Fool Hollow State Park Paint Out

On Saturday, July 19th, I participated in the Fool Hollow State Park Paint Out. The Arizona State Parks sponsor a series of monthly paint out across the year. Each month's paint at is scheduled at one of the state parks across the state. Although I have done a lot of plein air painting this was my first competitive plein air outing.

Fool Hollow State Park is a small park surrounding Fool Hollow Lake just outside of Show Low, AZ. There is a great campground, fishing docks, a boat launch, nice ramadas with views of the lake shaded by the towering pines. Truly a great place for a paint out!

Thirteen artists from various locations around the state met at the identified ramada at 8:00 am to sign in and have our paper or canvas stamped on the back. We then had four hours to select a site and complete a painting. At noon we met back at the ramada where the paintings were laid out on picnic tables identified only by a number. The participating artists voted for the first, second and third place paintings. The three paintings will be a part of a year end gallery showing at a gallery in Tubac, AZ

I am not a fast painter, so my primary goal for this first competitive paint out was to bring a piece to a level of completion within the given amount of time. This I accomplished! My second goal was to have fun and meet new people. This was also accomplished! It truly was a great experience. I am looking forward to participating in future state park paint outs!

Catching Up

Summer in Arizona is always hot...but this year they are predicting a hotter than normal summer. We have had a very good start with a number of days over 110. Mornings are wonderful to be outside enjoying the Sonoran Desert....but midday my studio is a great place to be! I have been using the studio time to do some catchup in the form of pieces that were close to completion plein air...but needed some fine tuning and polishing.

Bagno Vignoni Cottage was done in Italy on a day that went from sunny to rainy to cloudy and back to sunny. Luckily my choice of painting position was located under an overhang on a building that allowed me to keep painting as others packed up quickly and ran for cover. This cottage was so picturesque with the reflections in the water, the beautiful old stone and the lush spring vegetation, that it begged to be painted.

Oak Creek Rapids is a piece that was also done plein air in the Sedona area. I found a spot on a large rock on the bank of the creek with the delightful rapids due to rocks and logs right in front of me. I was intrigued if I could capture the action of the rapids.....I am pleased with the results. Sedona is known for the red rocks...but Oak Creek has pulled me to the pastels more than once.

Cave Creek Film and Art Festival

Recently I was notified that I was a finalist in the 2008 Cave Creek Film and Art Festival in the Visual Arts Division. I attended the reception at the newly remodeled library last night. I am standing next to my pastel entry here, Golden Barrel Cactus. The competition was quite stiff as Cave Creek has a very active art community.... and... the cash prizes were quite attractive. Alas.....I did not move to the next stage. Next year! I was pleased that I did as well this first year as I did. Also, it was fun to mingle with friends and fellow artists supported with wine and cheese. The show will remain hanging in the library until August 1st.

Italy, the Trip of a Lifetime

There are many suggestions for artists experiencing a lack of ideas for painting (not even close in my case) of which traveling is always a major one. I can't begin to paint all the things I came back wanting to paint! Although Bob, my husband, and I have done a lot of traveling in the United States and Mexico, this was our first trip to Europe together....and what a trip it was! As indicated in the blog above, the trip was built around a 12 day plein air workshop with Richard McKinley (more to come about that part of the trip). We added time on to see more of Italy. We flew into Venice on May 7th arriving around 9:00 am. Please don't laugh...but it apparently never quite sunk in for me that Venice was a pedestrian city other than the canals. I guess I assumed there were roads that wove through the city as well. Not so! That became clear with our arrival as we walked out of the airport a short distance to the port to catch a water taxi into the city.

Venice was fascinating! It was like walking in history. Their streets are often only wide enough for two people and certainly do not follow any kind of grid pattern! Street signs are somewhat sketchy as well....but there are signs with arrows directing one to the major landmarks in the city. One is also constantly crossing the bridges over the canals and it is wise to take that into account in trying to plan out your trip to a destination.

A highlight for us was the art. St. Mark's Square is the main plaza in the city. It is a very large plaza that is always teaming with people. One end of the square is the Correr Museum (Wow! the art!!) which is housed in former governmental buildings. Those offices are on another side of the square. St. Mark's Cathedral and the Doge Museum complete the square. There are cafes with outdoor seating around the square and each has an orchestra. They take turns playing. And then there are the pigeons...they are everywhere!!! The Venetians say that there is one pigeon and two rats for every Venetian. We did not see any rats (they come out when they have high water) but we certainly saw the pigeons. The tourists think it is great to put out their arms and wait for the pigeons to land all over them and then take pictures.

The art we saw was truly inspring. Most of the art was Byzantine with no perspective (that cam later). They were flat and included a lot of gold inlay. Very formal art and primarily religious in nature. As we learned...most of the art was commissioned by the church as the church held the power and had the finances. We also saw the armor and weapons from 100's of years ago. All I can say is that I was fascinated at every turn in every street and museum!!

We hated to leave Venice...but Florence was calling.

My first blog entry!

Today is a big day for me. My website is published and I am entering my first blog entry. I decided that I wanted to try to do my own website. It has been an interesting learning curve...but my first version is up and running! I am more inspired than ever as I contemplate the paintings percolating in my head as they will look as finished pieces that can be shared on my website.I recently returned from a 22 day trip to Italy that included a 12 day workshop with Richard McKinley. In the coming days I plan to share my experience on my blog. It seems like there is so much to do when one returns home from a long vacation.....so I am looking forward to organizing my thinking by recording my experiences here. Watch for the coming entries!

Karen