Paintings from Plein Air Events

Port Washington, WI

"Easy Street Pub"  Cedarburg, WI

This past month I participated in four plein air events and had so much fun despite the bad weather.  I think after painting through the winter a little storm & lightening doesn't bother me anymore.

Portrait and Plein Air Studies

Chicago winters tend to be quite gray so the few days I've ventured outside to paint the landscapes have been sunny days. I am really struggling with understanding edges. These are 14"x11" plein air oil studies.
I am still enjoying escaping the cold for the Palette and Chisel where there is always a model to paint. I'm showing two 20"x16" which are more successful than others.

2012 Events

Plein Air Workshop: Effective Outdoor Painting in Oils
(16x20 oil by Karen Phipps)
Location: Taos, New Mexico
Dates: April 26, 27, 28, 29, 2012
Cost: $335.
For Advanced Beginners through Intermediate Oil Painters.

Join award winning artists and popular instructors, Karen Phipps and Susan Hong-Sammons, in this four-day plein air painting workshop. We will be painting in the beautiful setting of Taos. You will learn practical tips for setting up on location, working quickly and directly from nature, all with oil paints. We will cover equipment options to keep your gear simple and pared down, using a limited palette, focusing on big shapes, clean color, compositions, finding a focus and simple value patterns in order to capture the essence of the scene. The goal in this workshop is to learn how to take the scene before us, translate it into a simple and expressive composition, and then paint it quickly, directly, and confidently. After the 3 days of guided painting exercises and daily critiques, we will spend the 4th day painting more independently at a location with the group, followed by an afternoon critique and closing “wrap-up” session.
Compact supply list, syllabus, as well as recommended housing/B&Bs near to painting locations.



The Landscape of Riverside: Works Inspired by Nature
Oil Painters Karen Phipps, Susan Hong-Sammons, Ellie McDonald, photographer Sophia Soluri, and poems by Rachel Noelle will present new works inspired by the local landscape and nature of Riverside at the Riverside Public Library during the months of December and January. The show can be seen in the library's exhibit hall.
















Oil Painting with Expressive Realism
January 25 - March 7, 2012 9:30-1:30
Hinsdale Center for the Arts www.hinsdalearts.org

See the world with an artistic eye. Susan’s approach helps you to break down the process of producing a painting, in the studio, into its core components: design, main masses, mixing accurate color, value, and apply paint effectively all from direct observation. Individual and group critiques generously given daily.
Class supply list available at registration

just a thought to share

"Fall Walk" oil 8"x6" (sold)
Ran out in the afternoon to try to catch the sunshine because who knows how many sunny days we have left!

If it's not happening on my palette, it's definitely not happening on my painting. What I mean is that my palette has to be load with large blobs of paint squished out and lined-up in my prefer order. And then I need to mix up big puddles of my starting values and arrange it on my palette so that my lights stay on one side and darks stay on their side. Also, if my palette becomes disorganized or looks barely touched, nothing good is happening on the canvas. It's as if my palette is an inner-reflection of the paint process. So of course after struggling with a studio piece for days and having to scrape it away repeatedly, I happened to actually see what was going on my palette and saw that absolutely nothing was going on. I needed to squeeze out a lot more fresh paint as I barely had anything left and the puddles of value I had mixed were nearly non-existent. After correctly this problem my painting started to take shape and the idea in my head was becoming visually evident.

2 Values

As always, my primary concern is value and temperature. So last week I spent my time in Scottsdale, under the tutelage of Peggi Kroll Roberts, studying the figure, well actually - value and temperature. We had 5-15 minutes per pose to lay in the basic shapes and say it in two values. One value for the lights and one value for the shadows. I spent the bulk of my time mixing a puddle of paint for my light value and another puddle for my dark value. With the clock running out, I quickly painted the pose. Towards the end of the week I managed to add temperature changes while being careful not to alter my established two values. After the designated time there was often a costume change and always a pose change. Studying the figure in this manner for five days was a great learning experience and I feel I walked away better able to find and simplify the most important shapes, values, and temperature.

St. Louis Show

I'm in the middle of trying to pack my compact car with +30 paintings. I've come to the realization that I just can't take some of my favorites because they're TO BIG!!! I love to paint large and use a huge bakers spatula because I feel like I've physically stepped into the creating process. This series of 11"x14" will be the bulk of my newest for this St. Louis show and with luck I'll be able to tuck some 40"x30" along.

"Red & Green"

Does it take anyone else almost forever to set up a still life? So how many ways can one rearrange radishes? This little arrangement took me most of a morning to create and then I had to run out and buy more radishes because the leaves wilted. As you can see I'm having fun playing around with what is a different aesthetics for me; using a lot of white clothes and cropping.

This 8"x8" was painted in oils with a palette knife. $149.

"Brave Heart" 40"x30" oil

My daughter's passion is her love of horses and writing (visit her blog, www.aspiredauthor.blogspot.com). So this painting is for her. She loves this horse called Brave Heart. I think he's quite awful as he has thrown her quite fiercely a few time, once destroying her helmet. But she loves him so what's a mother to do, ...besides move her to a different riding school which yes, I confess I did.

"Hero's at Zero's" 14"x11" oil

Trying to capture a teenage in paint, from life, is like trying to paint a toddler. They are never still even while watching t.v. But just like sketching with charcoal I find it really rewarding to sketch in oils, although it's hit or miss if the sketch becomes worth saving. Here's another in my blop series.

December 5 from 2-7. If you're near Chicago, come to the Beverly Arts Center for a one day art sale/fundraiser. Karen Phipps and I will be their with paintings as well as painting plein air near or inside the center.

Transmitted Light 12"x12" oil on linen

Now that Thanksgiving is over and thanks to my sweet mother-in-law, I've an extra 5 lbs to shed due to her amazing six homemade pies,... it is time to get back into the studio. I'm painting for a three person show which opens 2010 so my postings will be limited until I can finish a few large-scale paintings. But here is what I originally set up as a fabric study but once again realized that it's really all about value. This piece was extra tricky for me as the light flowed through the fabric in many areas as well as picked up various subtle tones from the back and foreground. I used a palette knife for most of the time but grabbed a sable brush in the end to calm down some strokes in the shadow. I think I could have used several more hours to answer more questions but I decided to stop with this one and be happy with what I learned.