - and my evenings with my mother and some siblings and other relatives, too.

Friday morning we met at Euharlee Covered Bridge in Euharlee, Georgia - a little community about 15 minutes from Cartersville. A truly beautiful little place with a covered bridge that is quaint and reminiscent of earlier times in America.

The three artist/instructors set up their easels at various locations near the bridge, selected their subjects and then demonstrated how they paint, talked about their process, and completed their paintings.  The workshop participants were free to watch one, two, or all three of them. I chose to roam from one to another, and that ended up being a great choice. I learned from each one.

Lori Putnam set up facing away from the covered bridge. Her painting focus was the road with its pattern of cast shadows from the trees and buildings.

It was good to see how she blocked in her painting and then selected the colors for the road, trees, buildings.

Dawn Whitelaw set up facing the bridge. This was my favorite subject of the three. It just seems that if you're going to paint around a covered bridge, the covered bridge should be in the painting. LOL!  Dawn is such a knowledgeable and quiet artist. I learn just from watching her, and I loved her presentation at the workshop.

Then I watched Kathie Odom paint for awhile. She also turned away from the bridge and painted the back of a house with a small house (play house, maybe) in the background. There was a large pot in the yard between the two houses, and she wanted that to be the focal point. Kathie has so much personality and was constantly sharing ideas and techniques.

This is another view of the covered bridge. There is just something about covered bridges that I love. They ooze stories of long ago.

After we spent Friday morning viewing and interacting with the 3 artists/instructors as they painted, we returned to the Booth Art Academy after lunch.  There, they had two 90-minute sessions - one with each of our non-primary instructors. That means I spent 90 minutes with Dawn and another 90-minutes with Lori. I learned so much from both of them - the most important thing was the value of drawing a small thumbnail sketch before painting. It helps to ensure the painting is what you want it to be. Via the thumbnail sketch, the artist works out possible issues before commiting it to paint. Then day two was complete.

Saturday and Sunday were spent outdoors and at the academy with our primary instructor. So Saturday morning, Kathie and her students met at a dead-end road right outside of Cartersville where there was a field with some white cows and a red barn. We set up our easels along the road, Kathy demo'ed, and then we tried to follow suit at our own easels. Since it was a dead end road, there were only two cars that came by during the 3+ hours we were there, and those were two nearby residents who came to see why all those people were milling around the road and painting.

Here is a view from where I set up my easel. It was interesting that one person set up right in the line of sight of just about everyone. So the majority of the class had to try to peer around her in order to see the barn. Some people just have no common courtesy. That person then stood at her own easel painting whenever Kathie had us come watch her demo another aspect of the painting. It puzzles me why someone would pay for a workshop and then not take full advantage of trying to learn as much as possible from the instructor.

We had some shade the first 30-45 minutes, but then the sun got high enough in the sky that even with umbrellas and wide-brimmed hats, it was miserably hot. Shortly after 11:30, I had reached my heat limit. The heat was bouncing off that asphalt, and I was melting. So I packed up my stuff and decided to head off for lunch a few minutes early. As I was leaving, I saw several other people packing - and I think by the time I drove off, everyone was pretty much done for the day. The photo below is of me with my friend, Barbara, right before I left. You can see by the background what a beautiful site it was.

This is my painting of the red barn - totally unfinished - lots I want to change about this. Now that I'm home, I hope to finish it soon. It's WAY too dark right now.

We spent Saturday afternoon at the academy. Kathie gave us the presentation she had given the other two groups the afternoon before, and then we all worked on our barn paintings for the rest of the afternoon. Day three was complete.

Sunday morning, Kathie's group met again at the Euharlee Covered Bridge. Our instructions were to set up our easels wherever we wanted to paint, and Kathie would circulate and comment/critique/offer suggestions for everyone. Kathie sure kept her word - constantly moving among all the students. She's one of the most giving artists I know.  Below is my set-up with my painting on the easel. I chose basically the same view that Dawn had chosen on Friday. You will notice the sketch pad where I had done my thumbnail drawing before starting the painting. However, if you look at my painting, you will see that I got the upper lines of the road all wrong. My road ended up looking like there's a hill leading to the bridge rather than a gentle slope.  So, now that I'm home, I plan on re-painting the road to straighten that out. Again, I still have lots to do, but I like this painting so far.

Sunday afternoon, it was back to the Academy where Kathie guided us in making a "greens chart." We mixed colors to make about 20 different shades of green on a panel to keep in our studios or with our plein air materials. It's amazing how many shades of green you can get with just 3-5 different tubes of paint.

And before we left on Sunday afternoon, Kathie's husband, Buddy, took a photo of our group, and then Day 4 was complete. The workshop went past so fast. 

I didn't finish a single painting during the workshop. However, that hasn't bothered me one bit. I feel that I have two paintings close to being finished, and I learned a lot that will help me be a better artist - and, most of all, will help me take my art in the direction I want it to go - looser and more "painterly."

Packing to Paint in Italy

I will be 70 in a few months, and in March I will use my passport for the first time in my life. I can't believe I am so un-traveled! We will be staying in a villa in Gaiole, Chianti which is near Siena which is in the Tuscany area. We will stay at that villa each of the nine nights we will be in Italy. We will do day trips and excursions from there. We wanted our first trip to Italy to be low-key and relaxing. So no big tours in the major cities - just settling in for a few days and getting to know one small area.

And I want to paint while I'm there! I've spent a LOT of time thinking about what to take in order to be able to paint but not be loaded down with too much luggage. I THINK I have it figured out.  Here's my art packing list:

• A Masterson 12 x 16 Palette with palette paper inside
• Water-soluble oil paints (limited palette) which I will wrap individually and place inside the Masterson palette for travel. 
• 1 tube of Gamblin Solvent-Free Gel (placed inside the Masterson palette with the paints)
• Brushes in a cloth roll
• A very lightweight folding easel
• Three PanelPaks - a 9 x 12, an 11x14, and a 12 x 12.  That's 6 panels. I was originally going to take a 9x12 Ray-Mar wet panel carrier that hols 6 panels - but it is heavier than the PanelPaks. (I may leave the 9x12 PanelPak at home.  If I come home with 4 paintings, that will be fantastic.  I seriously doubt I will do 4 - much less 6!)

Those supplies should easily fit in my suitcase, with plenty of room for my clothes and toiletries. Ron and I will be packing only about 3 changes of clothes each. There is a washing machine in our villa, and we will do a load of clothes a couple times while we're there, and thus we won't need many clothes.

My plan is to sit on the patio of the villa to paint - or inside if it's too chilly to be outside. I've looked at the photos of our villa, and there are plenty of chairs and tables. I can set up the easel, put the palette on one of the tables and sit in a chair to paint. With our excursions, I won't have time to paint more than 6 paintings,  As a matter of fact I'll be surprised if I paint that many! I don't plan on doing any plein air painting away from the villa. So I won't be hauling painting supplies around Italy!  LOL! I will take photos during our sightseeing and exploring, and I will paint from the photos after returning to the villa. I might do plein air painting AT the villa, though. From the photos, it seems to be situated in a very scenic area - with vineyards and gorgeous scenery all around. We'll see. I know how promotional photos can skew reality.

Using water-soluble paints will keep me from having to deal with solvents. I will include the TSA label that all the art folks tell me should be put with the art supplies in the suitcase. The top one is for the Masterson palette box with the water-soluble paints inside, and the other one is for the PanelPaks on the way home when, hopefully, there will be completed painting inside.

The Chestnut Group's Christmas Party and Being Brave

I am in a women's group that is discussing Brene' Brown's book The Gifts of Imperfection.  It's a great group and a great book. It is a book I need to read many times until it becomes a part of me - being comfortable in my own skin and not getting hung up on trying to be perfect.  As a friend said recently, "We are recovering perfectionists!" A few weeks ago, in the Gifts of Imperfection group, we worked on creating a personal mantra. Each of us created a unique one. I thought through my goals, and I came up with "Be Brave. Be Real. Be Carol."  So what does Brene' Brown's book and a personal mantra have to do with the title of this post?

The Chestnut Group is a group of plein air painters. There are some amazing professional artists in the group. I have taken classes from many of them. However, any artist can join the group - beginners included. So two years ago I joined. The group sponsors workshops and does a lot of painting to support local parks and environmental projects. It's a good group! This Wednesday (tomorrow) evening, is the annual Christmas party. One thing they do at the Christmas party is each person can bring a small painting wrapped in brown paper. Then they have a drawing - each person that brings a painting gets a painting.

My dilemma is: Do I take a painting - one of my obvious "beginner" paintings and join in the drawing? That's actually the reason I didn't go to the party last year. I felt there was no way I could submit one of my paintings into the same drawing as those amazing artists I know. This year, however, I volunteered to setup for the party because I knew that if I volunteered to help I wouldn't back out of going. I had decided to not participate in the drawing. But then my friend, Sheryl - also a Chestnut - tried to convince me to participate. I said I would.  However, I don't have a painting suitable for the swap.  I want one I'm at least halfway proud of.  I like the "Three Kisses" painting I did in class Saturday - but it is done in oils and is still quite wet.  It won't be anywhere near dry by Wednesday.

So I decided yesterday to re-paint the Hershey Kisses with acrylics which dry within a few hours.  Here is that one:

I don't know. Just glancing at it, I like it - but looking at it closely, there is some unintended "texture" where the paint clumped up. I haven't used acrylics much at all in the past year and a half, and they REALLY dry quickly - well before I'm finished painting. 

However, I'm going to varnish it tomorrow, and I'm writing a poem that I'll print on a large adhesive sticker and put on the back of it - wrap it in brown paper and then BE BRAVE and follow through and take it to the party. That's where my mantra from the Brene' Brown group comes in. I've got to BE BRAVE. Really, even if the best artist in the group draws my painting, they can always toss it if they hate it - or paint over it - or give it away. I KNOW I'm a beginner, and everyone who contributes a painting to the drawing knows there are beginner painters in the group. I haven't varnished a painting yet, but my understanding is that it makes the painting look better - it evens out the finish. So I will update after the party and write how it went.

Update:  I finished the poem for the 3 Kisses painting.  I renamed it "A Kiss Bouquet."  Here's the poem - it's cheesy, (LOL!) but it's the best I could come up with in a very short period of time.

A Kiss Bouquet

A red kiss for love – alive, true, and strong

Hearts beating together – a vibrant love song

Silver is for time – a long life together

Standing solid – through storms and fair weather

A green kiss for change - renewing each day

Still familiar and warm – a “Kiss Bouquet”

I figure that even if a great artist gets my gift, they can always give it to someone they love as a gift.  Or . . . they can always toss it in the trash.

Update after the party:  So the party was a lot of fun. I met a lot of people and enjoyed chatting with other artists. And yes, one of the absolute BEST artists in the group got my painting in the drawing. Seriously, he's an artist that TEACHES a lot, has paintings in many galleries, and has won all kinds of awards. I looked at his website just now - and WOW!  AMAZING ART!  LOL!  So Jim Himsworth - "Portrait Painter and Fine Artist" now owns my "A Kiss Bouquet" painting. WHY couldn't a beginning painter have gotten my painting?!?!??!!! I really envisioned a woman getting the painting - and I had a woman in mind when I wrote the poem - thinking a woman would appreciate the playful nature of painting 3 Hershey Kisses - and then the sentimental type poem.

And I wonder why that bothers me so much. I hate to think that whoever got my painting was disappointed to have gotten a beginner's painting. I have no idea how Jim feels - I'm sure he would say that he really likes it - but I can't imagine that he would do anything with it other than toss it in a corner or in the trash.

So I need to quit obsessing about the fact that a fantastic, experienced and nationally recognized artist got my painting. Let it go. Let it go. Let it go. It is OKAY to not be perfect. It is OKAY to be a beginner painter. I participated in the painting exchange, and that was my goal.

Here's the painting I got in the drawing.  It's pretty.  I took a class on "painting each day" - and one of the things we did was a series of quick paintings of a vase of flowers.  The teacher recommended we use specific boards. I'm almost certain this painting was done in that class because it looks so much like the stack of paintings I have in my studio that I did in that class - and it's painted on the exact same brand/size/type of board that we used in that class.  

I love it.  I had the hardest time with those flowers, but this artist, Claudia Williams, really nailed it.  She was able to paint the flowers with only a few strokes.  We had to do a 40-stroke painting in that class - and maybe this is her 40-stroke painting.  It looks like it could be.

Despite my insecurities about my Kisses painting, I really enjoyed the party, and I will participate again next year.  I will do my painting ahead of time next year and have a nice little landscape to put in the drawing.

Updated 1/30/2019: I mentioned above that I needed to "Let it go!" And time has helped me to do just that. I needed a day or two after the party to get over my "OMG! A great artist got my painting!" angst. Now it really doesn't matter to me. I will definitely participate next year.

A Workshop with Kevin Menck

This past weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday), I took a plein air workshop with Kevin Menck. As it turned out, there were only four people in the class. So we each received a lot of help from Kevin.

On Friday, we went to Green's Grocery in Leiper's Fork where Kevin did a demo. Then my friend, Sheryl, who was also in the class, invited us to her house for lunch. After lunch we met at Garrison Creek which is the first exit after you get on the Natchez Trace in Leiper's Fork heading west. We looked around the creek, and I picked out this scene to paint. I didn't take a photo while we were outside - I keep forgetting to photograph my painting with the actual scene in the background. I finished it (added the tree reflections in the water - and worked on the foreground a little) in my studio at home. The actual painting looks better than the photograph of the painting. The photograph makes it look grainier.

Then on Saturday, we just about froze to death (it was 32 degrees outside) while Kevin did a demo outside on the side of the road entering the Natchez Trace.  We had brought folding chairs - and I happened to have two blankets in the back of my car - so I wrapped one around me and gave the other one to another student.  It was COLD!!!  Ron was nice enough to bring us hot coffee - which was wonderful! We convinced Kevin that after lunch (at Sheryl's again!) we should paint inside. So we met up at Green's Grocery again in Leiper's Fork, and we each painted using one of Kevin's paintings as a reference. I chose a painting that had a house and barn - and here is my version of it. It's my favorite painting from the workshop.

Sunday was a much better day in terms of weather - warmer and sunny.  We went to a farm on Bailey Road in Leiper's Fork. I chose a fence row with a large tree in the foreground and a pasture and some hills in the background.  It's my least favorite painting for the workshop. That large tree was my nemesis for the day. Since it is November, most of the leaves had fallen off, but there were still some hanging on - and I had the hardest time showing that in the painting.  I painted it, scraped it off, and painted it again.  I like the play of shadows in the foreground which was one of the reasons I chose that scene. I had told Kevin my goal was to paint the scene entirely from looking at the actual scene - and not taking a photo and looking more at the photo than the scene. So I accomplished that. I didn't look at a photo of the scene at all; it was painted entirely en plein air.  

This was my second Kevin Menck workshop.  I like his style of painting, although I'm probably a little tighter of an artist than he is.  He's good at helping me to be a little looser - to concentrate of big shapes and values rather than getting bogged down with unnecessary details.  It was a good workshop.

Plein Air Painters of the Southeast (PAP-SE)

Back in September, the Plein Air Painters of the Southeast had a paintout and art show in Leiper's Fork.  I WISH I were a good enough painter to be a member, but that is currently way out of the realm of possibility. However, I am a member of the Chestnut Group, and the Chestnut Group acted as hosts for the PAP-SE group.  We were asked if we would be willing to host some of the painters in our homes.  After talking it over with Ron last spring, I said, "sure."  So three artists spent a week with us - Perry Austin, Jim Carson, and MaryO Smith.  MaryO is the artist I worked with when Ron and I went to Sea Island last winter. We had never met Perry or Jim before.  And Perry's wife, Carol, was here with him - and we loved getting to know her, too. It was a fun group of people.

I was a little nervous about having three strangers spend a week with us, but it turned out great, and all my concerns were laid to rest within a few minutes of the artists' arrival.  By the time they all left on Saturday, we hugged like old friends.  It was a most enjoyable week!  We sat out on the deck and had drinks and appetizers in the evenings, ate breakfast around the kitchen table in the mornings, and just did a lot of talking.  They painted much of the day - and were in and out.  There were a couple of evening activities that Ron and I were invited to since we hosted some of the artists, and that was so much fun. We got to know many of the artists, and when they had their "wet paint" sale on that Friday and Saturday, I could have easily spent many thousands of dollars on paintings.  Perry, especially, had one I really loved of the chicken house behind our house - and another one of the farm behind us on Carters Creek Pike.  And my friend, Sheryl, beat me to a gorgeous painting by Kathie Odom. My goal for the next year or two is to buy a Kathie Odom painting - but I want to wait until I find one the "speaks" to me.

The artists that stayed at our house each gave us an original oil painting as a gift for our hospitality - which, if you think about it, is a pretty amazing and valuable gift!  Perry painted "Gnarly Oak" for us - and I will treasure that painting always. Ron and I have loved that tree since we first saw it when were walking on our land.  It was "Gnarly Elm" for awhile until we figured out it was an oak instead of an elm.  Here is his painting.  I love it!

 Jim gave us a painting he had done previously - a house with a dirt road leading up to it - really beautiful. I love his loose and impressionistic style.  

 Then MaryO painted Ron's John Deere tractor - and she gave that painting to us.We both love the painting, but Ron, especially, does since it's his tractor and he has so many memories of working with and on that tractor! MaryO also did a couple other paintings from around our house - of the wildflowers at the front of the driveway, and of a tree near the front.  Both beautiful paintings.  

I loved having the artists here.  It was a great week.

While the PAP-SE artists were in town, I signed up for two mentoring sessions. The first mentoring session was with Dawn Whitelaw - a wonderful artist that I had heard about and had seen when I've taken classes at On Track Studios where she has a studio.  She, another mentee, and I went to Justin Timberlake's farm here in Leiper's Fork, and painted a barn there. Dawn was very helpful, and although she did her own painting, she kept a careful watch on her mentees, and came over to me often giving suggestions for improving my painting.  Here is an "in-progress" photo that shows the actual barn in the background - and then the finished painting.

My second mentoring session was with MaryO, but I didn't end up with a painting from that one.  She did, though.  LOL! So, alas, I don't have a painting or even part of one to show for that experience.

All in all, it was a great week. We made new friends, I learned so much about painting, and it was simply fun. If PAP-SE ever comes back to Nashville, I will be volunteering immediately to host some artists again - especially if "our" artists return.