Time to Hunt for the Gold (Wheat Fields)

That's Tim up above working on today's art piece. Lincoln Square closed! We will miss our $3.99 speicals and the food was good too. It's Tracks End and the grease-meister. I can comb my hair in the reflection of myself in the eggs. Ohhhhhhh :(     NOT HAPPY! Well today was like most of the others and it was semi-clear skies blue and white puffy clouds. Breakfast on board, we took off to hunt for ripe wheat fields with the golden sheen sparklin' across the valley with green surrounding it from corn and soybean fields. That gold is special. But...this year there isn't any gold. The rains have caused the wheat to have a reddish tinge with a black head like a mold. I looks more like soybeans ripening than wheat.

We spend an hour and a half sizing up the landscape and picking where we will work. Tim says it's too hot to sit out in the sun. I just listen and keep adding paint to the surface of my canvas. I'm trying to think and paint at the same time. I have in my head an image of another artist I admire. Still the artist I am comes out regardless of who I have in my mind to emulate. Tim, however, has the good sense to just create. He adds color over color and enjoys the day and the art process. The result is who we are as artists. That's what it is. Not what it wants to be.See you next time when philandtimpaintoutdoors.

Larry comes with us to paintoutdoors.

The sun is trying to rise, as well as myself. Today, Larry is coming to paint with Phil and Tim outdoors. Larry is a Professor of Art at Taylor University with tenure. His lovely wife Dana has blessed us with his presence to paint together. Thank you Dana. We'll take real good care of your man. We fed Larry and now we are headed away from a big storm that is driving us slowly towards Wabash, a really beautiful little town. The rain is behind us still and the clouds are dark gray in the northwest. Tim is driving and he is letting Larry choose where we will paint today.

Our first stop in Wabash is in Charley Creek Park a lightly wooded park with hills and of course Charley Creek running through the park. We set up under a park shelter because after breakfast and driving around, the rain, thunder and lightning have caught up with us. We start painting, drawing, and pasteling under the open shelter moving slowly in towards the center as the rain starts to blow in from the four open sides. The trouble is the poor lighting from the overcast sky and the dark shadow cast from the roof overhead make selecting color difficult. I am using my paint as wet as possible with the rain assisting. Drawing in basic large key shapes and adding wet buttery layers of color side by side in the key shape areas. I go back and redefine edges and add more similar color trying to keep the paint surface interesting.

It is so dark by now I am unaware that I have raised my color key upwards to compensate for the lack of natural light. Tim is having similar problems with just seeing his pastels. Larry being rusty from not being able to do his own art work due to his last semster course schedule is muttering. However it is happy artist muttering. He is struggling through his first graphite and charcoal drawing. I don't think he is excited about the subject he has chosen but he pushes on. All the while thunder cracks overhead and lightning is striking nearby.

We are dedicated to paintingoutdoors painters. After about two hours I have completed two small acryloc 8"x10"s on canvas of the area near the old asylum. Tim has completed two on of the flag and monument tribute toWabash war veterans and a second view of the park. Larry is not cussing under his breath but is using a ancient Irish dialect having to do with his lack of bringing the right materials...he is winging it. After we finish up the rain has finally past over us and the sun comes out. We walk around town and stop to start our third painting a record in the last few months. Larry crosses the track and sets up. He is sitting on his art carry-all pail working on a small graphite and charcoal sketch of a few small shotgun style houses. Tim has focused on the RR tracks. Only minutes later a large freight train roars past not too many feet from his chair. He's used to it being a RRer for 25 years.

I am taking a further back view from the tracks in the shade of a brick church on the corner. The sun is hot so the shade gives me a chance to keep my paints wet a little longer. Again after and hour I pack up my stuff and Tim is spraying his third pastel. I walk over to round up Larry and he is doing a "sweet" little graphite drawing with the main focus on one house and the sides are vignetted with simple gray marks. Nice piece Larry! I have them pose for pictures and shoot a few frames of each of our works. Dana calls and its time to send Larry packing home. He's a family man in a big way. I have trouble from time to time recalling their names, Ariel, Ben, Maggie, Olive, Isabel, Dove, _______,  _________,and the new baby soon to arrive. Sorry kids the ones Ive forgotten. I'm old.

 

Tim suggests we stop for and ice cream before we return this 'knight back to his castle.' Chocolate Almond for me and Hot fudge sundaes for Tim and Larry.  We sit and get to telling stories and are slowly starting to cry and double up from the laughter. Earlier we had stopped at an old book storre run by a 'straight man comedian' from Vaudeville. He had all the lines ready and never missed a beat.

It took him 15 minutes to run Tim's plastic card to pay for some books I bought. He was into his routine and we were a captive audience. Back home again we sent Larry off to Dana. Tim and I sit on the apron of the garage and finish a couple of Michelob darks and said a litany for retired guys...
"Oh,Timothy take a nap for us," 
"Oh Philip, pack up the car."
" Oh Larry, floor it to get home"
"All of you keep your boards taped"
"For next week's outing."
And now here's the rest of the art...

and two of the three handsome guys. I took the picture.

Slideshow of Charlie Spear's Gallery works

http://charlie-spear.fineartamerica.com/ 

121 Works of Art
PRINTS AVAILABLE!

Back in the Saddle Again Plien Air (that is)

     Hello everyone, whose following us. I wondered when I looked over my shoulder yesterday that someone was looking in on us. We are back on the trail 'art-wise' that is. My time to drive and pick Tim up. By the time I show up it's only 8:30 A.M. Tim's just finishing his coffee and we're both hungry. It's the Tracks End again my choice. By the way, don't ask for dry bacon and dry toast. This pisses the short order cooks off. We got our breakfast and let me tell you I won't need an oil chage for another 5000 miles. It's pretty bad when you can comb your hair in the reflection in your eggs-over-easy. Tim looked at me and said, "Don't ask for dry bacon again, ok?" That'll be a handfull of Fish Oil gelcaps when I get home to short circut the 'grill prep.' It's the grease or the mercury that will end up getting me.

     Okay enough of this. We head for Lanning's pond. This is a guy who has built a pond and added trees and all kinds of other 'cute' things like an old ore wagon filled with tailings tipping on its side almost into the pond filled from a silver mine in the middle of " Indiana." The water is blue from copper sulphate and there isn't a weed near the water. What caught my attention from this 'touristy wonder' is a place to park the car and the glint off the water this clear bright blue and dry morning after 5" of rain in the last three days. "How about here?", I ask Tim

"Sure." So we stop and set up. Tim starts up.

I can't find a place not in the sun and it's getting hot." He moves around several times and I'm getting the feeling he didn't want to stop here. But, I drove so it's drivers choice. HA! He finally settles down facing away from the pond. Well, that's pretty clear! He says the pond looks like a Disney attraction. Yeah, it does but the water reflection is really attractive. I miss the ocean, not the Gulf, though.
Idiots!
     Its about an hour later. Tim's saying," You win some you lose some."  That means he's not happy with his work today. " I needed to have a focal point." I think we were just rusty from the long time between painting sessions. I'm teaching now and have two days gone from my week so we can't meet as often. However, the wheat is getting ready to harvest and that's our favorite time. The gold wheat, green trees, red farm outbuildings and and blue sky and silo colors available make for great paintings. Well, after all this talk here's what we ended up with. Mine is below. I know you are going to ask,  "Where's the water reflections?"

and  Tim's

Hey, it's the chance to get out and paint and renew a friendhsip worth more than all the art in the Louvre.
Stop by again,we are out next Monday if the river doesn't rise.

Home again in Indiana, Santa Fe only a memory now

I went around the back of our home listening to the sound of chainsaws and falling limbs. Tim came around the corner with a phone in his hand. "I've been out here 4 minutes."  I looked at the car in the drive, a white Hyundai. "Where's your car? Oh yeah, someone backed into it."

We had to rush a little today as I had an afternoon class I am teaching in Art History. Let's get going", after throwing my bag of paints waterbucket and brushes. I figured the quickest place to eat was the Tracks End. "Eggs over easy, sausage patties, and dry toast and yes, Decaf." Tim ordered the Brakeman as well eggs scrambled!

"...let's try something nearby, like in town. After driving a few minutes with several, "Nahs." We decided to paint in an alley behind the Manechoir and the Depot in the distance along the RIVERWALK. Tim faced directly opposite in the shade of the trunk. The day was growing hot and the paint sticking and drying on my palette. Tim was clicking away as usual chaging colors like machine gun bullets. I finished with drybrush techniques as this is all that was left as the bulb climbed to 81 and dry. He finished at exactly the same time I was washing my brushes with the smell of aromatic fixative filling my nostrils.

 I took a few pictures of the final results and we threw our stuff into the car and heade back to Mexico. Gotta run man. Let's shoot for Monday 8 AM Tim returned-9AM,  "8:30" Done!,8:30. My turn to buy.  "Hey you want to come with me and teach this 101 class?"





" Nope. I'm heading home to check out the sofa."
"Oh, I miss those afternoon naps."

Art Town: Santa Fe New Mexico Here we come.

Here we go again. It's Memorial Day and the town has just started hopping. The shops are closed but the light is gorgeous and lustrous with deep hard shadows. This lends to the dramatic Santa Fe is known for by the general populace. But it is not a cheap novel drama but more of a woven tapestry of the old and new West. A live and let live attitude pervades. Willie Nelson's 'Halleluia' was playing in a parked SUV; it just seemed fitting for today.‏
"Thank you men and women of the United States Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard and Reserves for serving our country. We remember your sacrifices and service."

Dallas/ Ft. Worth airport terminal mosaic public art below:

Hi, here I am again sitting in the Albuquerque airport. We took a shuttle back from SantaFe. What a beautiful four and a half days. Perfect weather, a brain blistering intake of Southwestern art. Great food at the Ore House and Atomic Grill to name a few eateries worth checking out if you're in town. The plaza was our favorite sitting place watching the locals and 'touristas' rambling about. I stopped in the gallery Santa Fe Fine Art Brokerage to see Marian Padilla the owner. I have known Marian for several years as I have three large watercolors on display.

Now we are in the air at 30,000 ft. headed for Dallas/Ft.Worth. The one thing I felt was accomplished this vacation trip is that I filled my cup up for the rest of the year, creative-wise. I took over 1000 photographs in preparation for several different series in oil and acrylic. One series is called 'Curb Abstractions.' I also met my friend Charlie Andrijanoff a Santa Fean artist who bartends at the Inn on the Almeda. Charlie's work can be found on the Santa Fe Artists website. It will take a few days to get back in the groove before Tim and I paint outdoors again. I also am losing one day a week to my college class which I am teaching this semester. I figure by now I should have a fresh outlook on my plein air landscapes. Hey,Tim it's good to be back.

The Road Runner, "Bleep-Bleep"

We made it into Santa Fe today riding the Road Runner "Bleep-Bleep" rail line that runs between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Nice ride and scenic. I took no less than 100 photographs running at 45 mph average. This is great and inexpensive. $14 for the two if us compared to a shuttle van at $60. Steak and G/Ts for dinner. Our room isnt ready so we walked around Santa Fe. Oh my, what a beautiful community town, an Art town! Iknew it but each time we come here it's a shock. There's just too much to look at. Tomorrow after breakfast it's Canyon Road.

Later,
Phil and Tim Paint Outdoors Soon

In the Air The Plane Air That Is

Tim and Phil aren't painting today . Phil is in the air. Literally in the air in a plane that's what you call plane-air. I don't have my paints handy and the stewardess told me to buckle up. Tim is probably home taking a nap. This is an 'art trip vacation'. One thing I and my wife plan on doing is seeing a lot of art here in Santa Fe. We just got into Dallas / Fort Worth a few minutes ago. Then it's off to Albuquerque and over nite in Old Town. I've been here but a long time ago and I'm sure it's changed. Old town Albuquerque was famous for it's Indian Arts and Mexican silver work. I don't know if we'll have time to catch any art galleries but we'll try. These cowboys were standing in a store as part of the local color here in Dallas airport. I'm gnawing on a pretzel while we wait for our next leg of the flight. The first leg we got a complimentary soft drink or coffee. Things sure have changed. We used to get s small meal years ago. I still wished I'd packed some acrylics but with the new air laws they'd probably list them as contraband. The flight out so far has been fairly smooth. Plan on getting into Albuquerque about 5:30. Hope to see some art in Old Town.These aerial views have wetted my appetite for some semi-abstract landscapes. I'm seeing a pan shot from the ground to a 180 degrees into the clouds. I'd have to use some curved perspectives to allow the eyes to adjust. The viewer might get air sickness if I painted it like I am seeing it through the planes fuselage 'vasisdas' windows.

Later,
 Phil and Tim Paint Outdoors