Adventures in the Plein Air

I want to keep you informed of my progress toward my plein air oil painting class that is next week, starting the day after the election.
I have to document my adventures, beginning today. I took my new French easel to the Garden of the Gods, pretending that my class was starting today. That's a great place to paint, I've hauled a number of large canvases there to paint. Today was dramatic:

A rainbow in the west greeted me.
My goal was to get one 20" x 24" canvas as finished as I could in 2 hours. As it turned out I had to quit because of wind and rain after an hour and a half; it hasn't hardly rained here in the past 2 months. I just want to show what I got done, not only as a point to compare my class canvases with, but also to show that I am actually getting some oil painting done.
Oil sketch of the Garden of the Gods, 20" x 24", Oct 25 2010:

I know it's pathetic, it's easy to see I need to learn a lot. I was determined not to draw it first in oil, as is my wont, but instead just to paint the colors I was seeing. I was just starting to add blues and greens, and was having to hold my cap and the easel at the same time, and when I discovered my wind breaker was not waterproof, I folded the easel and got it back to my truck, which conveniently was nearby. The painting and I were soaked, but the water didn't affect the oils.

Here's what the scene I wanted to paint looked like when I began it:

The scribbled gray blue at the middle top of my painting was where I had been hoping to place Pikes Peak, which is ordinarily spectacular at that spot. But I left it alone, thinking I could add Pikes Peak the next time I go.
Here's that scene as I painted it in 1990. This took me considerably longer than an hour and a half.
Garden of the Gods, 1980, oil 24" x 36":


The Palette
I was using my new palette, which Don Sahli specified:

There are just 16 colors, from lower left: carbon black, ultramarine blue, cobalt blue, cerulean blue, viridian green, cadmium yellow light, cadmium yellow medium, cadmium yellow deep, cadmium orange, cadmium red light, alizarin crimson, burnt sienna, burnt umber, English red light, yellow ochre and titanium white.
Sahli said in his Youtube instruction video that a new palette should be prepared ahead of time, using a lot of oil that will become hard, so new oils won't run out of the box. I ended up scooting those first oils to the edges of the plexiglass, and had to spread them and lower the height of the oils so I could get the easel closed without getting oils on it.

I'm excited that my class is so near. I'll let you know how it goes.

Art Show Photos

I'm glad to show the photos of my art show, Aug. 13. They were taken by Dave Hughes Jr., a professional photographer associated with the Old Colorado City History Center.
Dave is like me, he too loves the images on the High Road, and pointedly showed me his photo of St. Francis De Asi in Ranchos de Taos because it was a different, more uncommon view of the mission than the two views I had shown in my blog:
This view from the southeast corner is more familiar, and of course the view from the back was made famous by Georgia Okeefe and was the inspiration for my High Road pictures:

I warn you about the rest of these photos, there are several pictures of myself. There could have been a lot more, but I want to show you pictures of some of my friends.
The first people to walk into my art show were Ron and Juli Hinkle, from Florence but formerly from just down the street from us in Old Colorado City:

Ron and I worked and carpooled together at the Air Force Academy for several years.
I was especially amuzed with my son-in-law Rick Munoz, who was recording mly artshow on Utube, and sending it out on emails from his new iphone 4. Judy Wise replied in the middle of the evening:

Don't you love it when friends show up to see your show? Among my longest friends here in Colorado Springs are Todd and Kathleen Ryan:

Todd has "8 more years" to go in his graphic art job in the marketing office at the Academy where I worked. He is an incredible aviation artist, just waiting to draw and paint more.
And my oldest and longest friends here came to my show, Fred and Beryl Clark, who live in Black Forest:

I met the Clarks in 1978 when I went to work at the Staff Artist at the National Carvers Museum in Monument, and Fred moved here because he made carving tools, and was President of Warren Tools.
And I want to show you Nate and Orion Kiser, who now live just a few blocks from us. Thanks Nate, for purchasing a High Road painting:

I could show lots more photos, Dave Hughes Jr. outdid himself. I offered to pay him for his good work, but he said, "I'd only like one of your pictures, Jack, maybe just a little sketch that you might otherwise throw away."
I gave him a drawing I made of our home, which is just a few blocks from where he and his family live, and only a few blocks more from his parents' home, where he grew up "surrounded by your artwork that Dad always had around":

Thankyou to everyone who was at my art show.