Sauk County Summer Art Classes

During the spring semester I taught two classes for continuing education at UW Baraboo, a drawing/watercolor class and an oil painting class. The classes went great, and several students asked if I would offer something during the summer.

This summer I am offering three different art classes, Drawing Fundamentals, Studio Oil Painting, and Plein Air Oil Painting. I am very excited about all of the classes, but especially the outdoor class. We will set up at locations like Devils Lake and Owen Park. If you would like to receive a brochure with a detailed description for each class, please email me: blksquirl85@yahoo.com
Registration is going on now, and I would like to cap each class at ten students.

Still Life

This boquet has been staring me down. Last week I spent several sessions working on a larger still life of these flowers. After battling that for awhile, I just had to set it in my studio window and attack it alla prima. I painted this right on top of a failed landscape from early this winter. There is a surface quality to this piece that I can only describe as different due to the thick impastos from the earlier painting being covered by a new layer. 16x20" oil on canvas.

11x14" oil on linen.

Fall Art Tour

I am very excited to be a part of the fall art tour for 2011. I will be hosting the event on our family farm on Schneider Road. Being a part of the tour has been a long term goal of mine as it is a very well respected and attended event. The thing that I like most about the tour is the professionalism of everyone involved as well being welcomed into a community of the area's best artists.

This year's brochure looks great, and the website will be up soon

Being a part of the tour has also lead my work to be represented by the Cornerstone Gallery which is the Baraboo headquarters for the tour. I have a collection of paintings down there now and am getting ready to stock more there as well as the Blue Heron in Reedsburg.

More about the tour, from last years website:

The third full weekend each October, some of Wisconsin's best-known artisans open their studios, allowing visitors a unique, behind-the-scenes view into how their work is created. Known as the Fall Art Tour, each year it draws visitors from all over the country to artists' studios tucked away in the scenic hills in and around Wisconsin's art communities of Baraboo, Spring Green, Dodgeville, and Mineral Point. During the three-day tour, artists will be in their studios, demonstrating and selling their work.

Many of these studios are open only for this event, providing a unique opportunity to meet the artists and purchase their work. So join us on a drive through the autumn countryside during this once-a-year event that includes a rare glimpse into the restored breweries, one-room schoolhouses, and historic storefronts where some of Wisconsin's best-known artists work.

Finally, a painting.

Fish Pond Valley, March. 18x24" oil on canvas.

Late Winter

Spring is finally here... well it is pretty close! The daffodils are up in my front lawn and there are even some buds on the trees. I cannot wait to get out there to paint the flowering trees that should be in bloom in a couple of weeks. This winter, I was painting in the studio quite a bit, and it was my first year doing so. When I look at these landscape pieces, which were painted outdoors, I see more deliberate attention to edges which must have happened because of the studio sessions. Another thing I have been working towards is designing the paintings by stating the major masses and not changing the tone too much when working into each area. While it is a fundamental idea, one I have been turned onto it for some time, it always takes a whole lot of painting to actually work it into the pieces. For me at least. I enjoy the luxary of being able to look at the subject for an extended period of time in the studio, but when it comes down to it, my first love will always be grasping the essentials and working alla prima. I guess painting in Wisconsin is perfect, half of the year is great outdoors and the studio is inviting for the colder months. It wouldn't be any fun if we had it all figured out! Hazy Farm. 16x20" oil on canvas.

The Grainery. 11x14" oil on linen

The Yellow House, not Vincent's. 8x10" oil on canvas.

On the "DL". 11x14" oil on linen.

House shadows. 8x10" oil on canvas.

Please leave a comment, and I have some big news coming in a post later this week.