Willoughby Gap from Burke Mountain framed print by Donna Walsh. fineartamerica.com/featured/willo… #artistdonnawalsh #willoughbygap #vermontlandscape #supportlivingartists
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Tags: artistdonnawalsh, landscape, mountains, vermont
Last year when I was in Vermont, Plein Air NEK, the group I started in 2014 to find plein air painters up here, worked with the Orleans County Conservation District (OCCD) to put together an exhibit on Conserved Farms titled “Farming: The Art of Stewardship“. I arranged with the help of the OCCD to paint with my group at four different farms that practice conservation on the farms. What a great opportunity and lots of fun.
The exhibit had the opening at the East Side restaurant in Newport, VT, and later traveled to North County High School and finally, just recently, to Greater Barton Arts Center in Barton, VT.
This week there was an opening of the exhibit hosted at Great Barton Arts. A selection of the paintings completed for the exhibit are on display as well as lots of educational information about the farms and the conservation practices. The reception was well attended and PA-NEK is honored to be the first exhibit that GBA is hosting. Unfortunately, it is displayed sandwiched between a old recycled exhibit from 1983 of photography about one room school houses. While more could have been presented in the opening remarks about the conservation on Vermont farms and the art of plein air painting, the reception was more of an excuse to promote GBA and their hopes and dreams.
This summer PA-NEK is working again with the Conservation District as well as Old Stone House, Lavender Essentials and Wonder Arts so stay tuned for some amazing plein air art coming.
Tags: Artist Donna Walsh, Conserved Farms, NEK, Plein Air Painting, vermont
After joining the Bryan Gallery in Jeffersonville I decided to take a plein air workshop by Eric Tobin offered through the Bryan Gallery. It was a lot of fun, met some great artists and I learned some things. Here are some pics from the workshop and the paintings I did during it.
I had a great summer painting in Vermont. The people I paint with got together about 1x per week to paint. We again worked with the Orleans County Natural Resources team to paint at Conserved Farms. There will be an exhibit of the work at the Eastside Restaurant during November and December after which the exhibit will travel to the new home of Greater Barton Arts.
We also painted all around Newport in preparation for the MAC Exhibit “Newport!” which opened Sept. 14th, 2018 and goes until Oct. 28th, 2018.
As part of MAC involvement in the community I have several paintings at North County Hospital in Newport VT. One even sold this Fall. Yeah!!
Finally I have a collection of paintings at NEK Physical Therapy
Tags: Conserved Farms, exhibits, plein air, vermont
I was contacted by the Vermont Council on Rural Development who wants to use one of my paintings on their brochure for the Newport Community Visit program. Margaret, the office and communications officer of Vermont Council on Rural Development, stated that my painting stood out as a beautiful representation of a part of Newport.
Newport Flyer
I was honored was pleased to offer the use of my image for flyer they are creating even though they were offering modest compensation for the rights to use the image. They are a neutral non-profit organization dedicated to the support of the locally-defined progress of Vermont’s rural communities. They are bringing our Community Visit process to Newport over the next 3 months.
The painting is one I did of Newport from Brownington lookout. The original is a 20 x 16 watercolor which is available.
Newport from Brownington Lookout
Tags: artist, Newport, vermont, Vermont Council on Rural Development, watercolor
The summer has been good for plein air painting here in Vermont. I organized a group of painters this summer to create plein air paintings for an exhibit held at the MAC Center for the Arts that was done in collaboration with Memphremagog Watershed Association and the Orleans County Natural Resources Conservation District (OCNRCD). The final exhibit not only had lovely plein air paintings but also lots of educational material from OCNRCD about the conservation practices such as grass waterways, riparian buffer planting, strip cropping and pasture rotation.
On the last day of the exhibit the artists gathered for afternoon tea and an Artist talk where we shared “The Joys and Challenges of Plein Air Painting”. There was a lot of enthusiasm for this and we had a proper tea party with china tea cups, cucumber sandwiches and scones with strawberry and cream.
Afternoon Tea all set for Artist Talk
Drinking tea an d talking art
Well, you know how I enjoy the fusion of science and art. In the process of preparing for this talk I found out that it was a few technological advances that gave a boost to plein air painting. First in was availability of paint that could easily be brought into the field. After setting up shop in 1766 William Reeves (UK) began selling the first water soluble dry cake watercolors. By 1780 a bit of honey was added to the formulation to make the paint pliable for manufacture in various ways. Honey is a natural humectant, attracting and retaining moisture.
Secondly and perhaps most importantly, John Goffe Rand (1801-1873) patented the first collapsible metal tube for artist’s oil paint on September 11, 1841. He had traded off his European patent for the tubes to appease creditors. At the time, the best paint storage was a pig’s bladder sealed with string; an artist would prick the bladder with a tack to get at the paint. But there was no way to completely plug the hole afterward. And bladders didn’t travel well, frequently bursting open. I must say that would be enough to keep me from plein air painting. Now the impressionists could abandon the studio and its confining academic painting techniques. This gave a big boost to plein air painting and certainly one of the reasons the Impressionists are credited with championing plein air painting. Pierre-Auguste Renoir said, “Without colors in tubes, there would be no Cézanne, no Monet, no Pissarro, and no Impressionism.”
Finally, it was during the mid-19th century that the box easel, typically known as the French box easel or field easel, was invented. It is uncertain who developed it, but these highly portable easels with telescopic legs and built-in paint box and palette made it easier to go into the forest and up the hillsides. In present time, there are many variations of this portable easel.
Contemporary Plein Air painters live in a great time. To say plein air painting is ‘catching on’ is an understatement. This, I believe, is the golden age of plein air painting. In a world of forgeries, cheap knock off from China and ‘anything is art’, plein air paintings have a unique authenticity and freshness. I am now energized for the season of plein air with the Plein Air Palm Beach group of artists.
