Ann's Bluebonnets

Ann's Bluebonnets__12 x 36  oil on linen__sold

 

 

I delivered this one to an old friend Friday night. Ann lives in Panama but was in town visiting family, so we had this date planned for months for her to pick up this painting...and the REAL bluebonnets are everywhere!...

The proportion made it difficult to photograph...

For the past few months I have been a spotty blogger. I hope you have enjoyed the break!

Frankly, these have been tough months, in many ways. The main thing is loss...the loss of my mom's health, mainly. I am really enjoying a lot of time with her these days, because I know I will not have her much longer....And also the loss of a few dear friends...different situations, but feeling their loss in deep ways.

If you live long enough these times happen, I know. So many of you have shared personal stories with me as we correspond.

So as Spring is here with NEW LIFE all around, PLEASE KNOW that I thank God for you...really!

Double Yucca

Double Yucca___6x8 oil study on linen___$250
I have been painting springtime in the Hill Country, going out with friends
into the fields and creek beds of Central Texas. I grew up on Walnut Creek,
which winds through East Austin. We LIVED there on those limestone banks, and
I have many stories of getting stabbed by these yucca plants, stepping on
mesquite thorns, and even sitting on prickly pear....I dreaded these sharp encounters
but I always thought these are the prettiest plants around!....Come paint with me
at a workshop this summer!

_____________________V....Vaughan Spring Schedule______________________

April 9-13, Southeastern Plein Air Festival, Gadsden, AL

Memorial Dy Weekend-May, Phippen Museum Western Art Show, Prescott, AZ

Summer Workshops in Texas, Colorado and more!

...see my schedule for more dates and events

Up a Creek

Up the Creek___6x8 oil study on linen___$250
Yesterday's post was looking down the creek before the fog lifted. This one is
"up the creek" just after the fog lifted.The fog cloud burned off quickly,
leaving blue skies for the rest of the day.
Blue skies are sort of boring, so I am glad I put these in FIRST.One thing I stress
when I teach is that a painter needs to FIRST paint the thing that will change the quickest.
It might be the color of a sunrise, or livestock moving by or fog, like this day. I teach painters
how to anticipate these changes....It delves into science at times, as I am
fascinated about "why"....I have some great workshops in great locations coming up!
Please sign up and come paint with me!!

_____________V....Vaughan Spring Schedule______________

April 9-13, Southeastern Plein Air Festival, Gadsden, AL

Memorial Dy Weekend-May, Phippen Museum Western Art Show, Prescott, AZ

Summer Workshops in Texas, Colorado and more!

...see my schedule for more dates and events

Blue as Fog

Blue as Fog___6x8 oil on linen__$190

Saturday we greeted the sunrise along a Hill Country creek near Marble Falls. I had hoped for sunrise color but this fog was a nice change. I had not painted "en plein fog" in awhile and it was fun this time, because we had some long views in a tight canyon.

If you take a workshop from me, be ready for some EARLY mornings. It is my favorite time to paint, because there are ALWAYS surprises!...our surprise this time was that Kay and Carol brought a tent to set up so that they could stay out of the sun and paint all day. While they set it up, I went traipsing around our perimeter, looking for things of interest. It is always good to do a "walk through"before painting. When I was a soccer coach, I always scoped out our field, from end to end and all the way around, noting things like where the sun was, and which way it was tracking....which way the wind was blowing, and if the field had any bumps or holes or even glass or rocks on it!....as a painter, I look for dangerous things like wasp nests, fire ant mounds and snakes...and if we have cell service or can get out quickly if "bad guys" show up. It all looked great till I noticed a sign on a tree right by our cars! "POSTED, no tresspassing"...Kay's tent was already staked in, so we got our stories synchronized and stayed put....ready to ask permission if someone busted us!....just to be safe, though, I left early! So, I hope they ended up OK! hahaha

_____________________V....Vaughan Spring Schedule______________________

April 9-13, Southeastern Plein Air Festival, Gadsden, AL

Memorial Dy Weekend-May, Phippen Museum Western Art Show, Prescott, AZ

...see my schedule for more dates and events

Spring Lace

Spring Lace___8x10 oil on linen for Passing America: The Great Plains $590 framed and delivered

I painted this drive-by painting, somewhere in Oklahoma or Kansas, last spring... THe day was bright, and with sunshine reflecting off of EVERYTHING, there were few contrasts, except for tree trunks and buzzards!

My area of Texas is still reeling a little bit from the huge fires nearby. Several of my good friends have suffered BIG losses. I am amazed at the outpouring of fundraisers and ACTION being taken by people from all over the place...ESPECIALLY here in Texas! There are folks already out there ON SITE doing clean-up and HELPING, and not waiting for the government to sweep in here with solutions that usually cause problems on top of problems...there is something really encouraging and admirable about watching COMMUNITY roll up their sleeves...the fires rage on, with MUCH FUEL available, as everything is so parched from lack of rain...We wish we could take some of that rain from the Northeast, which is suffering, too, in their own way....

BIG Gathering_ Crossing Kansas

BIG Gathering _ Crossing Kansas _24x30 oil on linen__for Passing America: The Great Plains
I am probably not finished with this one, yet...it is a large one for my plains exhibit in the fall. A few weeks ago, I posted the study for this one. It was called "Gathering for Kansas"...click link to see it and compare. The study was a "drive-by" painting, created on the move as we went past the little farm where these cows were crossing.

Lavender Layers

Lavender Layers__6x8 oil on linen panel___$150 wet!! ...sketch included

Yesterday's post was a painting at this same location, the lavender fields at Becker Vineyards in Fredericksburg, TX. Just as this is not a banner year for our bluebonnets, it looks like the lavender crop might be sparse, too. But then, maybe lavender plants peak later in the spring....for now, the plants are not very big or lush, but I like the scruffy colors in the foliage with just hints of blooming flower. Sometimes a BEAUTIFUL, thick growth of blooms can look too "fantastic" in a painting...bordering on "cartoonish"...like yesterday, I painted this from my sketch, (below). See the difference in composition?

Deere in the Lavender

Deere in the Lavender__6x8 oil on linen panel___$150 wet! (sketch is included)

Does two years in a row count as a "tradition"? I say "YES", and my friend, artist Pat Haberman and I have a tradition to go out and paint the bluebonnets on my birthday....OK, so my birthday was LAST WEEK (but we were both busy)....and there were only 17 bluebonnets in the Hill Country this year (a terrible contrast to last year's bumper crop)....so we went to the Lavender farm at Becker Vineyard... (OK, so it's too early for the lavender, but NOT BY MUCH!)...AND, it was too windy to get out the full plein air gear, so I sketched this (see below), and went home to paint it from my notes....more and more often along my Plains journey, I am finding myself very comfortable painting from memory...there's something nice about being able to "make it up", and my many years of plein air study has given me some understanding about light and color...So, I painted the one above, working only from this sketch, because I forgot to bring my camera...The paper is wrinkly because I had a death grip on it because it was so windy!

Green Extreme

Green Extreme___6x8 oil on linen panel__for Passing America: the Great Plains

Yesterday I posted a painting from the "winter" extreme of my recent plains trip. This one is the Spring extreme, someplace in Texas. This spot is where the farms have nearly FULLY complied with the change of seasons. Grasses, trees, and even the stubborn pecan trees are bloomed and budded in that bright clean green of spring. We are having a severe draught here in Texas, so I expect it to turn brown-yellow soon....but I hope not...we sure need rain!

Oklahoma Springtime

Oklahoma Springtime-study___8x10 oil on linen panel__for Passing America: the Great Plains I am on the road in the plains again this week...This study was a quickie at sunset in northern Oklahoma, yesterday. I am focused on the change of seasons, this trip. Central Texas is FULLY bloomed (except the pecan trees, but I expect them to "pop" at ANY moment)...as I write this, I am in Kearney, NE, and we have spent the day watching springtime recede back into the colors of winter...EXCEPT, even here there are great pastures of winter grasses all decked out in green. Watching the weather channel, I see snow on the way, though. I am looking forward to the trip home, which will be a moving snapshot of the season shanging from winter to spring....all the 10 "drive-by" paintings I have done so far are just my "studies" for the trip home!...RIGHT NOW, I am leaving the hotel with my driver-buddy, Barbara, to go out to the Rowe Sanctuary and see the cranes on the Platte River.

Hill Country

Hill Country__6x8 oil study on linen panel___$150 still wet
This is an idea I like, but the outcome doesn't please me much , so I will do it again...
I have talked about the "two paintings"...one is a verb (I was PAINTING this) and the other is a noun ( this PAINTING has a lot of green). Every time I work, there are two paintings (the verb and the noun)....an artist MUST NOT judge the noun part while "verbing"....It's better to wait a few days...so I will not comment on this painting (noun), anymore :)