The Chestnut Group's Art Show & Sale to Benefit Radnor Lake

I am a member of The Chestnut Group, which is a group of plein air artists in the middle Tennessee area. This coming weekend - November 8 - 10 - we are having an art show and sale at the Radnor Lake Visitor Center. The Friends of Radnor Lake and The Chestnut Group have been working together for 15 years now to help support Radnor Lake. It's a beautiful natural area in Nashville - a state park - really a gorgeous place. Here's the flyer with the show information.

I gathered my courage and entered three of my paintings from Radnor Lake into the show. There's no competition - no awards - just an art show and sale. There's a long list of guidelines to prepare for the show. Any painting from a Chestnut member that follows the guidelines is accepted for the show.

It's actually my second art show. This past summer, I had two paintings accepted into the Outdoor Painters Society's "Associate Members Show & Sale 2019" in Corsicana, Texas. That show was open from August 12 to September 26. That was a good experience is learning how to ship paintings. Neither of my paintings sold, and so they were shipped back to me when the show ended.

Thankfully, the Radnor show doesn't involve any shipping! I don't anticipate selling any of my Radnor paintings, but I'm happy for the experience of being in a second show - and this one a local one! I'll actually be able to go (tomorrow) and see my paintings in the show. And if one should sell, that would be wonderful.

I entered three paintings - all done partially en plein air at Radnor Lake - and finished in my studio. Here are the three after final touch-ups and varnishing - sitting out with a fan directed at them - drying in my studio.

And here they are after I framed them.

And close-ups of all three:

Path to Radnor Lake, oil on 16x20 panel

A Place to Rest at Radnor, oil on 12x16 linen

Just Chilling Out, oil on 8x8 panel

Update: The Radnor show is over. One of my paintings sold. "Just Chilling Out" - the small 8x8 painting I did at the last minute. I'm a little in shock because my art is so amateurish next to some amazing art by professionals in the group. I figured my three pieces helped fill up space for the show. The other two painting are now back on the walls in my own home. The show did great - over $50K in sales. 

Finishing Up and Touching Up and Varnishing

Yesterday's mentoring session with Kathie Odom really inspired me to work on my art today.

First, I finished up the painting I started yesterday in Kathie's class.  I'm really pleased with it.  It will be interesting to see what suggestions she gives me for improving it when I go to class next week.  Here's my finished painting.

Then I decided to do some repairs and improvements to three other paintings. First I took the painting below of Radnor Lake.  There were a few marks on the lake - probably from having the painting sitting around for so long. No telling how those marks got there.  I painted over them, and then did some other improvements to the painting.

Then I took the painting below - one that I painted when I was in Gatlinburg back in October.  When I showed the painting to my mother, she asked what that was in the lower left side of the painting.  I had FOURTEEN rocks in the painting. When Mother asked her question, I realized that it looked totally unnatural.  I had started painting rocks -because there WERE a lot of rocks - just not that many and only a couple large ones - but once I started adding rocks, I just kept going - and they kept getting bigger and bigger.  So I painted over eleven of the rocks and left just three in the painting.  I think it looks much better, and the rocks looks like rocks.  However, I still don't like the way the rocks look.  So I may work on it more tomorrow.

My next project was my second Radnor Lake painting.  The rail along the left side of the trail was too perfect.  So I put some plant growth over part of it to break up the line of the railing, and I worked on the trail a little, too. It's still not one of my favorite paintings, but I'm done with it.

Then, I decided it was time to varnish some paintings.  I took about 9 paintings out the garage and varnished them.  None of the ones above since they all have wet paint on them - but some of my others - some that I really like. So now I've varnished some paintings.  I need to take a bunch of my paintings out of their frames and varnish them and re-frame them.  That will be a project I work on over the next few days and weeks.

Overall, I had a really good day today.  I love it when I get "lost" in painting - and that happened today.  Several hours went by as I worked on the paintings above, and I totally lost track of time because I was so engrossed in what I was doing.  I was listening to an audio book the other day and it mentioned how one get to "flow" when the rest of the world is nonexistent as we concentrate on our art or work or whatever.  So today I was in my "art flow," and that's a good thing.

Three Painting at my Mother's

I spent the past week with my mother in Georgia. There was much to do there, and it was several days before I had time to paint. But then I set up my art easel/palette, and other supplies in the breakfast room. There's a nice antique round wooden table in there that I covered with newspaper, then set up my Coulter easel beside it. Each time I started to paint, my mother would come in and sit at the table and watch me - asking questions, making comments, and offering suggestions. It was a tender time spent with my mother . . . and I finished 3 paintings while there.

This first one is a scene from Radnor Lake in Nashville.  I went there last year to hike for awhile, and I took a lot of photographs.  This is one scene that I thought was particularly beautiful. I loved the path to the water - with the trees on either side - the hills on the far side of the lake. The colors are prettier, I think, in the actual painting. The photo washes it out a bit. Radnor Lake is such a beautiful place - lots of trails through the woods and beside the lake.

Roaming Around Radnor, Oil on 16x20 board

For the second painting, I decided to paint a scene I photographed at Ghost Ranch in New Mexico when I was in Santa Fe and the surrounding area for the Plein Air Convention and Expo (PACE) last April.  Ghost Ranch was where Georgia O'Keefe spent her last years.  The scenery was breath-taking, and it was very different from anything I would ever see in Tennessee or Georgia!  And technically, I'm not finished with this.  My sister, Joan, suggested that the tree and the hill to the left of the center have too similar outlines - and they do.  So when I get a chance to get up in my studio, I will make some changes to either the tree or the hill.

Ghost Ranch Panorama, Oil on 16x20 panel

For my last painting while visiting my mother, I decided to do another scene from Radnor Lake. I had taken a photograph of a walking path with a wall along the side of it.  There was actually a man walking almost at the end of the path, but so far I haven't been able to make him look realistic in the painting.  So I've taken him out each time I've tried to put him in. Now that I'm home again and can work on it in my studio, I may try to add the walker again.  It really shouldn't be THAT difficult.  In the photograph, he is just a dark shape far away.  On the evening that I painted this, my sister, Beth, was also there working on her own art. As I painted this, I showed her how my various art teachers taught me to start with the darkest shapes - to concentrate on the "big shapes."  And the picture DID "emerge" from those shapes.  My mother came in and offered some great suggestions.  It was a fun experience.

Down the Path at Radnor, oil on 11x14 board