Friday, September 20, 2013

Painting for a cause...The Kansas City Fountains

     Area Kansas City artists stepped up to the plate to support a cause for which they have a personal interest, our beautiful Kansas City Fountains.  In June, the Save the Fountains organization launched a "Save the Fountains" campaign, as many of our fountains are in need of repair.  They set up trolley tours for the public to view many of our fountains and learn of their needs.  Local artists were invited to paint the fountains on the day of the tours.  Earlier paintings were displayed at the site of the trolley tours at Union Staion where $2000 of paintings were sold.  Artists agreed to donate 50% of their sales to the Fountain cause.
Tent gallery set up at Union Station

     Artists were invited to continue painting the local fountains all summer.  At the end of August, they were asked to submit their "best" fountain painting to an online auction.  The paintings on the auction were displayed at the Mid-America Arts Alliance on Baltimore for bidders to see them in person.  There were 49 paintings submitted, and from September 2-16, 38 paintings received bids!  $4000 was raised for the fountains!  What a huges success!


"Fountain Paintings" on dispaly at the MAAA.


     I was privileged to serve as an art advisor with Joanie Shields and her "Save the Fountains" committee.  We worked to get the word out to local art groups and organizations.  We also worked with Stacey McBride of O'Neill Advertising,  to set-up of the art auction (similar to an E-Bay type auction).  This was the first auction of this type in the KC area.  Several paintings received 2 or more bids, so competetion helped raise the price of the paintings.   Artists submitted a minimum bid for starting the bids and settled on half of the final bid as their payment.  I was thrilled to have my entry selected for an article in the KC Star in promoting the auction. I painted the Meyer Circle Fountain on Ward Parkway.  My painting received 3 bids and ended up selling at $479.00!  


"Dancing Waters"  10x20 oil
Painted "Plein air" (on site) at Meyer Circle

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Painting aboard the Celebrity Millenium

Hanging Cloud at Icy Strait

   This was the scene aboard the Millenium on the day we anchored in the harbor near Icy Strait in Hoonah, Alaska.  The tender boats were busy taking guests back and forth the the island.  It was a little misty that day and after teaching my class in the morning, Gary and I decided to spend the day in the Solarium.
       The clouds we hanging around the tops of the surrounding hills and created interesting subjects to paint.  I decided to paint the hanging cloud above the canning factory on shore.  The red buildings were a nice contrast to the green hills. The hanging cloud was a challenge to suggest the soft edges surrounding the hills behind.

         
        John and Lis Chamberlain, who were
traveling with us, spent the day on the island on a
rain forest walking tour with a local historian.
After spending an interesting day at Icy Strait, they decided my painting of Icy Strait would make a great keepsake of their trip to Alaska.
                                                                                 
                                                                                   

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Watercolor classes aboard the Celebrity Millenium to Alaska

     Gary and I just returned from a wonderful adventure in Alaska.  I was accepted by a third party company to participate in the Celebrity Life program while cruising the inside passage from Vancouver to Seward on the Celebrity Millenium.  My classes were scheduled on "at sea" days and one day when guests were tendered ashore to excursions at Icy Strait Point.
     The company supplied a watercolor kit for each attendee that included a pallette, 3 brushes, 6 tubes of paint, and several 9x12 sheets of watercolor paper.  After my proposal for the 3 claasees was accepted, I was responcible for any additional supplies.  We did a whales tale and a penguin so I supplied black watercolor which was not part of the kit.  I also brought templates for drawing and graphite paper which sped up the drawing process and guaranteed a successful result.  Classes were set up in lounges or in the disco and I always had a table to demonstrate on.  Several guests attended all 3 sessions and we always had 20+ guests for each class.   Several parent and children groups attended as this as this was something families could do together.  When I wasn't teaching, Gary and I were regular passengers on the cruise.  We enjoyed visiting all the ports on the cruise.  I will be evaluated for my sessions and it is my hope that we will be able to do this again.  Here are some pics from the classes.










Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Thank you for your understanding

       I set this blog up in 2010, just before we left on our tip to Lake Como and our tour of Germany , Austria and Switzerland.  I thought it would be a fun way to share our travels with our friends and family back in the states.
        Since then, Judie Stang's World has been a great way to journal my adventures of travel and painting.  I have appreciated all the replies I have received from followers along the way.
That is why it was so disheartening to have my followers receive the horrible post, written by another blogger with a similar name.  It is difficult to navigate around the "Blog world" but after this horrible post was sent a third time, I went to a chat room on Google Blogs and posted my problem to the blogisphere.  I have been chatting with a blogger from Finland who seems to know what the problem is and has helped me fix it.   If it happens again, I am going to have to delete my blog, but hopefully it is fixed.  Thank you for your help.  I hope you will continue to follow my posts and reply when the mood strikes you.

Monday, July 1, 2013

Springtime in Door County



One of the great things about painting a landmark like the Range Light in Baileys Harbor instead of taking a photo is obvious.  When we were in Door County in May, the Range light was being renovated.  It was moved off its original foundation because it was so close to the road that snow plows had a difficult time working around it.  The scafolding was still in place on the sunny day that I decided to go out and paint, so I just left the scafolding out of my painting!





We celebrated Mother's Day while in Door County, by having dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Donny's Glidden Lodge.  The setting at Whitefish Bay is one of my favorites.  I love the beach that stretches to the north of the Lodge.  I enjoyed it so much, I decided to go back the next week and paint the beach.  It was a cool day, but the sun was bright and it wasn't too windy, even by the water. I was so shocked that the leaves hadn't started to bloom in Door County and this was May 15th, but I enjoy painting birch trees without lots of leaves, so it was "mission accomplished"  Both of my spring plein air paintings are part of my "Quiet Side Exhibit" currently showing at the Cornerstone Pub in Baileys Harbor.





Thursday, March 7, 2013

Island hopping in the Caribbean

Painting by the pool
      Gary and I decided to "treat" ourselves to a cruise last month.  We found a 10 day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean embarking from Ft. Lauderdale.  It had two "at sea" days before and after visiting 5 islands, none of which we had been to.  We also liked the fact that each island we visited had a dock so we didn't need to be tendered into any of our ports.

      I decided to take my assorted watercolor blocks, pens, and my traveling watercolor pallette instead of trying to handle wet oils in our close quarters.  I haven't used watercolors very much recently as I have been doing a lot of "plein air " painting so I had to get use to my watercolors again.  I forgot how much I enjoy the fluid effects of watercolors and the "drizzly" effects of pen and ink.  It was a great medium for the Caribbean waterscapes.   At each island, I took digital photos of things that appealed to me and then I downloaded them onto my laptop and painted from the photos on the pool deck.  I did 8 paintings, 2 8x10's and 6 6x8's.  Lots of people stopped at the table to see what I was doing, so it was "almost" like plein air painting.  I sold 2 paintings that provided a "one-of-a- kind" gift for some fellow cruisers.

Antigua Shopping Mall  6x8

St Croix Bay 6x8
Some of my favorite observations were the beautiful color change in the bays, from a transparent aqua in the shallow areas, to a beautiful deep blue in the distance.  I loved the colorful buildings in the shopping areas and all the "buzz" of the busy shoppers.  I also came to the conclusion that palm trees are very challenging to interpret.  There is a fine line between not enough and too much info.  Here is my gallery of island observations. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed painting them.

Tortolla Bay  8x10

Bobbing boats at Tortolla  6x8

Old French Fort at Martinique  6x8

Beach Umbrellas at St Maarten  8x10

Shopping Tents at the Clock Tower, St. Croix  6x8

All the island watercolors will be posted on my website with prices and availability.