I am fired up, painting and looking forward to the BENTWATER'S FINE ART FESTIVAL ON LAKE CONROE, SEPTEMBER 28TH, 10 am to 4pm. No time to procrastinate, though. I've got to paint, paint, paint! There will be a lot of great artwork and it's a free show, open to the public.  If you're interested in attending, let me know and I'll post your name on the guest list. 

Thanks to the Conroe Art League, I recently had the opportunity to do a demonstration about plein air painting.  What a challenge and what fun!  Painting "en plein air" is truly my favorite thing to do.  I love being outside, looking at the scenery and quickly trying to develop a painting.  Some turn out well--others, not so much.  But, when a piece works, I often bring the field study to the studio and do a full sized painting from it. 

The photo shows my normal procedure for developing a studio piece.  The top left pastel painting is the actual, on site, painting and below it are the reference photos I took of the scene.  On the top right is a value study I did in acrylics.  This is a practice I am developing to help me see the lights and darks more clearly and also helps me see if I need to tweak the composition a bit.  Then, on the bottom right, is an almost completed studio piece.  This one is done in pastels, but sometimes I might do a final painting in oils or acrylics. 

Happy, happy, happy!  The demo was fun to do and was so motivating that I signed up for the Bentwater's Art Festival and now I'm under the gun.  Keep watching, I'll be posting some progress pieces and hope to see some of you at the Festival.