Cowsides

Cowsides___6x8 oil on linen___$250
This is another one from my November workshop in Fredericksburg...Hey KF, let me know what you think!

Cowside

Cowside___8x10 oil on linen panel___for K.F....I THINK!
I began this one as a one-color value sketch...demonstrating how our brush is a "shape-maker" and not a "line-maker" as a pencil is...I intended to fill the canvas with various views of the cattle in the pasture, but somehow ended up creating a composition with the elements there....ah well....I got carried away...

Moonlift

Moonlift___8x6 oil study on linen panel___$190
Yesterday's painting is literally the "other side" of this one. I painted it facing west as the sun went down, and called it "Sunslide" for a special reason. Immediately after painting it, I turned to the east to paint the full moon rising. But because of the cloud cover, we never really saw the moon, but could see the "lift" of moonlight from behind the clouds. So that explains the title of this one....Both were "lessons" or demos painted during my last workshop in Texas. We had been hoping for some interesting skies and were mostly given CLEAR BLUE skies...until this one evening.

Sunslide

Sunslide___6x8 oil study on linen panel___$190
Here I resume works from my recent workshop in Fredericksburg...hello to the workshop gang! For the next few days I will post the rest of the finished studies. I title this one "Sunslide", because the sun did not set that day, it just "slid" out of sight"......Happy Holidays to all!!!

If I miss a few days of posting art, you can almost be sure something is not well...
I have lost a dear, dear Brother-in-Law....more of a brother to me, since he has been in our family from the time I was a little girl... Doyle Bridgefarmer married my sister, Mary in 1970, and was the father of SIX of my nieces and nephews....He was sick since summer, and cancer claimed him just before Thanksgiving....so, it has been a sweet month of much time spent at their house, and with all the family.
My family is rather fun-loving and very up-beat, so having this time to say long goodbyes has been good for many reasons, but now we have the long process of missing him...

Line of Light

Line of Light__6x8 oil on linen panel___$ 250 unless you were in the Fredericksburg workshop
K.R. remembers chatting with me while we waited for the sunset to BLAZE its spectrum during our last session of my Fredericksburg workshop. While telling her how the color "works" and what to look for, I did a color sketch. I had to make up the clouds to scatter the color, since we had only a few high, wispy clouds. The sky in the painting above was my "demo" for her, and illustrated my point...later on I added the coastal landscape...just for fun ...

Orange in the Dark

Orange in the Dark__6x8 oil on linen panel___$250 unless you were in the workshop :)
OK, I have a lot to say about this one! I painted it while we waited for the moon to rise in the workshop last week in Fredericksburg. K.R. was "shadowing me" and had lots of questions about the sunset colors and how fast they happen...I stalled and him-hawed while waiting for some good color, but it was just too bright looking into the sun...so I created a "South Carolina" landscape and made up a sky with the color I needed so I could tell her a thing or two....Well, in an INSTANT, 15 minutes or more after the sun was down, this BLAZE of color sizzled on the few clouds above us...There was NO LIGHT on my palette, and I only painted the VALUES, using what I THOUGHT were my bright mixes of orangey sunshine...I knew where the darks were on the palette, and used them quickly on the foreground when the color faded in the clouds. All the while I painted, I gave a disclaimer that there was no telling what colors I was using, and that it might not look so hot in the morning!...wouldn't you know it! This is the ONLY study I brought home that I will NOT change!...I guess I paint better in the dark...maybe I will try one with my eyes closed!

11-11-11 Moonset

11-11-11 Moonset ___6x8 oil on linen panel___$190 unframed
I miss my workshop buddies! Anyone who will get up before dawn and drag their paints out in the cold (it was 25 degrees one morning!) is a FRIEND of mine!!! And I have more than a dozen new ones after last week in Fredericksburg!...
Below is this painting above, in its plein air state! When painting fast (which I have to do when the light changes quickly), I often lay down only enough details that I can finish it later. All the info I needed in the field is there!...I was able to do a couple more such "starts" before the sun got too high...now I am home, finishing these! You will see such "finishes" in the days ahead! Let me know what you think! ESPECIALLY those of you who were with me when I started this one :)

11-11-11 Moonset_state 1__in Fredericksburg, Texas Workshop...My next workshop there is during June 2012. Email me for details! vvaughan8@yahoo.com

Chilly for Breakfast

Chilly for Breakfast__ oil on linen__sold to F.S.
We had a couple of paintouts at this location during my Fredericksburg workshop this week.
These cows look like they are all safe in the corral, but the gate was open the whole time and they were free to leave and roam up to our hilltop location....which they did! Cows are very curious and could not resist inspecting our easels and art gear!
Our hands froze on this chilly morning, but it was worth it to paint in such a great location!
(A BIG version of "Chilly for Breakfast" one will be on the easel right away)

End of the Day Lights

End of the Day Lights___11x14 oil on linen___$950 (unless you saw me paint this)
If you saw me paint this, then you are in my workshop this week in Fredericksburg, TX. This was my first demo...NOT a fast demo, because I talked a lot while demonstrating all the color you can get out of a BASIC limited palette of 3 ccolors plus white. It was painted from a photo of a place in Colorado's San Luis Valley (my FAVORITE place on earth to paint)...I will teach a workshop there in August next year...e-mail me if you'd like info!....
We are painting en plein-cold-air this week, and enjoying warm beverages afterwards. Wait till you hear the stories!...I have to wait till after we are through tomorrow to share...just in case my workshop is blogging tonight!

Art Student - JK

JK___18 x 12 sketch on paper___for JK
My student sketches usually have some lesson that is easier for me to SHOW than to tell...This was a quickie in class not too long ago. Since then, we have ventured into clay and then oils, but I want to take the students to the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, soon. The weather is cooled off and the animals will be active and fun to sketch.
Various "life matters" have prevented me from posting lately, but hopefully things will settle down soon!

Plain View

Plain View___6x8 oil on linen___one from Passing America__$350 unframed

This one has a story...it was painted for my current exhibit, "Passing America...".

...in the place with the biggest sky of my travels: western Nebraska...Because I ran out of panels that day, I painted it on a "loose" piece of linen, and then never found time to mount it, so it was not delivered it to the museum for the show! I have since mounted it, so it is available unframed...

The Digital Goddess, Kim Komando mentioned my "Last Year on the Farm" in her newsletter this week! I have received some HEARTFELT notes from all over the country from people who are missing their farms, too. Click for Kim's newsletter, and scroll down halfway for my feature (it's a video)

Missing the Farm - part 2

Last Year on the Farm, Late Spring Day- 16 of 24___available $450 framed and shipped

Yesterday I invited everyone to the opening of a small showing in Austin. I have put together about 100 small works, remnants of Last Year on the Farm, my 2008 exhibit. These are the ones still available from that exhibit of over 365 works. The painting I posted yesterday was from a group of works : "24 paintings in 24 hours"....I did this 6 times that year...once for each season of the year, plus a couple special days. Yesterday's painting was from a Late Spring Day at 6:50 pm. The one above was painted immediately after it, at 7:20 pm. Click to note the differences. I remember chasing down the hill so that I could paint the same cloud as it built into a thunderhead, wanting to keep the tree as my foreground....ah, memories...missing the farm!

See "Late Spring" and all 24 that I did that day...actually there are 25! I remember getting on a roll and losing count that day!

If you click, please scroll down beneath all the months (Jan, Feb, Mar...) to a section below called 24 in 24... I think MOST people have missed these groupings of 24 works, because not many have sold, compared to the others. So my exhibit in Austin has many of these, and some are my favorite paintings!...

THIS THURSDAY, October 27, from 5 - 8 pm at Riverbend Church
(click for directions)...I will have a few books to sign and lots of good art to see.


The art will be on display in the Inspirations Gallery at the church through November 17. Please go see, and bring a friend!

Missing the Farm

A Late Spring painting from Last Year on the Farm__6x8 oil__6x8 framed/delivered

Lately, I have spoken often of my current exhibit, "Passing America....", which is an extension of a theme I started 5 years ago. The them is the passing of America's small farms and our agrarian way of life. Our family had to leave our farm, and I did a painting each day of our last year there. See all 365 paintings HERE...or BETTER YET, please come to an abbreviated exhibit of 100 of the works on display in Austin, TX. I call it "Missing the Farm"

The opening reception is THIS THURSDAY, October 27, from 5 - 8 pm at Riverbend Church

(click for directions)...I will have a few books to sign and lots of good art to see.

The art will be on display in the Inspirations Gallery at the church through November 17. Please go see, and bring a friend!

Sketch of CJK

Sketch of CJK, student __________NFS
Continuing with figure drawing demos for the students I teach....we will do Chicken Clinic's with oils soon!
I have had a "distracted" week, and am getting ready to go to Kansas again tomorrow....
Whwe!...I mean, WHEW!
Lost my operating system last week and learned that I am very dependant on my Outlook calendar! I need to know how to sync it with .....what?....an iphone or something???? at least my laptop.
This week I missed appointments, and art deadlines, broke my cell phone and lost phone numbers (grrrr) and ALMOST missed a family friend's wedding, (son bailed me out with the gift and details!), and have fallen way behind ....but worst of all, we learned that

my sister's husband is very sick, and we have a big battle ahead....SOON.

To those who do, PLEASE PRAY, if you will....

Sketch of A.R.

Sketch of A.R.__my student
Well, I am back from Nebraska...for a few days now! Texas has cooled off since I left a couple weeks ago!
The sketch above is a class demo for the art students at Hyde Park Baptist School. I teach a couple of morning classes there, now. We did figure drawing in Sept, and now we are painting...more on that, later.
I left Nebraska with MANY new friends and good memories! Had fun on the backroads looking for painting locations with great artists... and looking for Combines...eating ribeye at Big Fella's in Linwood....twice!!...hitting a deer on the way back...God, please heal her....Becoming a fan of artist Dale Nicholls ....Chit chatting for hours with Anna and Amanda...and Allen about reviving small towns: I say food tours like wine tours, and in David City, NE, we can include art, architecture,....and build a couple of B&B accommodations ....
***SIGN UP for my November 9-11 workshop in Fredericksburg, TX...full moon!
***COME MEET ME at a reception and showing of about 100 paintings from Last Year on the Farm. THURSDAY, Oct. 27, 5-7 Riverbend Church Gallery, Austin, TX ...

Moonrise Laughter

Moonrise Laughter__6x8 oil on linen panel___SOLD wet!

Have you seen the harvest moon? A few days ago we were all together having a little picnic before I did one last demo of the moonrise, and the workshop folks broke into singing "Shine on Harvest Moon". Here is that last demo of a wonderful Nebraska Workshop.
The title is from my own favorite song of the Plains: "Calling Out Your Name", by Rich Mullins...the lyric is this:

"The moon moved past Nebraska and spilled laughter on them cold Dakota Hills..."


These aren't the Dakota Hills, but there was a lot of spilled laughter as I demonstrated and the group chatted and enjoyed one another for the last time....what a group! They came from all over the place with many fun stories to tell....Precious friendships, now, and I cannot wait to meet up again....I hope y'all are painting!!!!
have you seen the Passing America paintings?

Chilly Morning at Allen's Old Place

Chilly Morning at Allen's Old Place__8x10 oil on linen__$450 with wet paint
With miles and miles of Nebraska cornfields and soybeans ready to come out of the fields, my workshop found the PERFECT HILLTOP to paint from. A hilltop place (formerly belonging to one of my hosts, Allen, but now being restored by his good friends, the Moravec's) has given us 360 degrees of landscapes to paint! You will see a number of my hilltop demos in the next few days! Whereas the sun rose QUICKLY from reds to yellows in yesterday's post, this sunrise "stalled" when low, foggy damp clouds rode in on the western breezes. Artists like when there is a LITTLE more time to grasp the glance outside.
Passing America: The Great Plains click to see 154 works from the show

Mark at the Round Barn

Mark at the Round Barn___8x10 oil on linen panel__$450
Dale Nicholls is the great regional painter from this area, who made it big in the art world.
Now deceased, this was his family's home, and this type of barn is rare and unique...It is a treasure in Butler County, NE, and we had to have special permission to bring the workshop here for me to paint this study.
My aim was to NOT get tight and paint every board on the barn, and when I do another version, I will emphasize the scale more with some more people or equipment...see the little man by the door on the left? He is too BIG for this scale...the barn is HUGE!!!
I have a few more things to post from my workshop, but for the past few days, I have been working in some of the high schools here, speaking and demonstrating and introducing them to my Chicken Clinic...Great kids here, and a LOT of fun!
See my entire exhibit Passing America: The Great Plains
Next workshop: Fredericksburg, TX, Nov 9-11...FULL MOON FUN! vvaughan8@yahoo.com

Marietta Presentation

Marietta Presentation__6x8 oil on linen panel___$350 while wet
This little church is in the distance off the northwest side of our workshop hilltop location in Nebraska. When you can see for distant MILES and miles, WHITE things catch sunlight...and the eye of an artist! My sky was crystal clear the morning I did this warm-up painting...my first from the hilltop. As our week has progressed, I have seen cloud shadows moving over this scene, and can't wait to get home and paint a larger one with my reference photos.
Passing America: The Great Plains click to see 154 works from the show

Lit Up Cloud Tops

Lit Up Cloud Tops__6x8 oil on linen panel__$350 while wet!
There was rain predicted for each day of my workshop here in Nebraska, but somehow we managed to avoid it! These little cloud tops were in the east as the sun set at our backs on the Moravec Hilltop. I forgot the point I was making to the students when I grabbed this small canvas and put in the color of the cloud tops....maybe it was something about the complementary colors in daylight...
I am in NE for the opening of my long project, "Passing America: The Great Plains" at the University of Nebraska's Great Plains Art Museum...it has been well received, so far, and will be up through mid December! Click link to see all 154 works