Wisconsin in May

My little sketchbook went with me, and my watercolor set. This was a hiking trail I was on; I stopped and sketched the scene in terra-cotta colored pastel pencil, then added watercolor back at the lodge.

Shortly after making this sketch, I saw a Scarlet Tanager for the first time; shortly after that, I discovered that the trail signs became progressively fewer and less helpful the longer I walked, and that I was ... not lost, exactly, but making an unplanned detour in the heat of the day.

Also there were bloodsucking bugs out. I will spare you the details.

The walk was still worth doing, though.

Mounds Boulevard Bridge

Mounds Boulevard Bridge, 6 x 12" oil on canvas

Today was overcast, not unpleasant though. A softly lit day and a grey curve of road that reflected the sky.

I wanted a soft, loose treatment so I painted this almost entirely with a palette knife.

I wanted to stay home

but I didn't.

Downhill to the River, 8 x 10" oil on canvas, $145

Day Four, outside

Cattails, 6 x 12" oil on canvas, at Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary today. $145

 This was today at Derek Davis' class. It rained on us for a while, but we were undaunted.

Making art rarely if ever feels "safe" to me. Particularly if I'm making art of a kind I don't usually make, such as a painting of reflections on water. So this was today's first challenge, and the second one will be going back out to meet Derek and the Outdoor Painters of Minnesota at Murphy's Landing (I've gotta Google it; I have no idea where this is) and go for round two.

Hidden Falls Park, St. Paul

Hidden well enough, as it happens, that I still haven't found the falls. I didn't make it that far today, my first visit to this lovely little park. There was a tree and the sunlight was hitting the leaves in a way I really liked, so I grabbed my field kit and set to work.

The painting is an 8 x 10" oil on canvas. In the photo at top, you can see I'd lost the sunlight by the time I was done; there was a high layer of clouds moving in. And boy were my fingers cold!

Painting at Bruce Vento again

Still having a lot of fun with the Guerrilla Painter's Box I got at Wet Paint. It got windy and cold out that day, as the clouds moved in, but I finished this cute little 5 x 7" landscape. Oil on canvas board; it'll be for sale at one of the three (!) Holiday Sales I've signed on for in November. Yes, three. This is because I am insane.

The Holiday Sale items are mostly quite small and priced to make nice gifts. I'll provide more details as well as information about which pieces will be in which place, as the dates approach. Meanwhile I must paint like a madwoman so I'll have enough inventory!

More Tiny Goldfish

Again, just 4" square, oil paint on canvas. Priced for the holidays at $45 each. More to come!

Come watch Goldfish hatch! Art Crawl today.

 

Okay, here's where I'll be again in about two hours: At Saint Paul Art Crawl at Josephine Geiger's studio, out in the yard by the goldfish pond, painting more of these tiny 4" square goldfish canvases. Come watch it as a demo -- I love talking to people while I paint -- and if you like, take home a hot-off-the-easel original Goldfish for just $45. I've got three finished from yesterday and hope to make three more before the event ends this afternoon.

Sunlit Little Landscape

Back at Bruce Vento this afternoon, I did a quick oil sketch while the sunlight disappeared all around me. Low Branches, 5 x 7" oil on canvas board, is below.

 

The larger canvas on my easel in the top photo is an 8 x 10" that I had just enough time to roughly block in before it got too dark to keep working. The "skeleton" of the painting will help me remember what I had in mind next time I go back, which will likely be Tuesday, if the weather's all right.

I'll have this little piece for sale at the Saint Paul Art Crawl this weekend. I'm showing at Josephine Geiger's stained glass studio.

Painting While the Sun Shines, Part 2

Rail Cars and Red Grass, 8 x 10" oil on canvas board

There are several tracks running through Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary, where I painted this, so if you can imagine the clanging, and squealing, and the track-rhythms, and the roar of those big diesels -- four in a row, sometimes, black red yellow like a coral snake -- then you know where I was.

I'm drawing trains more and more lately, and I hope there are enough people out there who like both trains and art to make this worth my while. Because I'm not likely to stop any time soon.

Painting while the Sun Shines

 

Above, yesterday's little panel with the freight train. This was at the end of the session. I didn't stop painting long enough to take a photo until the sun was gone and I had to stop anyway. 

Later, in the studio, I finished the piece but didn't have good light for photographing it. I'll do that today. It took me a long time but I have finally accepted that it is simply not possible to truly color-correct a photo of art taken under artificial light. I always end up re-shooting in daylight anyway.

And here's the finished Path with Dry Goldenrod, 8 x 10" oil on canvas board.

Are there places in your world that you think would make good paintings? I think most of us have them, even if they're just particular stretches of highway we see on our commute. I invite you to take photos (um, preferably not while driving) and post them on my Facebook page. Or tweet me, @TracieTheArtist.  

Monday Mill District Moonrise

Mill District Moonrise, 6 x 4" oil on canvas board

Painted on site; photographed on the bumper of my truck.

This whole mill area (along Hiawatha) thrills me. I love it not just because the buildings are old but because they are still very much in use. I'm attracted to the dusty, noisy energy -- rumbling machinery, train cars, alarms going off, buzzers.

Safe to say I'll be back. Going to need a larger canvas next time, though.

Art Tourist meets Photo Tourist at Como Conservatory

The Petunias in progress at Como Conservatory. Photo by Patrick O'Reilly, who kindly emailed it my way.

When I lived in the South (and yes, folks, Florida is the South), an open sketchbook was an invitation for people to come and talk to me. I enjoyed that, but I've found Minnesotans are more reserved, more cautious, more apt to think they're going to disturb me.

So, when asked nicely whether I would mind having my hands photographed while I worked, I readily agreed, and only asked if the photographer would email me a few of the shots. Which he did, when he got home; he's not from Minnesota, either.

This isn't posed. I was lightly sketching in pastel pencil, then going over that with the Micron pen (in my left hand, in the photo at top), to make the final lines. When that was done I erased the pencil and broke out the watercolors, and you've already seen the result:

 

I expect to be back at Como Park tomorrow morning for a while. You'll probably find me near the carousel, sketching horses.  Say hello if you're out there. If I wanted solitude, well -- I have a studio for that.