In the above photo, I am on the Lake Michigan Beach in Frankfort, Michigan with my plein air setup for oil painting.  The photo was taken by fellow student Julianne Temple Kerns when we were attending a workshop put on by the Oliver Art Center called the Landscape in High Key with Columbus, Ohio artist Joe Lombardo.

As you can see, my plein air setup for oil painting is more compact than the one I use for pastel because I went to Italy in 2014 to take a workshop with Joe Lombardo.  I took all my supplies to Italy in a large backpack which I carried on the airplane.  The oil paints were purchased in Italy out of concerns that the TSA might remove them from my checked luggage. 

In the photo I have a small travel tripod with a ballhead and a small quick-release clamp.  To this I attach a 6 inch by 8 inch Guerrilla painter box, purchased from Judson’s Art Outfitters.  The lid of the Guerrilla painter box holds a 6x8 inch painting panel.  For ease of clean-up I use water-soluble oil paints by Windsor and Newton.

A folding Shadebuddy umbrella is very handy for keeping me from overheating in the summer sun and keeping glare off of the painting surface.  Other supplies include a sketchbook and pencils, water bottle, insect repellent, sunscreen and a hat.  And all this stuff is carted around in a rolling cart from a home improvement store. 

The hyperlinks to the products mentioned were put in to assist you in finding out about these items.  I do not receive any compensation from the manufacturers.  Happy painting!

In the above photo you can view my setup for doing pastel paintings outdoors in what is known as the plein air style.  In this photo I was on the Lake Michigan beach in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore for a pastel workshop with artist Richard McKinley.

In the center of the photo is a black Induro alloy camera tripod with a ballhead and a quick-release clamp.  Below the center pole of the tripod you can see hanging an orange bag which I fill with rocks or sand to keep the tripod steady.  On the quick release clamp of the ballhead, I attach a Heilman Designs Metal easel to hold my backing board of Gatorfoam.  I use white artist tape to attach my pastel paper to the backing board.

A Heilman backpack pastel box keeps all my pastels safe and sound and is supported by an Easel butler which is an armature that attaches to my metal tripod and provides 2 arms that I can rest my pastel box on.  A folding Shadebuddy umbrella is very handy for keeping me from overheating in the summer sun.  Other supplies include a sketchbook and pencils, water bottle, a set of watercolor paints to use for underpainting, insect repellent, sunscreen and a hat.  And all this stuff is carted around in a rolling cart from a home improvement store.  The picnic table (optional) was kindly provided by the National Park Service. 

The hyperlinks to the products mentioned were put in to assist you in finding out about these items.  I do not receive any compensation from the manufacturers. 

I have a similar but different setup for my oil paintings which I will blog about later.  Happy Painting!

I recently joined an online artist group called Artist Strong run by Carrie Brummer.  She produced a video to learn a method inspired by Austin Kleon’s book Steal Like an Artist for finding artist inspiration to fuel your creativity.  The video is called “Mapping your Artist Family Tree.  A strategy for developing and refining your artistic voice.”

She had us choose 10 artists who inspire us, whoever they may be. Next we picked one of these artists and researched who inspired them.  And then we researched who inspired the inspirer, and so forth.   I found that Hopper had 7 main artist who inspired him.  Then I looked at the artist who inspired them, and their inspirers and I came up with the following mindmap of inspiration  Think of the mindmap as a genealogy of ideas. 

I was amazed to see the connections between these artists.  We often think of artists creating in isolation, not realizing the influences that contribute to their work.  The mindmap shows how creative work builds on what came before.  It was fascinating to discover, explore and connect the influences. 

For my next artwork series I plan to explore portraiture and figurative painting as inspired by Edward Hopper and his teacher, William Merritt Chase.  When I was in high school I liked to draw portraits and in college I would sketch my fellow students during slow spots in lectures.  I would like to get back to portraiture and am taking a workshop at the beginning of April called “The Painterly Portrait” from Alain Picard.  Wish me luck on my new adventure! 

My next blog will be about Austin Kleon and his influence on me.