Plein Air Northwest

This summer Marsha Savage and I made a trip to the Pacific Northwest. Visiting my sister, brother, and another artist friend, Denise Champion, we packed two states into a two week adventure. Although a lot of time was spent site-seeing and driving, we both managed to get in some painting along the way. Here's a few of the ones that I managed to get at my brother's place in the Williamette Valley.







That morning Jim invited us out, and little did we know that, upon arriving, we would be given buckets for picking plums! Once the plums were gathered, we took the produce to a wonderful open air farmer's market. The beauty of the fields blooming with sunflowers and fresh produce ready for gathering was awe inspiring! Hopefully on future trips, I'll plan a day to paint there too!

My Goodness!

Another six months has passed and here I am again blogging! Keeping up with my blog is much like keeping up with all the passwords that one accumulates on the web! Since my last post, much has happened....I moved home after three years in the Tannery Row Artist Colony. My studio now takes up "all" of my double garage! However, the move has some advantages...no more driving an hour to work! sleeping later in the mornings...haha! Like that ever happens! and being able to keep my granddaughter, Sophie, on occasion. She, however, is not much help in the studio, but she does some really mean scribbles with her crayons! And of course, I can paint in my pj's! Drop by any day to visit!!

The highlight of this month was a workshop with Ann Templeton, internationally known pastellist and oil painter. She has two books out that I recommend to every artist who wants to break out of the realist approach to painting and learn more about how to abstract the landscape. And if you can take one of her workshops, even better! Every day began with a lecture (more like a conversation time) and a demonstration. She showed how working from a photo is only a stepping off point to creating a painting. Her technique focused on keeping the darker values transparent and working as long as possible with the darks before going to more opaque lights. When I told her that I had a problem with knowing when to go more opaque, she said, "then keep working the darks until you have nothing left to do but add the lights". I'm trying to remember that!

I have a new website which focuses on paintings only. http://carlyhardy.com
and if you want to email me, it's carly@carlyhardy.com. Let me know if you visit.

Until next time (I'll get some of my workshop paintings scanned for you) keep your brushes wet and pastels dry!

Hotlanta Summer!

Yep, you guessed it. The weather is steamy and hot this summer in Atlanta and I'm missing painting outdoors!! The past couple of days have seen cooler temps (in the low 90's) but I'm still dreaming of those cool fall nights that won't appear again until some time in October! But enough about the weather!

Our summer show, "SunnySide UP!", is now up and running at the Tannery. If you'd like to view some of the newest art by the Tannery artists and our guests from Southern Colours Art Association, drop by, Tuesday thru Saturday, noon to 5 pm. We're located at 554 West Main Street in Historic Buford, Georgia.

My painting in this show is called "Decisions". It's rather abstract but if you look closely, you'll find figures turned in several directions, appearing to revolve around a broken urn...perhaps searching for the answer to a life question. Ever find yourself in that type of situation or mood? As an artist, my life questions are often answered thru my paintings, sometimes without my realizing it. Let me know if you have ever experienced this!

The painting below won 4th place in the Historic Buford Plein Air Festival held April 24/25th this spring. The scene caught my eye from several streets over and it took me almost thirty minutes to find how to get behind the trailer so I could paint it! It's not easy to follow winding streets up and down hills when you can't see where you're going and just try putting "trailer with clothes on line" in your gps!!

Birthdays

I'm sure the title of today's blog tells the story. Today is my birthday! which is one of those days that I usually just quietly live thru since it falls in a wintry month of the year. Cold temperatures and gray days blended with less sunlight tend to make me a bit depressed. So each year during this time, I forgo the birthday party for a quieter evening. However, today was an exception. Upon leaving the studio, I mentioned to a fellow artist if she knew of a place to get a good bowl of soup (that sounded like a nice quiet thing to do) and she said maybe....and that she was free for dinner if I wanted company. I thought how nice that would be to share my quiet dinner with her, so I told her that it was my birthday but that she was not to tell anyone else. Well then we decided to ask another artist friend if she would also like to join us...and the party was on!

Over a great meal the three of us laughed, they sang the happy birthday song, and told the waitress it was my birthday, who brought out a very large piece of cheesecake topped with whipped cream and drizzled with chocolate sauce, which we all shared.

I've decided that from this day forward my birthday will be spent with a couple of friends, sharing conversation and great cheesecake, and laughing my way past another year. Sure beats the heck out of a quiet bowl of soup for one!

Birthdays are not really about getting older, you know. They are about taking stock of your life and deciding how you want to spend the next year.....looking back or moving forward toward new adventures. I think my friends would tell me to "move on"!

Thanks "ladies" for a great birthday gift!
carly

I'm ZAZZLE-ING!

Notice the addition of the logo to the left...I'm beginning to offer small prints of several of my larger oil paintings on Zazzle.com! Check it out and let me know what you think even if you have no intention of making a purchase. I'd love to have your feedback.

On the art scene, I'll be returning to Contentment Bluff this weekend for more outdoor painting and great crab stew! There is a tiny seafood shoppe on the way to the Bluff that I can't resist stopping at on Friday's because that's the day they cook up the bar-b-que ribs. Yummy! and...

if you're in Darien, drop by the Old Jailhouse Gallery to see new paintings of the coastal region. Every visit, I seem to discover new subjects that tug at my heart. The quaint old church buildings around the park square did just that on my last trip, so if you're in the vacinity, watch for my new art "truck". I'll be painting from the tailgate!

Beware The Ides of April!

Hello everyone! April is not only the month for "showers" but for all those living in the US of A, it's "time to file tax claims". Mine have been mailed...thus, I have the time and energy to post to my blog today! I'm ahead of schedule this year since usually I mail the returns promptly on the day of the 15th. Instead of Beware the Ides of March...I think we should all quote "Beware the Ides of April!" And along with millions of other Americans, I'll be paying more in taxes this year. At least I'm in good company!

On the painting scene, I've been working in the studio on a rather large oil - 3 x 4 feet in size. Here's a photo of the painting. It's not signed yet but I feel it's completed...unless it whispers to me in the night and let's me know that something is still amiss. Paintings often do that - you know.



In my last blog post, I shared one of the irises that I had worked on during the winter months. Well, my series is short one painting this month. The white iris sold!! Here's an image of that one...now I'll just have to paint another, but that will have to wait until a dreary rainy day because our weather is shouting for me to get outside and paint!!

Our next show at the Tannery is coming up in June! Check back for all the details....and

"have a great painting day everyone!"
carly

Spring is Here!

Well, at least I hope that today's weather was an indication that spring is officially here. A friend and I walked three and a half miles in our local park where families were outside playing frisbee, walking dogs and children, tossing baseballs around, and picnicking on quilts or cooking over the grills. Was a warm 70 degrees with a beautiful clear blue sky...made both of us think about how great it felt to be outside again "exercising"!

Here's a painting that I've been working on during the cold winter months. It's the last of three iris paintings. All three are oils, 30 x 30, on canvas. If you don't have sunny weather yet, maybe this will warm you up instead!!