Honorable Mention at the Carmel Art Festival and Plein Air Painting Competition

My Quick Draw Painting from Sunday morning 6" x 8" Hill at Carmel River Lagoon. sold
I don't have a great photo of this because it was painted and framed in 2 hours ,but this gives you the idea. It is still on the easel, wet with an awkward shadow on it. I went to Carmel River Lagoon because I like the hills and open space so close to downtown. And you need to limit driving time with a time limit like this.

H0norable mention Carmel Art Festival Top of the World Carmel Valley 12 x 16 sold

The second plein air event in May was the Carmel Art Festival. The best things about this event are the location, the other artists and the artwork one gets to see in the galleries in Carmel. This is my fourth year participating in this event and my third time of being lucky enough to get an award. I painted up in Carmel Valley where the hills and sunshine lend themselves to my technique.

I don't know if I am just exceptionally lucky in my section of the alphabet but the artists around me are really accomplished and are fun to hang out with as the sale progresses ....Larry Moore, Donald Neff ,Michael Obermeyer, Robert Sandidge, Julia Seelos....and that's just M through S! Other favorites at this festival include Cornelia Emory, Larry Cannon, Mary Lou Correia, Kim Lordier, Terri Ford, Paul Kratter and Kevin Courter. There were 60 artists at the festival, so I won't list them all!

After the paintings were hung on Friday night, it was a pleasure to check out the galleries in town. The highlights for me were the William Hook show at Portnoy Galleries, Lesley Rich and Paul Kratter at the Nancy Dodds Gallery, Kevin Courter had a nice selection of work at New Masters and the highlight has to be Kim Lordier's one person exhibit at the Reiser Gallery.

We had great weather all week and I enjoyed the quick draw this year as I tried a smaller format that worked for me as a nicely realized abstract painting versus a sketch.

Plein Air Painters of America Paintout in Stockton

I was lucky enough to attend part of the opening weekend at the PAPA exhibit at the Haggin Museum Exhibit in Stockton. My daughter actually had a sporting event just down the road. I went to the Saturday morning paint out at a winery called Jessie's Grove in Lodi. I didn't even bring my painting gear, so I was able to just be a sponge. The painters showed their skill and experience. It was pretty flat, so most did architectural/ farm machines or close ups of the vineyard and paths around the property. The paintings were dazzling in their technique. I emotionally connected with a pastel by Glenna Hartmann. It was a luminous corner of the vineyard with a deep red rose bush and two morning haze trees in the distance. It makes me feel as if I am on a wonderful vacation in the wine country even now, a week later. Glenna's web site is http://www.glennahartmann.com/

The other painters I remember were the ones who produced lovely paintings while giving a lecture at the same time. Don Demers was practically a stand-up comedian. Gil Dellinger
was very generous with sharing his techniques. Kevin Mc Pherson had a large crowd around him the whole time for the same reason. I finally ordered his landscape painting book when I got home.

I also spoke briefly with Jean Stern, Executive Director of the Irvine Museum. I had "California Impressionism" with me in the car, which, by the way he has an essay in. I also met Ivan Moore, a reporter with the Stockton Record and told him why I loved Glenna's painting.

The only disappointment was that Raleigh Kinney, the only watercolor artist in the exhibit was not at the paintout. He does watercolors that don't need plexiglass in the framing process and I really wanted to see him at work. Raleigh was gracious to respond to my email about this event. He was in Sedona at the 3rd Annual Sedona Plein Air Festival, held at the same time, where he won the Sponsor's Award!...sometimes I think there are way too many plein air events out there!

Sunday, we got to the brunch and sale late. I had on more of a business hat. There were many paintings sold before I got there, but I walked around checking framing, prices and signature styles.

The painters also have a companion exhibit at the Haggin Museum through January 6. I hope to get back to see the exhibit. The museum's web site is http://www.hagginmuseum.org/ The PAPAs are at http://www.p-a-p-a.com/ The Sedona site is http://www.sedonapleinairfestival.com/