Abstract Trees

This is an oil painting that I did last night. I have been trying to paint more abstractly. It's just my preferred way of working but I haven't really suceeded. My painting buddy, Carla, made me stop on this painting last night and promise not to touch it. She loved the painting just as it is. I know overwork my paintings and I lose the fresh abstract feeling so I stopped.

I'm open to your opinions and comments.......What do you think?

Tiger

We have adopted a new member to our family and his name is Tiger. He is my mother-in-laws cat but she can no longer care for him because she is going to live in a nursing home so we brought him home with us. He hasn't made friends with our other two cats, Dudley and Harley, yet. Tiger loves to explore and right now he is crawling around on my desk! We have lots of room for him to wonder around and so many unusual places to explore so I'm sure it will keep him entertained.

Stump Painting

I'm still on the subject of my plein air painting workshop with Ron Rencher.

Unless you have done plein air painting it's difficult to understand how hard it is to do. It's totally different than painting in the studio from a photograph for some reason. My plein air paintings are really bad because I lack experience but they were getting a tiny bit better by the end of the week. I don't know if I will ever master plein air painting!

Above is a photo of a stump that I painted on the third day of class. Ron gave us two hours to paint a subject in the morning and then made us stop and move to another spot in the afternoon. (I'm not going to show the painting I did in the morning because I didn't get it finished and it looks awful.) It was very hot that day and I didn't want to paint in the sun without any shade because I sunburn easily. This stump was shaded by a large tree and would offer me the shade I needed so that's why I chose this subject to paint that afternoon.

More on Rencher's Workshop

Carla and I getting ready to leave on our trip to New Braunfels, TX to attend Ron Rencher's workshop.

















The first day of class was very cold and windy!















The second day we went to Rock Wall Ranch to paint. This building is well over 100 years old and was built by German settlers.

















The 3rd day we painted with the cows at another old German ranch called Rahe Ranch. There were two cows, a calf, and a bull that were roaming the grounds while we painted.


















This is a photo of the house at Rahe Ranch. The owners live in town but still use the house for family events.


















The 4th day was spent at the river side. This is a photo of the demo painting that Ron did that morning. We painted in the afternoon when temperatures reached 100 degrees!

My friend, Carla, and I have been in New Braunfels, TX all week plein air painting with Ron Rencher (shown here). He was working on one of his fabulous demos for the class. This has been a very enlightening and inspiring workshop! Ron is a wonderful teacher! He is very knowledgeable and he knows how to explain things where even a dummy like me can understand. He also knows how to encourage his students and give kind constructive comments. I have learned so much this week! There were 11 women in the workshop and they were all delightful! We went out everyday to a different location to paint. This little town has so many interesting places to paint, I was really surprised. Painting outside everyday is not an easy task. We froze to death Monday, it warmed up Tuesday, Wednesday was hot, the temperature reached 100 degrees on Thursday, and today (Friday) it was shady and cool! Carla and I were totally exhausted every night but we persevered and I know it will pay off! This is our last night in New Braunsfels. It takes about 9 hours to drive home so we will be on the road all day tomorrow so we can get home before Easter Sunday.

Plein Air Workshop

I'm psyched about my upcoming oil painting workshop in Texas next week! Carla and I are leaving tomorrow morning at 6am for New Braunfels, TX to take a 5-day class with Ron Rencher http://data.fineartstudioonline.com/dataviewer.asp?keyvalue=911. The weather forcast for next week looks great so painting outdoors shouldn't be a problem. I'm ready for a vacation and I'm eager to learn more about painting so this will be a great trip. I'll try to post some photos of my trip next week.