Plein Air SC style Nov '09

My most recent adventure was in Charleston.  The Charleston Fine Arts Council Designated Nov 5-7th as Fine Arts weekend, and the entire city got in the act with art walks, gala openings in the city's many museums, and auctions to benefit various art causes. I haven't met a single plein air painter since I moved here, so I was very excited to read that the council was sponsoring a PLEIN AIR event in Washington Park.  Boy was I in for a surprise!  Plein Air painting as I know it usually means the artist painting(1) a small landscape or architectural scene(2) that is being looked at on location (3) in a somewhat impressionistic manner (4) to capture a the local color of what is seen. (5) They are almost always small because (6) one is trying to capture the image before the light changes.
In Charleston,  Plein air seems to mean anything that you paint in plain air out of doors. 

  There were people realistically painting remote landscapes from photographs, and creating watercolor seascapes from photographs. 

 

Some of the artists set up still lives complete with settings to direct the light 

 or brought a model and posed her on a bench.   

The participating artists had been invited to donate work towards an auction which raised money for the Charleston high school district art program. 

Much of what was donated were graphics, abstracts, and or decorative art pieces. 

  There were a couple of artists who were trying to paint the local scenery,  

  but I didn't envy them trying to see their subject matter through the crowds.   

 The winning piece of art from the exhibit was what appeared to be a colored photograph of a pelican.  (Even if I am mistaken and it was a incredibly realistic hand rendered pelican... I don't know how it could be called plein air). Oh well, plein air or not, the effort and money went to a good cause, so no complaints.

Georgetown Watermedia Society Meeting 11 '09

The Georgetown Water media Society met today for a presentation by two of our members on painting with Acrylic paints. Diann  Hammett led off  the presentation with a discussion of how she approaches  abstract and more traditional representational artwork  and the pros and cons of using acrylic paints in both.

This was followed by another member who  showed us how she uses acrylic paintings in  traditional subjects like this study of her son sitting on the beach

She then explained that as a buzy mother of several children she cannot spend as much time as she would like in the studio.  She maximizes her time, by painting on round table-tops that can be fitted onto the steering wheel of her car while she is waiting for her children to finish their  little league practice etc.  Needless to say the fast drying quality of acrylics is a real boon  under such circumstances.

Above:Initial pidgeon desgin on tabletop with small travel acrylic set shown in plastic bag on table. 

Below: Completed painting of pidgeon.

How clever!

Dennis Cordereio Presents at SAG 11'09

Metal Artist,  Dennis Cordereio gave presentation at the monthly membership meeting of the Seacoast Artists Guild .

Dennis showed the members  how cuts the metal, shapes it paped, then soulders, and oxidize it to produce his beautiful creations

Happy Halloween 10 '09

Happy Halloween everyone.

Black Cat Candelabras on the table

 The holiday is one of my favorite times of year

Rats in a fruit cage on the Breakfast  Bar

It gives me an excuse to decorate the house 

Bats  hang from the Chandelier

In a really playful 

Rats and gourds on the Hall tree

 and colorful way

Halloween at the Hammock Shops 10 "09

I was working this afternoon at the Hammock shops when I noticed a flurry of glitter.

 

 What to my wondering eyes did appear, but a princess

followed by a pink bunny in a ballerina tutu

Followed by a peacock

followed by a cow???

Trick or treat. This was definitely at Treat for me.

Sandcastle Building at PI Oct 09

Its a fine  Indian Summer kind of day to take a walk on the beach at Pawleys Island

or looking for shells

or building a sandcastle

or enjoying the sound of the sea oats rustling in the wind

HBSP Spoonbills 10 '09

Bruce and I decided to walk off lunch along the freshwater marsh at Huntington Beach State Park.  I don’t know what angel was guiding us, but it definitely was a day to remember for bird-watching.  In addition to the regular summer flocks of Woodstork, Ibis, Egrets, Moorhens,  etc, we spotted three rare bird sightings

Driving in across the causeway, I  told Bruce” look theirs some Ibis  right by the road … PINK ibis??? (my voice rising )  Those are Spoonbills”   Bruce slammed on the brakes so I could hop out with my camera to grab some shots while he parked the car.  Sure enough there were two juvenile Roseated Spoonbills feeding in the mudflats.  We watched them for a long time.  They are beautiful birds with strange wide bills that they sweep rapidly back and forth through the pluff mud seeking small crabs and shrimp.  Normally these beautiful birds are found in the marshes of Florida and the Gulf coast.  I don’t know what brought them so far north, but there they were posing for my camera. (An hour later, when we drove back out of the park they were no where to be seen)

Continuing on our walk, we walked out onto the observation deck over the fresh water march.  There almost at out feet was a Red Necked Egret ( a Dark Morph).  Again it hung around long enough for me to admire its beautiful coloring, swift hunting action, and beautiful colors, and again it was no where to be seen when we drove out.

BJ Scuba Dives the Bill Perry 9 '09

Coral surrounded by schools of fish

Bruce went scuba diving  today with the crew  of the Scuba Express out of Murrell's Inlet, SC.

Entering the hold of the Bill Perry

 They were artificial reef  diving  the sunken tugboat, " Bill Perry" which is in 65 feet of water.

Looking out from the hold

  Stats on depth however don't mean much in the silt laden waters off of South Carolina's coastline. 

Shrimp, sponges, coral and fish

 The wreck has developed into an artificial reef colony which supports  a lot of life . But  visibility is poor and you really have to look carefully to be sure you are seeing all that is around you.

7 foot Black tip shark

Clay Pot Cooking 9 '09

I have fallen in Love with Clay Pot Cooking.  They leave food so juicy and flavorful

Veggies

I bought myself two different style tagines

Pork with Couscous

Then my daughter, Laura, gave me a third  clay pot for my birthday

Chicken with lentils

Bruce loves it.  The house always smells so exotic

Guensey Literacy and Potato Peel Pie Society 9 '09

 Today my the Pawleys Plantation Book Club Met at the  Traditions  Plantation Clubhouse  for our annual luncheon and to discuss The Guernsey Literacy and Potato Peel Society.  The fictional characters are based upon the very real living conditions of British citizens living on the German occupied British Isle of Guernsey during WWII.   It is a tale of  hope, and the strength of spirit that helped them support one another and survive the dire conditions they found themselves in.  

 As always the group first met to discuss basic business and to greet new members

Since much of the  book's plot revolved around  social dining events the characters devised to give themselves a chance to discuss the contraband books they were reading, our group felt that a luncheon composed of the menus mentioned in the book would be appropriate way to kick of our new year

Various food that were in the book were laid out on a spearate table for us to examine and discuss prior to having lunch

Half the fun was anticipating what the potato peel pie  would taste like.

  The Chef at the Traditions Clubhouse outdid himself with the menu.

Chef hold a Potato Peel Pie

We all had a great time.  I am so fortunate to have found such a creative  book club

Kat Walk

Kat loves to take walks with us .  We walk along the golf cart path in the early evening after all the players have left the course.  She follows about ten feet behind us  for a good quarter mile through three fairways and then back the same route.  Sometimes we cross the course to walk home along the edge of the marsh, and at other times stay to the shelter of the trees.  In any case she really looks forward to our evening walks and acts genuinely disappointed if we don't go for a stroll with her.

McClellanville boats 9 '09

We took a short drive to McClellanville , SC today to pick up some local seafood from their shrimp docks

 But while we were there I took the opportunity to take some reference  photos

 Pretty sure some of these will get translated into paintings