Tag Archives: plein aire painting

Palette Knife Plein Air Workshop

Florence Thomas Art School

http://www.florenceartschool.org

June 17-19, 9-4 pm, West Jefferson, NC, $300

White Water Linville, 10×10-SOLD

Come join us for three days of palette knife painting the beautiful scenery around West Jefferson with a palette knife. Your paintings will be looser, bolder and simpler — full of texture. We’ll talk about composition, values and color — and of course using the knife. We’ll start with a demo, then lots of hands-on attention while you paint. In case of rain, bring some of your favorite landscape photos.

If you’ve never done a workshop at Florence Thomas Art School you are in for a treat! If you don’t sign up for my workshop, please peruse the other ones. There is a wide variety! The school is incredibly well-run. West Jefferson is beautiful, friendly and very supportive of the arts.

You’ll find a supply list and other information on the Florence Art School website. http://www.florenceartschool.org

Feel free to email me (robinwellner@yahoo.com) or call or email Florence Art School if you have any questions! Hope to see you in the mountains!!!

Small Works Show

“Clouds Gathering over Grandfather”, 12×12, Oil/Panel

This scene was painted in one of my favorite places to paint in the Blowing Rock area. Up Shoals Mills Road you can pull off and get the most spectacular views of Grandfather Mountain. This particular day, we were dodging thunderstorms all day. I was lucky to get a span of time to paint!!

Hope you can join me Saturday, August 11th from 5-8 pm for “Small Works”, a group exhibition of works smaller than 14×18″ at Blowing Rock Frameworks and Gallery. The show will run from August 6 through the 20th.

Blue Ridge Impressions: Brush and Knife Paintings

This is one of my favorite places to paint plein air at Bass Lake in Blowing Rock, NC. The view is spectacular and there’s plenty of shade. In fact, Bass Lake has so many wonderful places to paint that I never run out of options. You’ll run into lots of other painters there — as well as runners, walkers, hikers, fishermen, horseback riders, and lots of other lovely people.

I am so grateful to have the opportunity to have a show this summer with my paintings from the Blowing Rock area. “Blue Ridge Impressions: Brush and Knife” will open July 17th and run through July 27th at Blowing Rock Frameworks and Gallery. The reception is July 22nd from 5-8 pm.

The show will include lots of views of Grandfather Mountain, Cone Manor area, Bass Lake, Trout Lake, Price Lake and other landscapes from the area. I’ve had such a great time exploring some new areas to paint while preparing for this show. The views from Grandfather are so spectacular. I even painted on top looking at the Mile High bridge. I had to paint with one hand on my easel the whole time because of the wind!

Thank you to Tim and Alex at the Gallery for being so supportive! I so appreciate the opportunity! And I am so grateful for my patient husband, Michael, who’s been my cheerleader all along and picked up the slack while I was frantically trying to get paintings done for the show!!!

Hope you can join us on the 22nd!!!

Art Show at Free Range Brewery

I had the lovely opportunity to have a one woman art show at Free Range Brewery here in Charlotte,NC. The brewery is owned by some folks who love art, and happily are providing an opportunity for local artists. The show runs from February 1 to March 14th, and combines portraits and plein air pieces. There’s great wall space and lighting. Sarah, one of the owners, has an art background and gallery experience— so a great eye! She chose the pieces and hung the show. Thank you Sarah!!

The beer was wonderful! I normally am a wine drinker, but discovered I really like their stout made from oysters! Who knew!!! The selections also include many other beers, cider, kombucha, soda and coffee. The brewery is family friendly as well. We had a crowd —- thanks to my incredible group of friends —- and happily we sold three pieces that night!!

Here’s Michael and I enjoying friends and brew. Don’t know what I would do without him. He’s so supportive of my art obsession. He also has a great eye, so I frequently get his feedback on paintings. It’s always spot on!

Thank you to all the lovely people who joined me that evening! Hope any of you who might be interested will take some time to see the show and taste some of the great beer and other selections at Free Range. http://www.freerangebrewing.com

Happy February and happy painting!!

Happy New Year!

Harmonica Mark
Finalist in 2015 Richeson Portrait/Figure show – Carolinas Got Art Show at the Elder Gallery

Happy New Year!! I have so many mixed feelings this time of year. Holidays are fun, but so distracting that I feel I have to completely regroup to get back to some sense of normalcy. So I’m slowly getting back on track.

I had an amazing 2015. It was the first year that I really tried to enter some shows and had great results. All of this happened in 2015!!!

Finalist in the American Woman Artists National Juried 2015 Show at Bonner David Gallery in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Selected as one of 30 artists to participate in the 2015 Piedmont Paint Out in High Point, NC. Received “Artists’ Choice Award”
Finalist in the Richeson75 Figure and Portrait Show 2015
2 Honorable Mentions in the Guild of Charlotte Artists, 2015
Honorable Mention, “Colton’s Choice” award and “People’s Choice” award in the Matthews Art Guild, 2015 – Matthews Alive Festival
Finalist and Award of Merit in the 2015 Spring Online Show for the American Women Artists
Selected for the Carolina’s Got Art Show at the Elder Gallery, June 2015

Kalvin, Portrait of a Young Man
AWA National Juried Show, Award of Merit

I love painting people, but up until now I’ve pretty much stuck to portraits. To make a living at that though I need to really market myself as a portrait painter. So that is part of my next step I believe. Also I’d like to take that passion for painting people into some figurative paintings that aren’t so “face specific”. I’m hoping to do that some with my musician paintings. So far I’ve pretty much focused on their faces, except for “Harmonica Mark”. I’m doing studies that are recognizable, but thinking in the bigger paintings that I’ll try to take them to a more abstracted direction. All musings at this point until I make it happen.

Artists’ Choice Award, Piedmont Paint Out

Also love the balance of my plein air paintings. So that will be another part of the puzzle. Hoping to do some larger paintings to appeal to some galleries. It seems most are not as interested in the small 8×10 or 11×14’s that we typically do as plein air painters.

The other big nemesis for me is the marketing part. If I had my druthers, I’d just paint. But it’s crucial to get your name out there to reach potential clients and galleries. So that’s probably the biggest piece of the puzzle for me this year. Putting together a plan that helps me accomplish that.

“Lucci” People’s Choice Award at the Matthews Alive Festival

Any ideas, suggestions welcomed!!! Once again Happy New Year to you all! I hope that 2016 is a wonderful one for you and yours!!

Marketing vs Painting —- Trying to strike a Balance

The constant dilemma of an artist — trying to balance marketing and actual painting. It’s hard to strike a balance. All I really want to do is paint, but I realize that I have to market — otherwise I’ll be on the streets with a ton of plein air paintings in my lap. The two paintings here are of the same location. The one below is painted in early Spring — before the leaves were back on the trees. You can see I took some editorial license and eliminated some trees. Just learning that that’s part of my job. I don’t “have” to paint everything that I see. I can rearrange things or take them out entirely. New concept since I’ve spent so many years just trying to recreate what’s in front of me in a pleasing fashion.

One of the wonderful things about painting. Always something to learn — you never stop!

Painting my way around Blowing Rock, NC

My husband has been working on a project in the Blowing Rock/Boone NC area. As a result we’ve been traipsing back and forth between there and Charlotte. I’m spending lots of time painting landscapes or plein air in this area. I’m trying to capture some of the amazing scenery around here. It’s just so beautiful! This painting was on the trail around Bass Lake. It was my first experience of having folks come up and wanting to look. “Where do you sell your work?” was a frequent question. So I need to get in gear and either find a gallery or something. I have started giving people a photo postcard of one of my paintings with my contact info. Looking forward to hearing from some of those folks!

One wonderful addition to my plein air equipment is my new palette that my hubby made. It’s just a smaller version of my other one. Much easier to pack and I anticipate finding a backpack so I can hike with my equipment and paint some less accessible areas. This is all new to me so I continue to refine as I discover better options. I am told that I’ll be restricting my palette colors eventually. Still addicted to some of my colors even though I know many use many less than I do. It continues to amaze me how much there is to learn with painting. Good thing I love it!!

The Path

I painted this on a red undercoat. Another experiment. You can see a little warmth on the horizon from it. I didn’t use the knife this time. I also editorialized some and left out a large tree. That’s a new concept for me to edit reality. Guess we all do it anyway!