Sketch Crawl Austin

Chipotle Grill, 8th & Congress

Silhouette Restaurant & Bar, Congress Avenue

Yesterday I participated in a worldwide sketch crawl, along with fellow artists in downtown Austin. The weather was cool and bright, which made for a really nice morning. These are my two attempts.

On the Clock

Back Yard, 8 x 10

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This back yard view was painted from a reference photo I took a few weeks ago in Georgetown. To keep the style loose and to avoid overworking the subject, I set a timer for 1 hour.  I did go over by half an hour before gaining enough courage to post it here, but I am glad to have rediscovered this helpful exercise.

Capital Title

Capital Title Building, 10 x 8
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This is one of the more impressive older buildings in Georgetown. I'm not sure when it was built, but I'm guessing sometime around the 1920 or 30s. Today it is home to Capital Title.

Workshop Work

Corona Del Mar State Beach, 8 x 10

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Last week I had the pleasure of attending a workshop in Newport Beach, California with Randall Sexton and a dozen or so other acolytes. Randall gave a demo each day and, among many other things, emphasized the importance of squinting down to help, not only identify value relationships, but to help with the overall composition through the abstract patterns made by the large dark masses. He also stressed the benefit of painting in "large puzzle pieces" to cover the canvas, without necessarily mapping in a line under-painting first. This can help keep the painting loose. The study above and the three following are all fairly quick plein air attempts at using these methods, without later going back to "fix" imperfections.

South Congress

South Congress, 12 x 12

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This picture was painted from a reference photo I took while painting in south Austin a couple months ago  (click here to see my November 16 post from last year, "Jo's"). This view looks north from in front of the Continental Club. The state capitol is about a mile and a half farther in this direction, across the Colorado River.

Corner Station

Corner Station, 24 x 30

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Sorry for the long delay in posting the final step in this project, but here it is.  Hope you like it.

Morning Gloria

Morning Gloria, 6x8

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This landscape was done in Laurel Daniel's plein air class two weeks ago. I'm just posting it now, because I have been busy preparing to move at the end of the month (still in Austin) and haven't had time to touch  up and post it until today. The class is focused on rendering water in its different environments. The weather shown here is typical of the last couple of weeks — beautifully sunny and cool with light breezes.

Georgetown Square

Georgetown Square, 6x8

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Plein Air Austin joined the plein air group from Williamson County this morning on the town square of their county seat, Georgetown, Texas. It's one of Texas' best-preserved old downtown areas, with plenty to paint. The building at the end of the block with the turret on top is the Masonic Lodge of Georgetown, built around 1900.

Azumaya

Azumaya, 8x10

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Ahh, the wonders of the Internet. With a few keystrokes, I've identified the structure depicted above. Anything I spend three hours scrutinizing and painting (and scrutinizing and painting), I figure I should know the name of. So, this structure — this open-air Japanese shelter, commonly comprised of a roof supported by beams and four vertical posts — is called an azumaya.

In any case, our paintout was wonderful. We overran the normally peaceful confines of the Austin Botanical Garden early Thursday morning under conditions that were almost perfect — slight overcast, breezes that were actually cool, and no rain.

That's right, no rain — making it, of course, unnecessary to seek shelter in the nearby azumaya.

Lost Creek No. 3

Lost Creek No. 3, 12 x 9

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This picture was begun over a week ago at Laurel's second to last plein air class, and which I never had the chance to finish up until tonight. The sun was breaking behind the bluff, creating dramatic dappled light through the trees on top of the bluff. I found the scene quite captivating.