Plein Air Painting by bike

 My husband and I were visiting Hood River several years ago and we stopped off in The Dalles, a town nearby.  As we wandered the downtown area we saw a shop that was an unusual hybrid of an art store and a resale shop.

As we poked around I stumbled across a Gurrilla Pochade box for $20 and everything was 25% off, making it $15.  I had long admired the clever design and quality of the Gurrilla boxes, but was unwilling to pay the hefty $300 asking price.  I couldn’t pass it up and was quickly the proud owner of this beauty.

Fast forward a few years, and while I’d used the box on a table on numerous ocassions I felt I really needed the tripod to give me more flexibility with my location.  I tried a thrift store tripod that was very unstable with the heavy box, and when the tripod finally broke completely I was relived to throw it in the garbage.  My husband wanted to buy me a genuine Gurrilla tripod, but the the cost of $260 was again more than I wanted to spend.  I told him that I would reach out to the members of PAPI my local Plein Air painters group to see if anyone had one.  Again, fate was on my side when a member, Salt, reached out and said she had two and would be willing to sell me one for less than half price.  Her husband delivered the tripod, explained its features, and made sure it fit my box.  They even included a nice padded case.

The last hurdle I faced was how was I going to carry this contraption on my bike, which I often ride to go paint.  We tried the box on the rear rack, but it didn’t feel safe.  I tried several of my husband's old climbing packs, but none of them held it properly.  We were out in Meridian and decided to stop by Sierra Trading Post, an outdoor discount store where we found a pack that fit it perfectly for $15 on clearance.  I strapped the rack and a stool to the rear rack with ski straps, put my new pack on my back, and rode comfortably to Hyde Park today for an afternoon of painting.

I guess the moral of the story is patience.  I could have ordered the whole lot years ago and been done with it, but I enjoy the hunt, and have a theme of reusing materials in my art, which includes my art supplies.  With a bit of patience, I was able to cobble together the whole setup for a fraction of what it would have cost new, and I had the satisfaction of knowing that I was sticking to my goal of reuse and recycle, even when it takes a few years.

Arizona Painting

 

I like to say we are mud season visitors and not Winter Visitors to Arizona as we generally go down Nov. - Dec and then come back north to ski and fat bike when the real snowbirds head south. We camp in our small RV which is a Jayco Hummingbird, and mountain bike and hike and I try to paint everyday. Here are a few of my paintings done at camp. Some are oil and some are acrylic. 

The Evolution of an Abstract Painting

This all started because I have some friends that are married to each other that have different tastes in art. We sat down one day and she told me what things they have in common in their art preferences and who were some artists that they liked their work.  I took it upon myself to try to create the perfect piece that they would both like based on her description. This was not a commission just a challenge to myself. 

Then I didn't think much else about it until I was cleaning out my storeroom and came upon this print on hardboard that I no longer had room for. I measured it and found it was the exact size that IF they purchased a piece of art it would be this size. 

So as my whole premise of making art is to use up things destined for the landfill and turn them into new treasures. I thought this would be the perfect substrate. 

First I gessoed the whole board. Then added pages from an old engineering textbook to give it some interest and depth. Added some bright colors over that. 

Then took gesso and some muted colors and knocked back the intensity. 

Started adding some more interest with joss papers and stenciled dots. 

More layers with white fluffy cloud like shapes. Some liquid acrylics that I let drip. 

Added back in some brighter colors. 

This is a very different kind of painting than I am used to painting. It's always hard to know when you are finished but with an abstract I think it's even harder to know. After many layers. I just sat with it like this for a week or two and was satisfied so I called it done and painted a layer of matte medium over it. I named it Heaven and Earth as that is what it reminds me of. I have entered this in a fundraiser for The Women's and Children's Alliance. The theme was Metamorphosis and I thought this fit perfectly. My friend that inspired this experiment has no idea I even painted this. Can't wait to see what they think. But my ego is not hanging on that as I know I like it and it gave me a new piece for the fundraiser. 

The Long Horn State

 This is the 3rd project on my series using baby wipe container lids. My usual Modus operandi is to use items I already have in my possession or to purchase used but I could not find anything to fit this lid. So I purchases a new 5" x 5" canvas.

 I took the label off the lid and covered the back of the canvas with modeling paste. 

When the modeling paste was dry, I covered both the lid and the canvas with acrylic paint. 

Then I pulled out my miniature collections. Having lived most of my life in Texas I used a Texas theme.

 I inserted (using e600 glue) the blue Texas shaped magnet with a red rose that I had bought while visiting Tyler Texas and the Rose festival years ago and on top of that I glued a miniature cow skull and an illustration of a saddle from a business card. I also painted the black lava texture gel over everything.

 I then started adding details with "dot" paints and attached the hanger with Apoxie Clay.

Inside the lid I attached some letters and distressed them with acrylic. 

The finished piece without the lid.

The finished piece with the lid.