Showing posts with label Adventure Artists. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Adventure Artists. Show all posts

Friday, September 23, 2016

Learning to oil paint brings new challenges -- and opportunities!

    First came the apple. Then came I. (Afterward, I ate the apple. And it was done.) 
    Plopping myself down on a lawn chair on the screened-in porch, I picked up my paintbrush and hesitantly dabbed it into the blue and red paint to make a purple-like mix on the brush. This color is what I use to make the "sketch" of the apple. I paint the light and dark areas that I see, on the canvas with a light or dark shade of this purple color. That saves the time of making a pencil and paper sketch. Maybe I'll try that someday -- not today.
     I find the dark and light areas of the apple by squinting at it. That in itself, is a new way of looking at objects that I've learned this year,   
     My paint has been too thick of late, so next time I will thin it down by using the mineral spirits; or the Almond Oil, my artist friend, Sharon Rusch Shaver, uses exclusively.

     It's satisfying and engaging to get out my painting gear and hunker down to make a small simple painting. Honestly, it wasn't easy! I like the way the oil paint goes smoothly onto the Senso linen canvas, too.... much different than a white canvas.
     This weekend, I will try to get motivated to take out my paints again. 
     Little by little. Small things and small steps are great and wonderful things. A brush moving on canvas. Easy. Take it easy. The weekend has arrived.



Friday, June 24, 2016

Plein Air painting in the Rocky Mountains

I would like to thank Sharon Rusch Shaver, a talented painter and adventure artist, for giving me the motivation to paint outdoors in the beautiful Rocky Mountains.  I have never felt so inspired and joyful. She taught me and several artists a different way to look at the mountains and the outdoors. She taught us to capture the mountains and scenery on a canvas with oil paints. The challenge -- which I embraced -- was to get a painting done in approximately two hours, and then, just, step away! For me, I would lay down the brush, and say, "Done," I'm out." What I have on the canvas, it is what I saw -- my interpretation and style. I have a painting style. How thrilling! Each of us had a unique style. We helped and motivated each other. 

Plein Air painting is challenging! Just as she said it would be. Sharon diligently corralled the team of painters each morning (after coffee) and hustled us out to a beautiful site where we set up our easels and hunkered down and painted. One day it rained. The wind blew so hard another day, Sharon's painting blew off its easel and had to be fished out of a lake. 

I have never felt such a feeling of calm and excitement at the same time! It takes courage to go forth and live my own dream in spite of life's challenges. It takes strength to carry all the supplies, paints, tripod, art box and back pack through a marsh, too. Thanks Sharon and thanks to Dan, her "Sherpa" husband, for inspiring me to live large and live joyfully.

Visit Sharon and become an Adventure Artist at  http://sharonruschshaver.com/


Oil paintings from the Rocky Mountains, Colorado, by Carol Labashosky





This last piece is done in oil pastels. I just couldn't get enough and stayed in the Rocky Mountains another day.