Painted Out

The Winter Park Paint Out benefit for the Polasek Museum is looking like a great success. A big crowd showed up last night to see the art, have a glass of wine and sample the gourmet tapas at stations spread around the gardens. Some patrons shared the evening at the tables near the lake and some just strolled through the grounds taking in the beauty of the sculptures and blooming flower beds. Approximately 50 paintings had been sold through the week with some collectors buying the work off the painters' easels or waiting at the museum to see what was coming in.

There are two weeks left for the art to hang in the museum for sale. So if you are interested, make sure to check out the museum website artists page or stop by the Polasek Museum.

What's new: An Inviting Place, oil on canvas, 12x12

Night at the Museum

Tuesday is officially day two of the Winter Park Paint Out. I started out at the Polasek about 8am and got a couple of paintings underway on the grounds. The weather was "picture perfect" (sorry) so I couldnt come up with a reason to leave until after lunch time. Then I had to get back to the studio and give time to a large painting I started last week. I went back to the Polasek and got in an hour or so of painting as the sun went down, we all ate pizza and I then kayaked with Matthew Cornell through the canal to Lakes Virginia and Mizell. The moon was coming up and we listened to the peacocks along Genius Drive calling from the woods. A few of the die hards stayed late on the museum grounds and worked with lights to get a nocturn painting. Not a bad day at work. Tomorrow night is a painting session on the lake at Houston's Restaurant on 17-92 in Winter Park. And it should be a great show next Saturday.

First New Piece for the Paint Out

Monday morning was gloomy and damp after a huge storm that lasted most of the night. Sunday night the artists got together with the Paint Out committee and the museum patrons for a socializer and it was capped by a number drawing for display spaces on the museum walls. It's time to get busy since the event starts in earnest today.

I headed back to Park Ave hoping for a little sun and just as I left the museum grounds, the sky lifted and blue appeared. I spent the next couple of hours on the second of two Park Avenue paintings. At around the same time of day I had previously worked on the other painting, I moved across the street and continued on that one.

Today things were a little more lively on the avenue and the light a little brighter for painting. I got the first piece finished. It now hangs drying on my reserved wall at the Polasek.

I might pick a little simpler composition next time.

What's new: Park at New England, oil on canvas 20" x 16"

The Ghost of Sam Peckinpah

I awoke this morning and got out of bed way too early for the amount of sleep I got. I made it to the Polasek Museum without coffee though I knew that was begging trouble. While I and a few of the museum staff and volunteers waited for the coffee to brew on the breezeway, someone asked me where I was going to paint. I thought the old Colony Theater might make a good subject. The Colony sits on Park Avenue in the center of town. At one time it was where Winter Park went to the movies.

Debbie Komanski said, "I worked in that theater when I was 15. I ushered and I also sat in the little booth at the front and sold tickets. When it was hot, it was hotter in the booth. When the weather turned cold, it was cold in there too. And I listened to the soundtrack to Straw Dogs so many times it still gives me the creeps. When there weren't ticket sales going on, my manager would make sure I was doing my homework instead of wasting time."

That conversation made it even more inviting to paint the street and the old Colony marquis. No one sits in that booth anymore. These days the Colony cleverly disquises itself as a Pottery Barn, and I doubt the staff does any homework when things are quiet.

But still, I love that kind of background when I paint something. A story, an experience... it makes the paint come alive somehow. A good painting is built on experience or a recollection or emotion. It gives it purpose and usually just makes it a better painting.

Let the Games Begin

Day One of Winter Park Paint Out. I checked in at the Polasek Museum our headquarters for the week. We artists are being asked by Winter Park Magazine to keep notes in a journal detailing our experiences. While I normally use my blog for that, this week I will handwrite some notes too.

After check in, it's off to find the perfect spot. I think this is like finding your own fishing hole where you know the big ones lurk. Of course who really knows. I drive by a couple of spots that look great. By the time I circle the block these spots look as ordinary as dirt. I drive over to the Rollins campus thinking of painting Knowles Chapel but I'll just let parking guide the serendipity. What was I thinking. I've never found a parking spot on this campus in 25 years if the school was in session, so this Saturday morning in April is just another 5 mph convoluted drive-by.

Downtown Park Ave is bustling. Crowds from an event in the park are breaking up and I notice a previously thought of target for painting - the big clock at Park and New England. The parking gods smile and the sun breaks from behind a cloud. Looks like it is meant to be.

I'm not sure if I will be pestered to death by passers-by but I am supposed to talk up the show and what better place. Wow, I picked a complicated scene though. A three point perspective throwdown, though after a few minutes I forget about everything except what I'm looking at. And it seems I'm invisible to everyone around. That's good and bad- right now mostly good.

It always seems kids are the best at talking to the artist. One little one briefs me on her art resume and further lets me know she will be staying up late tonight to paint the sunset at home. Heads up, mom and dad.

I'll post the finished piece later. It needs another hour or so of work in similar light.

Spring Training

Yesterday I gathered my courage and loaded my paints and easel and into the van. This is the painter's version of, "the hardest thing about running is lacing up your shoes". I drove over to the Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Gardens in Winter Park for spring training of sorts. Next Saturday the Winter Park Paint Out begins and I will be painting plein air in the event for a week.

The controlled light and climate of the studio are hard to leave. But for someone like me who spends five days a week painting trees, it helps to occasionally get out and look at some. I bust out all my shades of green for this event. Nearly everything is in bloom and standing under the canopy of trees around here makes it seem like there is a giant green scrim filtering the light. I got a nice little painting, I thought, and today I was feeling cocky enough to get out again. This time a street scene. I'll post them when I clean them up.

An Hour in the Park

Friday afternoon I got outdoors to practice my plein air skills. I decided to return to Kraft Azalea Garden, a city park on Lake Maitland in the Winter Park chain of lakes. I was looking around the park for an inspiring view when a city employee struck up a conversation. He pointed out the Cottonmouth Moccasin on the dock.

There is a structure called the Exedra Monument popular for wedding photography and ceremonies. It's a good subject to practice my perspective skills while painting the flora and fauna. It was also a suitable distance from the snake.

Plein Air Paint Out Coming Soon

It's soon time to switch gears. Next on the schedule is the Winter Park Paint Out April 24 - May 1 at the Albin Polasek Museum and Sculpture Gardens in Winter Park FL. I need to get out and hone my plein air skills for next month.

Meanwhile this is a painting I completed last week in the studio, and was shown in the Winter Park Sidewalk Art Festival. It measures 24" x 24", oil on canvas. Title: Early Moon.