Final Friday 4/24 and Cincinnati Nature Center's Back to Nature fundraiser Sat 4/25

 Yes, tomorrow night is again Final Friday at the Pendleton Art Center in downtown Cincinnati, where hundreds of residents artists throw a party and open our working studios on the last Friday night of every month to welcome guests and show/sell our work. Just up the street from Horseshoe Casino, we offer valet parking for $5 at the front door of our 100+ year old eight story building, which was originally the Krohn-Fechheimer Shoe Factory (US Shoe) and later Shillito's warehouse.

Let the elevator operator take you up to the top floor, where you can see examples of pieces done by various artists in the building, including paintings, photography, glass, ceramics, and jewelry. If something catches your eye, note which floor the artist's studio is on as you work your way down the stairs, stopping in to visit and chat with artists and enjoy the refreshments we provide.

I share space with a ceramicist and a glassmaker and we are on the fifth floor right across from the elevator (#507), so please come and say hello! See my work on the web here or at www.cincinnatihomeportrait.com. 

Outside, enjoy acoustic music by the Goodle Boys and wood-fired pizza from the food truck. We're open until 10 pm tomorrow night. I won't be there Saturday April 25, but the Pendleton is always open the day after Final Friday for Art in Action from 11-3: a much more "hands-on" experience where you can take workshops from artists who teach and create things yourselves. People love it! And it's free. Find out more at www.pendletonartcenter.com.

The two paintings in this post will be for sale at the Cincinnati Nature Center's annual Back to Nature fundraising gala on Saturday night April 25. Find out more at www.cincynature.org.

The painting of the house in this post is of Carl and Mary Krippendorf's home on their 175-acre wooded estate, now the Cincinnati Nature Center. Now known as Krippendorf Lodge, this is where the gala will be held. Just after World War I, Carl and Mary held "Daffodil Days," inviting the public to see blooms on the property to raise funds for war-devastated France. I always remember this when   I see all the beautiful spring flowers at the Nature Center, which I have supported with donated artwork ever since hiking there regularly trained me to walk through the Grand Canyon, which I did a few years ago.

Yes, the second painting is of Bright Angel Creek at the bottom of the Canyon near Phantom Ranch. It took us seven days and six nights to backpack from the North Rim to the South, camping along the way. Next time, I'll take the mules, but the trip was a bucket list experience that's provided a lifetime of inspiration for paintings and for life itself. I still don't know how I made it other than just putting one step in front of the other and taking my time. When I hike at the Cincinnati Nature Center, I still take the three kinds of breaks we took in the Canyon: 1) air break (just stop and breathe for a few minutes), 2) sit (with backpack on, drink water, maybe eat a Clif or Luna bar), and 3) take off pack and really rest (Oh, that feels so good!)

Two of my other paintings for sale at Back to Nature are Azalea and Twilight Garden. The one of Krippendorf Lodge is not the original painting, but a limited edition print I hand-colored with pencils and matted under glass in an 11 x 14" frame.

The original was an experiment in painting using some of the techniques I learned from illustrator C. F. Payne. I started with a graphite pencil drawing of the home on heavy cold press illustration board coated with gesso. Then I put a light wash of oil paint over the drawing and lifted out all the highlighted areas with a kneaded eraser, so I had a value study of the composition. Since you can't put watercolors, acrylics and colored pencil over oils without sealing the surface, Chris showed us a special spray fixative once used by people who hand-colored black and white photographs and that's what I used. (It's so toxic, it's not even manufactured anymore, so I have to find an alternative if I want to keep using this technique).

Once the oil surface was fixed, I painted over the top of it with watercolors, acrylics and india ink, using colored pencils for the details and then varnished the work. So when I call this a mixed media painting, you see what I mean -- it incorporates almost every kind of painting and drawing media.

A giclee (airbrush) print is another media popularly used by artists today. I don't make prints the same size as my original paintings but when I made this smaller one, I wanted to draw over it some more with colored pencils. I was delighted with the outcome, which is different from the original but better for the 11 x 14" frame size. And collectors love prints because the price is right.

Yes, Apr 25 is Final Friday

 

Yes, it IS Final Friday at the Pendleton Art Center this weekend, April 25 from 6-10 pm with $5 valet parking at the front door. Spring is here, so if the weather's nice there will be music and food truck(s) outside as well as refreshments provided by the 200 or so resident artists.

Come see us on the fifth floor, right across from the elevators (#507). One of the fun things about seeing artists' actual studio space is seeing work in progress. This is a home portrait I just finished but you'll see a couple things I'm working on in the studio Friday night. At in the 510 Gallery, we're all exhibiting "sketches and studies" we've done for finished works. I know what mine look like but I'm interested to see the ones from other resident artists and learn more about their processes and techniques.

This week is also your last chance to see the work painted outdoors (en plein air) by the Southwest Ohio Plein Air painters (SWOPA). Thursday -- late afternoon and early evening -- we'll be painting in downtown Sharonville, right near where this show of our work is displayed at the Westheimer Gallery.

I was excited to have my painting of Smale Park (downtown Cincinnati on the river near The Banks) in the right front window (white frame), so you can see it when you walk by, even if the gallery isn't open. I believe it IS open this afternoon 3-7p, Wed afternoon 1-5p, and Thurs 3-7p but you can check www.sharonvillefinearts.org to make sure, and for directions.

The night of the opening, April 4, we enjoyed live theatre right next door with a performance of The Curious Savage. This Friday or Saturday night, you can see "Love Changes," written by a local playwright and performed by 8 local actors.

Brushes like an old pair of blue jeans

Getting close to finishing this home portrait, which has taken me longer than expected. It's funny how things surprise me sometimes when they shouldn't. Like many of my fellow artists, I get awfully attached to my ways (and tools) when painting. For example, if I don't use the antique stackable cups that were my Grandma McLean's, I feel like something's "off."

As I struggled to complete this painting, I tried to figure out why? What was it? I was excited about the subject and enthused to paint it. I had plenty of other reference photos that showed more detail and I took them myself, so I could enlarge them on my iPad. Finally I realized the brushes I was using were just shot! But I was loathe to change them. Why? Familiar brushes are like blue jeans, best when they're broken in a little bit and fit comfortably.

When I got 7 new brushes and started using them on this painting, I realized what bad shape my old ones were in. But the new ones took some time to "break in." I think I'm getting close enough to finished now to show this to the people who commissioned it. I put it in the frame so they can see how it will look but in such a way that I can easily take it out and keep working on it if there are things we want to change.

This was the pencil sketch I did before painting. I almost always sketch a home from the right side, the left side, and head-on. In this case, we decided to view the house from the left but not as far to the side as in this sketch. Looking outside today, the daffodils and hyacinths are blooming but the trees are still awfully bare. That's great for me when I photograph a house because I can see it better without a lot of foliage in the way. But not so pleasing in a painting.

How nice it doesn't have to look just like the photograph! Working on this today makes me excited for the coming spring.