Wednesday, June 03, 2009

A day of painting en plein air


On Sunday I participated in the Artebella 100 Paint-Out, sponsored by the Louisville Visual Arts Association. There was a registration fee of $50 (a little less for LVAA members) to participate.

At 7:00 a.m. I showed up at the Water Tower with my carload of paint and painting gear. I had my blank canvas stamped, and headed out to paint.

The location I selected was at Champions Park, formerly River Road Country Club. I set up my easel at the edge of one of the former fairways, the morning sun to my back. I started in the shade, but I was in the sun after a couple of hours. This prompted me to move a little. Sunburn was a secondary concern; I was mostly trying to avoid being dazzled by the bright light. Looking at a white palette and a white canvas in sunshine can make color selection and mixing a challenge. In addition, it’s been my experience that getting the brightness of colors right for indoor viewing is very hard when painting in sunlight. A painting that looks great outside can look much too dark viewed indoors. A landscape that I painted and which Ed and Loraine now have suffers from that.

I ended up having to move several times to get out of the sunshine, but I knew going in that this would likely be the case.

Champions Park is a very doggy place between 8 and 11:00 on Sunday mornings. At least 50 dogs, taken to the park by their owners, came running up to check me out. A few different times I had four or five dogs around me, chasing one another, sniffing my paint tubes, and barking at my easel (two different dog owners informed me that “strange structures” upset their dogs. “He’s afraid of ladders, and your easel is like a ladder,” said one.)

I tolerated this pretty well, I think, although after one peed on my backpack I kept a large stick handy and was prepared to use violence to enforce (human) social norms, if necessary.

It was a beautiful day for painting. I worked as quickly as I could. All paintings and drawings were due back no later than 3:00, and I made it back around 2:30.

There were about 70 contestants registered, more than expected. There was a large range of skill levels and subjects, in pastels, watercolor, oils, and acrylics.

Along with many of the other participants, I set up some of my artwork in the parking lot as we awaited judging. I sold a couple of small walnut ink drawings, and had many nice conversations with other participants and people who had come to watch. The experience made me much more interested in participating in an art fair sometime in the future.

I ended up with an honorable mention (a ribbon and a $25 check), which was nice.

I’d only had a little more than four hours of sleep the night before, so I was worried that I might end up feeling pretty bad before the day was over, but I felt pretty good.

3 comments:

  1. Good for you Mark. Congratulations.I like that your ink drawing sold. I am so glad to know another real artist. My teacher is the first.
    QMM

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  2. Congratulations, Mark. (And I'll bet none of those snooping dogs has ever won an honorable anything.)

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  3. I've metal detected there and dogs are a real pain, not just on Sunday Mornings. I guess that place is now the "Louisville Dog Park". Your painting was very good and the competition was strong. So, an honorable mention was a good showing, even though I thought your painting was the best!

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