Garden at Liberty Park

Love getting to share my passion for plein air at the Liberty Park rose garden for this morning's plein air workshop.  Requested by the Sedalia Visual Art Association, I led the group in how I approach a plein air painting in oils.  It was fun to talk through my process, sharing tips along the way.  So happy to get to paint such a lovely place, with such lovely artists.  Painting number 4252 in 4252 days. 

Path through the Rose Garden

Loose Park is one of my favorite places to paint in Kansas City - especially in the rose garden!  Gathering with the Urban Sketchers KC group this morning, I arrived a little late.  Finding this spot immediately, I still took a stroll through the garden just to be sure!  I set up and jumped right in, laying in my lights and darks from the onset.  I simply love the morning light spreading over the garden, and that has to be captured quickly, before it fades.  What a wonderful way to start the day!  Love getting to visit with friends and nature lovers in the field, too.  It is one of the best parts of working en plein air!  Painting number 3106 in 3106 days. 

The Glory of Loose Park

This garden is one of my very favorite places to paint!  I love the architecture and grand style of the formal garden, and every painting I have painted here is full of the magic I feel.  The aroma of the roses is intoxicating as I lay down those strokes.  There are a couple of artists in the garden as I work, always a bonus for a little visiting and another pair of eyes on the piece.  In the last one out this day, and I sure wish I could stay for another.  Painting number 2071 in 2071 days.

purchase here

Unity Rose Garden

Unity Village in Lee's Summit is such a perfect painting location.  The architecture is fabulous with its wide variety of buildings dotting the complex.  There is everything from the grand chapel to small cottages, all in the vintage style of times past.  While in town to drop off artwork,I stopped by for some quick watercolor and ink work.  With the roses in bloom - I just had to capture this scene.  There are SO MANY wonderful compositions around those fountains!  I will be returning whenever I'm in town, just to capture the beauty! Painting number 1965 in 1965 days.

Twilight at Loose Park

Though my own garden sprawls with reckless abandon, I do love a formal garden!  It was love at first sight at Loose Park, and I return again and again to capture the different seasons.  Starting this commission in the middle of a busy plein air season, it took me three visits to get this completed.  At 24x30, it takes a little time to get the canvas covered, and I did use a gallery wrapped canvas for this size.  I thought I would finish on my second visit between events, but time ran out as another plein air event began.  The third visit was for the final touches, and it was a good thing. The gusts were so strong I had to keep one hand on the canvas just to steady it!  See how I'm at an angle taking the photo? It's because I was afraid the wind would take it!  Painting number 1782 in 1782 days.  I think I'll start on nutcrackers tomorrow!

sold

Fountain at the Rose Garden

Today finds me painting in one of my favorite gardens - the Rose Garden at Loose Park!  The morning was absolutely beautiful as I starting laying down paint.  Many hands were grooming the roses, as other worker bees buzzed around the garden.  When I noticed several workers standing near the fountain, I thought I'd better start getting the fountain in.  Sure enough, it was turned off for a little work.  This often happens en plein air.  A boat sails away, an animal flees the scene, lights are turned out, or a fountain gets shut down.  When this happens, I move to another section of the painting, waiting for the return of my subject.  Animals will return again and again in a rhythmic fashion.  In the case of boats, I normally see the bustle around the boat - and start painting like crazy!  The fountain came back on, and off again two other times - and I finally got it done!  Painting number 1710 in 1710 days.

oil on panel, 14x11
purchase here

Rose Garden Inked

Loose Park Rose Garden is one of my favorite places to paint - and now to sketch, too! The architectural design of this garden is wonderful, and dramatic in ink! I'm getting used to this larger format journal, a 9x6, and am growing to like it.  After absolutely loving my 4x6,I felt this one may be too large for these daily drawings. They are not, and it's always good to get out of our comfort zone!  Painting number 1642 in 1642 days.

Loose Park Fountain

Loose Park Fountain
Oil on canvas, 24x18

I have wanted to paint this scene again ever since I painted there last June.  My first painting sold at the Fountain Foundation Auction - and it was one I really didn't want to part with!  Using my reference photos and image of last year's painting, I set about to recreate it.  I found myself making little changes,  more cools to offset the warms, more varied brushwork - and the colors here really are quite different than the first one.  Is it because the first was painted en plein air - in the heat and strong sunshine of the day?  Or am I simply a different painter than I was last year?  After all, that was over 365 paintings ago.  With such a large painting, I am going to let this one rest on the wall for a while.  It was hard for me to get back from it enough as I worked.  I will live with it a little and see if anything pops out at me. I really do love painting the Loose Park rose gardens - they are amazing!   Painting number 548 in 548 days - and I am keeping this one :)

The Arbor

The Arbor
Oil on panel, 6x6
Loose Park Rose Garden

After a full day of working in the yard with the grandsons, I had little energy to think of painting.  When you paint as much as I do, keeping panels prepped and ready is a challenge.  As I looked for a surface tonight, all I could find was 11x14, 12x16, and larger.......and then I found a few 6x6's.  When I'm exhausted, small is by far the wisest choice - even though the scene I wanted to create would have been well suited to a larger size.  The Loose Park rose garden is absolutely gorgeous this week - so I am taking advantage of the beauty!  Arbors like this one surround the rose garden, with a beautiful fountain in the center.  I feel like I have just walked out of a palace and into this garden - that is how amazing this place is!  Painting number 161 in 161 days.

Sculpted Roses

Sculpted Roses
Molding paste, heavy gel w/acrylics, oils
9x12

Feeling experimental today, I first sketched out these roses from the Loose Park rose garden.  Then, I took out the molding paste, and applied to the roses, foliage and other assorted areas.  After drying, I mixed acrylics with heavy gel medium and applied the first coat of paint, also adding texture.  When just dry enough to work over this, I started laying in the oils.  Then, it was off to baseball photos and then another game, and I have only now returned home.  And, guess what?  It is almost midnight, so there is no time for further painting with oils to explore the depths of shading.  So, wild and crazy and it is, this is my painting for the day.  Painting number 159 in 159 days.  I think I'll return to something a little more sane tomorrow :)

Cascading Roses

Cascading Roses
Oil on panel, 14x11
Loose Park Rose Garden

I simply adore the Loose Park Rose Garden!  This painting is of the outer circle of arbors that surrounds the water fountain.  These roses are  overflowing with blooms like cups running over!  When I picked out this landscape, I wondered which size to choose for my panel.  I erred on the side of logic, picking a 14x11, as 16x12 would take longer - and I didn't have that much time.  Oh, how I wish I had chosen a larger size!  This landscape is so regal, it simply begs to be in a grand size!  I will get to at a later date........painting number 158 in 158 days.  What shall I paint tomorrow?

Fountain of Loose Park

Fountain of Loose Park
Oil on panel, 16x12
Fountain Festival Plein Air Paint - sold
purchase prints here

What a perfect day to paint en plein air!  Perfect temperature, perfect breezes, PERFECT rose gardens!  As part of the Fountain Festival, I am one of the area artists creating artwork for a special auction in August.  50% of the proceeds go to the Fountain Foundation for much needed repairs on 7 Kansas City Fountains.  This amazing landscape is the Rose Garden at Loose Park.  The roses are absolutely bursting with blooms - and the fragrance was  heavenly as I painted!  I love roses, and I can not believe I have never been to this park before now.  This is only the first of many painting trips in my future!  Painting 157 in as many days :)

Fountain Festival
(3 paintings to left are mine)

Roses by the Fence

Roses by the Fence
Oil on panel, 6x6

This has been a very busy day - so I am painting quick and loose and small.  These lovely roses bloom most of the summer against a white picket fence in town (on the way to the high school).  I have stopped by several times to get just the right reference photos for painting!  Since I am taking the photo of the finished painting at night - I think my colors may not be true.  There is nothing like the daylight to get a good image.  In this very busy week, this painting makes 98 in 98 days.  Wow - only 2 more to 100!

A Flurry of Roses

A Flurry of Roses
Oil on panel - 6x6

This is another small work I am considering for the Randy Higbee Show.  I currently have my favorite six featured on facebook, and am encouraging the public to vote on their favorite three.  Tomorrow is the deadline - so you have until then to make your vote count!  It is so fun to see how everyone picks different paintings!  This scene is from the Overland Park Arboretum, painted in a smaller scale than the original which is 22x28.  I like the square format - it gives it a different feel.  I painted this completely in oil, where the original was under-painted in acrylic first.  I am always drawn to a beautiful garden landscape!

Through the Rose Arbor

When I look again at one of my plein air pieces, it is just as if I am transported back to the time and place in the painting.  I can smell the humid air, feel the breeze on my skin and the brushes in my hand.  I painted this one to replace a piece I sold at the Stems Plein Air Event of the rose garden at the Overland Park Arboretum.  I used my artistic license and changed the sweep of the path for better composition.  I also painted the beds a little wilder than the perfectly manicured flowers on site.  The day was hazy and the morning sun was just starting to warm up the scene, when I picked up my brushes.  The paints seemed to glide into place almost without thought.  I intended to underpaint in acrylics, going over with oils as I neared completion.  But, once to this point, I only topped off the flowers and foliage with oil.

Through the Rose Arbor
22x28  oil over acrylic on panel
Best Of Show Award - Tri-County Art Show

Magic in the Morning

I painted this one at the Two Hour Quick Paint competition at the Deanna Rose Farm on the last day of the STEMS Plein Air Event.  Arriving by 6:30 am, the artists were treated to donuts and bagels, before we all headed out to paint at 7:00.  This spot is located a good distance from the entrance, but is a favorite place of mine for garden painting.  Hustling down with my gear, I came to this spot, and the light grabbed me.  The early sun lit up the flowers, while the shadows remained long across the path and into the more heavily treed area through the gate.  I set up my easel and started on my masses.  About half way through, the sprinkler system came on, drenching the whole left side of my scene!  I already had most of the preliminary work done, so I concentrated on the rest, knowing the sprinkler would go off soon.  As I worked, I noticed there were also sprinklers right in front of my easel leg.  Boy, I hoped they wouldn't go off next!  I worked faster, feeling the pressure that I might have to suddenly move if the "rains" started.  In 20 minutes, the sprinklers went off.  Five minutes passed, and YIKES!!! - they came on right behind me!  I quickly moved up six paces to clear the downpour - and set back to work!  I raced to a finish, and started packing up my easel, just before the last sprinklers went off in front of me!  Plein air painting is always an adventure.  One day, it is the bugs in my pant (or up my leg), the next - hidden sprinklers pop up out of nowhere and rain down on my painting.  I have almost lost my easel twice as it started sinking down into the edge of a lake.   I have painted in the cold, driving rain (and hail), as well as the hottest summer sun at 105 degrees.  But, I have also painted numerous occasions in weather so beautiful, surrounded by God's beauty and abundance - that I am forever inspired to go back out and capture the glory.

Magic in the Morning
11x14 oil on panel

Fountain at Unity Village

Unavailable

This beautiful scene comes from the rose garden at Unity Village in Lee's Summit, MO.  The fountain is truly magnificent and towers over the garden below it.  This was really a joy to paint in oils.