"The Farm" 30x24

This acrylic painting was a commission for a friend who wanted a painting of one of his favorite places, their family farm. He wanted a loose style and larger in size, so I chose to use acrylics and many layers to create this painting for him. I didn't get to visit the actual farm, but painted it from photos he took for my reference. I liked the effect of the "naked" trees and how they kind of seemed to surround the barn like guards. He just picked it up today from my studio and can't wait to hang it in his office!

"Family Farm Home" 6x8

I have many other hobbies and things that I love to do besides paint. Some have come and gone (and I still have the "stuff" to prove it!) but scrapbooking is one that remains. I have a great group of friends in my "Scrapbooking Club" that meet once a month to visit, share, eat, and hopefully record some of those memories for our families! Although I now have moved on from "paper" scrapbooking to digital only, I still meet with them and now bring my laptop to scrap on!

On this particular day, we were meeting at one of the member's farms which they just built and is a working hay farm. I brought my plein air supplies and set up and painted their home there while everyone else worked on their scrapbooks. My friend loved it and gave it to her husband for Christmas. I loved painting all the angles and the pretty red color of the house. Although I just intended it to be a "sketch" and not a "finished" painting, it turned out okay and was so fun to do!

"Valley Barn" 8x10

This painting was painted from a photo I took while in the Nashville area for a workshop this past summer. Like many artists, I have a "thing" for barns! It might be cliche, but I can't help myself! They just speak to me when I drive by so now I veer over (safely, usually!) and take photos if I can't whip out my paints and paint it right then and there. This one is located in the lovely little community called Leiper's Fork. If you ever get near Nashville, you have to drive around here. Cool little grocery store/restaurant that is really a Southern landmark called Puckett's Grocery to eat a great, southern lunch too!

Small to Large Painting

 8 x 10 plein air version

16 x 20 enlarged studio version

Last year, I was fortunate to take a workshop from Dawn Whitelaw, a marvelous teacher who has mentored so many talented artists over the years I can't even name them all! She is not only a gifted artist herself, but her gift of teaching and kind spirit made the week long "Bootcamp" workshop a joy for me and a memorable experience.

At this plein air workshop (painting outside from life, for those readers who don't know what that is!), the workshop participants went out with a buddy in the early mornings (it was summer in Nashville with the daily temperatures to go along with that!) and paint a small study of a subject. We would also go out in the afternoons and do the same. Both of these times were good to capture that special "light" you can only get in the morning and the late afternoon and evening. Then, we would take our small studies into the studio from 9:00 am until 3:00 pm and work with Dawn to choose those that "work" and paint them again on larger canvases. It was a great learning tool and a good thing to practice for people who enjoy painting plein air and also want to do some larger canvases. Dawn would also spend time each day instructing the group on various painting related topics and doing demos, which were just amazing to watch and so helpful. Anyway, despite the exhaustion I felt at the end of each day of bootcamp, I would not trade anything for the time spent with this wonderful teacher and artist. If you ever have the chance to take a workshop from her, do it!

I show these two paintings to illustrate one of my exercises. The small one is 8x10 (done outside in the open air) and the larger one is the one worked on back in the studio. The great thing about this technique is that you don't have to try to finish a large canvas outside with all the light conditions constantly changing, and you also learn things painting the scene the first time that you either correct on the larger canvas or improve upon if needed.  I have learned to look at these smaller studies as a kind of note taking for the larger canvases. However, I will also point out that the smaller studies sometimes have a freshness that you don't end up getting sometimes in the larger paintings. Either way, it is a great practice and I have learned so much from painting like this when doing plein air painting.