Intoxicated by Plein Air

Largely employed by the sunny weather, I have nearly abandoned my studio life.... and the electric eye. Alas, I take a moment to check in with you and the world beyond my measure. I love the warmer weather and its lure of adventure and color.  My journey is swift and so is this update.  Be well my friend, as I have not forgotten you.  

~Brenda

"An Alternate Route" 12x16" Pastel  Los Gatos Plein Air ©Brenda Boylan

"Brunch at Zeppo's" 12x16" Pastel  ©Brenda Boylan

Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts "Sponsor's Award"  

"Purple Penumbra" 16x20" Oil ©Brenda Boylan

Willamette Valley Lavender Festival Plein Air event, Honorable Mention

Mixing it up! Built Up, Casting Shadows, francesca's, and The Creamery

Built Up, 12x12" Pastel

Still have an immense amount of work to do in the studio that has nothing to do with painting, but everything to do with upcoming shows and competitions, so there is no recent work to share.  In the meantime, here are a couple of pastels I worked on a few months ago that have been entered into two separate shows. I'm hoping they both get in, but having been a judge and been judged, ya never know what they will pick from day to day. Anyway, I still like them and find a lot of joy pushing the colors or working on unusually rough surfaces like the one below.

"Casting Shadows" 9x12" Pastel on reclaimed Wallis paper

This piece was painted on a used piece (reclaimed) of Wallis sanded paper. I will take a painting that just didn't turn out and will wash away the pastel pigment that retains a subtle ghosting on the paper. Sometimes a reclaimed piece of Wallis will offer a most unusual effect. Here the sky has a darker underpainting. It worked out great because the sky was ever changing with threatening clouds moving in fast.

"francesca's" 14x11" Oil on canvas panel

Back in mid-May, I plein air painted for one weekend for the Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts "Chronicle Show". The Arts Counsel of Lake Oswego planned a plein air event to chronicle the city and had asked 30 artists to paint the parks and urban spaces. The "paint out" was a two-weekend event with selected locations. I decided on downtown Lake Oswego and here is what I painted. "franchesa's" (above) took two sessions to complete as it was pretty complicated.  The one below, "The Creamery" took nearly 4 hours to complete, that's including time with visitors and chit chat with fellow artist Jennifer Deihl at my side.

"The Creamery"  12x16" Oil on cavas panel

The LOFA Chronicle show information is posted in my "events" in the right column.

Following the paint out weekend, I flew down to Carmel to paint along with 50 other artists in the Carmel Arts Festival, so I didn't get to paint both weekends for the Chronicle. :(  Not a bad deal though, because Carmel is such a beautiful area to paint! More to come later.....

When the tide changes, Best of Show news

"West on Canyon" 20x16", Pastel

While I was painting out in a horse pasture trying to resolve a failing piece, (well, I was more like struggling and in a "painting funk") during the start of the LGPA, my dear husband called to tell me that my piece "West on Canyon" won Best of Show at the Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts Chronicle Exhibit. Woah! He also shared with me that the city purchased it and will now be part of the city's permanent collection. Wow! What a pick me up!  I welled up with relief and nearly sobbed with Joe as I was having a real reckless start to this painting competition. Being that I was down in California, Joe graciously accepted the award on my behalf at last Friday night's award ceremony. To bring humor to the call I asked Joe if he would wear a blonde wig so he could stand in for me, but my reserved husband refused. Well, if this big news didn't lift my spirits, then what would? From that point on my painting miraculously switched to more confident work and it was much easier to concentrate in this competition setting...and because of the switch in my work, it also became quite evident to me that the emotions of an artist are conveyed into art and cannot be separated.  So thankful for the good news, but why do we have such roller coaster ways?  Ugh!