The Results Are In

The opening for the Mount Dora Paint Out gallery show was a few days ago. A huge crowd gathered to view the work accomplished that week. I was impressed with the turnout. Many times an opening is attended by mostly the artists and family members, but this brought in locals and visitors from all walks of life.
 Each participating artist could hang up to three paintings and most did. There was a lot of great work. I'm happy to report that I didn't go home empty handed. My painting "Lake Dora Boat Slip" was awarded one of two honorable mentions.

"Lake Dora Boat Slip" - 8"x 10" - oil - $280

Thank you judges!

I put together a "Got a Minute" progress video for my painting of "The Cannonball Caboose". By the way, it came out at exactly one minute! Don't you just love when the trains run on time? Happy viewing and please leave a comment.

Climbing Mount Dora

Did I say 'climbing'?! No, that's just silly. There are no mountains in Florida. Although the land does gently undulate in Lake County  where the charming little town of Mount Dora is located. What I meant to say was 'painting' Mount Dora.

For the past week I've had the pleasure of participating in the Mount Dora Paint Out. Driving back and forth was exhausting, but the time I had painting more than made up for it.




Day 1. I decided to paint Donnelly Street which is the main street in town. You can see from the photo that is was a beautiful day. Here is my finished painting.

"Donnelly Street" - 8"x 10" - oil - $280

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Day 2. Unfortunately it poured rain all day. The good news is that I snagged a spot in the parking garage where I had a great view of the train. So I was able to stay mostly dry. I don't know why everyone didn't do that.

The Cannonball Caboose - 11"x 14" - oil - $462

I'll do a separate post for my 'Got a minute' progress video of the Cannonball Caboose.

Day 3. The sun came back for another gorgeous day and I set up my easel by Lake Dora. The cypress trees make the water appear tea colored.

"Lake Dora Boat Slip' - 8"x 10" - oil - $280

Here is a shot of the hawk that kept an eye on us painting all morning. 

                                         

Day 4. I returned to the lake but a different area. There were a couple of swan boats on the beach that I didn't paint. I did use them in the title though.

Lake Dora Swan Depot - 11"x 14" - oil - $462

 

Tomorrow is the show opening at the Mount Dora Center for the Arts. I can hardly wait to see the works that my fellow artists painted during the week.

I'm learning so much by painting on location. There is still sooooooooooo much to learn! 

Please leave a comment or question below.

The Casements

This week I decided to do a quickie. It was threatening rain and I just had a little bit of time so I pulled out a 5"x 7" wrapped canvas that I had applied super heavy gesso to weeks ago. There is a wonderful old house on the Halifax River in Ormond Beach that used to be the home of John Rockefeller. Many Ormond Beach events are held there and it is one of my favorite places to paint.

                                                                                                                            

My canvas was so small that I really needed to be choosy about what I included. So I zeroed in on the right side of the giant oak tree.

Those rays of sunshine are deceptive. It did end up raining on me briefly, but not enough to send me packing.

I didn't take enough in progress pictures to warrant a minute video but here are a couple of stills with the final product.

toned the canvas and blocked in the tree

more on the tree and foreground and added some awnings

                        

I stopped taking pictures because of the rain so we jump ahead here to the end

The Casements - oil - 5"x 7" - $87.50 - Leah Wiedemer

Thanks for joining me on my plein air adventures! Please leave a comment. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

A Day in Happy Valley

We made an impromptu trip to Pennsylvania this week to visit some family. This is my brother and sister in law's beautiful back yard.

 We nearly missed the fall colors but did manage to catch the tail end just before they all blow away.
It was warm enough but overcast which was a bit disappointing.

The video is very short this week, so check it out and let me know what you think.

Here is the finished painting which I gave as a thank you gift to my in law's for their incredible generosity and hospitality. I'm missing my photo editing software here. These colors look very washed out compared to the original, but you get the idea.

Leave a comment and tell me what you love about fall. Is it the colors? The temperature? Pumpkins?

Rockefeller's River View

This week the weatherman was calling for rain so I decided to stick close to home for my plein air day. It still hasn't rained by the way. Anyway... here I am at The Casements. It's a lovely estate which was purchased by John Rockefeller in the 1900's, and is located on the Halifax River here in Ormond Beach.

 I found a good spot under cover just in case it did decide to rain. I edited this scene quite a bit by moving some trees and taking out other trees as well as the picnic tables.  I thought the dock would make the painting too cluttered so I removed it as well. I'll paint it another time. So 'simplify' was the word of the day.

Take a look at my brief video to see my progress. It takes just a little over a minute.

Here is the finished painting. Typically I will continue to make minor adjustments over a couple of days. That is likely to occur this time as well.

Rockefeller's River View - oil - 8"x 10" - $280 (framed)

I'd love to read any comments you might have! 

Please comment below.

A Day at the Beach

Who doesn't love to go to the beach? The crashing waves, warm sunshine, salt air... It's great. I love to go and put my toes in the water, watch the shore birds, pick up shells and breath deeply of the fresh salt air.  It gives me a feeling of well being and contentment that I can get in few other places.

Painting the beach is a whole other ball game. Some artists manage to paint beautiful beach scenes with warm clouds and waves that feel wet. They make me feel the sunshine and smell the air. I've never been one of them. As a composition the beach seems a bit boring to me. So when I arrived at New Smyrna beach I decided to try to come up with a composition that would interest me and hopefully others.

I concentrated on the sea oats blowing in the breeze. This is the view I chose. As you can see it was a beautiful day.

Take a look at my (less than) one minute video of my plein air experience painting the beach.

Finished. -------------- I think. :)

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think. I'm always interested in learning from you.

St. Augustine Inspiration

 I decided to drive up to St. Augustine to do some painting. It's one of my favorite places and the weather was absolutely perfect.

Check out that BLUE sky. Isn't it gorgeous? I've always loved the look of this old church with the greenish dome. I heard a tour operator tell his trolley full of tourists that it was built by Henry Flagler. No big surprise as he seems to have built most of St. Augustine.

I was able to set up in the shade which is always a bonus. And I scored a parking spot where I could keep an eye on things to avoid getting a parking ticket. So far, so good.

My canvas here was 12"x 24". I've never worked this large in plein air before, so this was a challenge. I'll save you the suspense.  I didn't finish. Well, not on location anyway. I ran out of parking meter change after three hours of painting. So I decided to pack up and finish it in my studio.

My 'Got A Minute' video is actually more like a minute and a half this week. Close enough don't you think? Check it out and let me know what you think.  Thanks!

Blue Dome - oil - 12"x 24"
Leah Wiedemer