Wayne Plein Air

The show is over and the week in Wayne, PA painting in the Wayne Plein Air Festival was quite an experience!

Well organized and held in an area rich with subject matter, the only thing that didn't cooperate was the weather. We had rain off and on for all but two days and I discovered that I don't do my best work crammed into a car while the rain pours outside. You can't get any distance on your work!

The evening of the first day was an orientation of the area, with suggested properties to visit (owners had given permission to paint there). I spotted several roadside views, but parking like that is always a problem. Safety is a concern in that kind of situation.

The next two days were full of thunderstorms, but I still managed to create three paintings. Ridley State Park was where I settled after checking out a number of new areas.

Thursday was the only truly sunny day and I painted on the side of Darby Paoli Road, and spent most of the day at Androssan Farm. This is the last of the big estates in Radnor area and was used as the basis for the movie "Philadelphia Story" starring Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and Jimmy Stewart. We had special permission to roam around the estate which is normally closed to the public. It will soon be broken up and sold off (so sad!).

Friday was a wash out…literally… as it poured rain all day. Streets were flooded and I took that time to do more framing.

By Saturday I was exhausted! That morning we were to paint in town. My effort was a real stinker, so I didn't even bother to turn it in.

The opening truly WAS "gala" with champaign, wine, a feast of dishes, and lots of sales. Approximately 180 artists applied, 31 were chosen, and they produced over 250 works of art! The paintings will stay up through July at the Wayne Art Center in Wayne, PA.

Oh! And I got and Honorable Mention!

Along Darby-Paoli Road   9x12   pastel on sanded paper

Color Theory Fun 2

My last "three colors and white" experiment turned out so well I decided to try it again (coulda' been a fluke, right?). But, this time I decided to try a different blue, one that I used a few times long ago and then abandoned because the results were so horrific. Prussian Blue.

So I dug around in my old supplies and came up with the crumpled metal tube that was my Prussian Blue from so long ago. When I do experiments like this, it is one of the few times I am glad I am a pack rat.

Cad. Yellow.........Cad. Red.........Prussian Blue........White

Clouds in Prussian Blue    8"x8"

Prussian Blue has won me over! Why did I hate it before? It's strong and can get out of hand if you are not careful, but what dynamite skies and green fields it makes. By using only three primary colors and white it becomes a much easier to achieve color harmony. 

Sometimes less is more!

Color Theory Fun

I love color theory, and though most of what I have learned usually confirms something I had already stumbled across, I am always up to trying something new. Or in this case, something old and very basic.

The first thing you learn in color theory is that ALL colors are made up of the basic three: Red, Yellow, Blue. Bear in mind that we are talking about mixing pigment here, not light.

                                  So here is my quick study using only three colors and white.
                     Cadmium Red......Cadmium Yellow........Ultramarine Blue.......Titanium White

Pine Tree Study in Three Colors

And, by golly, it works! With those three colors I was able to get a full range of palette colors.

Now, I won't be tossing out all my other beloved colors, but it does mean that I can be more confident about lightening the load when I take to field and forest in search of a good spot for plein air painting! The fewer colors I carry the lighter my pack. More to come.