Selected Artist: The Fields Project!

Selection from one of my illustrated journals

I have just learned that I have been selected as a participating artist in "The Fields Project" June 19 - 27. Located in the scenic Rock River hill country near Oregon, Illinois, The Fields Project is a week-long event that "focuses public attention on art, agriculture and our natural resources while creating new relationships between artists, farmers, environmentalists and educators." I'll be staying with a farm family and painting all over the area. At the end of the project I'll be showing what I have done in a Fine Arts & Crafts Festival that brings participating and local artists and the community together for a day of celebration. For a city girl like me who has never spent time in a farming community, this promises to be a great experience. Cows, horses, tractors, corn, grass and wonderful, friendly Mid-westerners -- what fun!

Selection from one of my illustrated journals

Winter out West; Spring down South

"December Evening," acrylic gouache on panel, 18 x 24

One more painting of winter on the Colorado Great Plains before SPRING bursts out here in the Deep South, and I just have to paint it! This is from photos I took while we were in Colorado in December. I like the bold composition of this; it expresses some of the big, free, open feeling I get when I'm out there.

Meanwhile, spring is upon us here in the Deep South. We got a good taste of it last weekend when we spent a couple lazy days at the beach on Cape San Blas, Florida. Here's a quick sketch done on the dock at the Old Saltworks Cabins where we often stay:

This is a view of the bay; the ocean is behind me, across the road that runs the length of Cape San Blas. Here's a sketch from a few years ago:

It's an amazing beach -- startlingly white, clean sand and very few people any time of year! We like going in March when the sun is warm, the air chill, and it's comfortable to walk beach any time of day.

Upcoming journaling workshops!

Sample page from Marilynn's illustrated journal at Lake Superior

I was delighted to learn that my illustrated journaling workshops are filling up. My workshop at the John C. Campbell Folk School in North Carolina is full, with a waiting list, but there are still a few places available in the workshop at The Alabama Folk School. Here's the scoop:

April 5-8: THE ILLUSTRATED DISCOVERY JOURNAL

The Alabama Folk School at Camp McDowell, Nauvoo, AL, 205-387-1806

For the traveler, landscape painter, gardener--anyone who wants to record what they see and experience in a personal watercolor journal. You'll learn 6 skills: simplify your subjects, render them quickly in pencil, enhance your drawings with ink, add color with watercolor washes, design your sketchbook pages, and incorporate words into each page's design. We will work from real life and your photographs. Activities will include demonstrations, in-class exercises, and outdoor excursions circumstances permitting. Basic drawing skills are recommended for this class; however, even students who have very little drawing experience can create very charming journals.

I'm offering a weekend version of this workshop at the Spruill Center for the Arts in Atlanta May 8 & 9, and a 3-day at the Bascom Art Center in North Carolina June 10-12. Details are on my 2010 Workshop Schedule.

Inclusion in in "A Prairie Journal"

"Autumn in the Tallgrass," watercolor on panel, 12 x 16

I'm very pleased to report that several paintings from my new Plains & Prairies series, accompanied by a short essay, have been selected for inclusion in the winter issue of A Prairie Journal, an online journal "dedicated to providing a creative forum for writers and artists whose work reflects our relationship with the prairie and related landscapes -- the complex network of grasses and wildflowers, oak savannas, wetlands and the wildlife they shelter." My work is under "Artwork: Tallgrass Autumn." I included the artwork in an earlier post on this blog. The image above is one of three that was published in the journal.

December in Colorado

More paintings of the prairie......

Sunset on the grasslands, near Greeley. Ink and watercolor.

Big sky at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, north of Denver. Ink and watercolor.

Sunset near Pawnee Buttes National Grassland. Ink and watercolor.

My husband Al and I went back to Colorado the week after Thanksgiving to try out the area's wintery weather to be sure this is where we want to retire. We got winter a-plenty, with snow and temperatures in the 'teens, but the landscape was so beautiful we just bundled up like the locals and headed outdoors.

While we were in the Fort Collins area, we visited the headquarters of Judson's Art Outfitters, the company that specializes in supplies for plein aire artists -- that is, artists who paint outdoors, from nature. We got to meet owner Carl Judson, who gave us a tour of the store and the workshop where he designs the Guerilla Painter artist boxes. Here's the cozy store, full of goodies for outdoor painters:

And here's one of Carl's ingenious boxes. This is a Guerilla Thumbox -- Mine! And all ready for action. This is what I use on the road, when I've got to paint something a little more involved than a sketch. Mine's set up for watercolor.

This was a fruitful trip. I'll have more paintings to show shortly. Stay tuned.

SketchCrawl #25

My "minimalist" sketching kit

SketchCrawl, the international drawing marathon, took place today, and four of us participated. I decided to go "minimalist" and take the smallest set of supplies I thought I could get away with. Here it is: the smallest -- 3 1/2" x 5 1/2" -- of the Moleskine watercolor sketchbooks, a tiny toystore tin I filled with Winsor&Newton watercolors, a waterbrush, tissues, pen, pencil and eraser. What's so cool about this is I can tuck it all in the little pouch on the left and carry it wherever I go.

Our destination was the Atlanta Botanical Garden. Here's the entrance...an overly-detailed study, but I was killing time waiting for fellow artists to show up.

The Henry Moore sculptures were still in place at the Garden. Set into rocks and vegetation, they looked like aboriginal totems.

The Japanese Garden is a tranquil place, and I could have sketched there all morning.

Just before lunch I dashed off this last sketch of the big fountain near the cafe where we all would soon be meeting for lunch.

The Prairie Series continues...

"The Red Hill" - acrylic gouache on panel, 16 x 20

This is a hill of Big Bluestem, one of the tallest of the tallgrass prairie grasses. It can grow to 10 feet! In autumn it turns the most luscious wine-red. I came upon this hill after making the turn in the road shown in the painting below.