I had a productive time at the IPAPA Paint-Out this past weekend in Brookville, IN. Myself and 13 other individuals took a workshop with Dee Beard Dean October 14 and 15. Dee was the judge for the Hoosier Salon juried exhibition this year. She was one of the best instructors I have ever had! She was very decisive and precise with her evaluations of all of our paintings and I could not have agreed more with her comments. She nailed it! If she ever comes back this way for a workshop, I highly recommend her to anyone who may be interested! I think we all came away with the same impression.
Dee critiquing Mary Ann's painting
After the workshop on Thursday and Friday, I took off out into the countryside bright and early on Saturday morning. There was patchy fog that covered a lot of the low-lying areas. Upon turning a particular corner of River Road I was struck by the way the sun was shining through a stand of trees and cascading across a field of winter wheat. It was a very nice spot from which to work and there was plenty of room for me to pull the car off to the side of the road.
Of course it is difficult to determine when a painting is finished. I still have a bit of adjusting to do to this painting in the studio. The sunlight was changing very quickly and to avoid changing the whole feeling or mood of the painting, I decided to stop before I screwed it up! I figured I would check my photos and make sure I did not change the light that I had first been struck by when I drove around that corner. Really it will just be a couple minor adjustments.
That afternoon I took a drive farther to the west of Franklin County ending up on Pipe Creek Road. What beautiful countryside there is to see there! It was hard to narrow down a location at which to paint! I came to the point where I just decided I needed to pull over and get down to business!
All in all, I enjoyed the beautiful weather and feel I learned a great deal. What is even more exciting is the prospect of sharing what I learned with my students!
