More From Buford Plein Air Festival

Here are the other paintings and scenes from the Buford Plein Air Festival this past weekend. The second painting on Friday was the scene across from where I painted the first one -- only a simple composition of dogwood trees. I was so depressed from painting the first one and having the view obliterated for so long, I decided to stay where I was rather than move.

I think trees with the flowers on them are beautiful, but oh so difficult to paint without all the little "dabs" of paint to be the flowers. There may be issues with all the paintings I did, but remember . . . I only think of my plein air work as studies . . . and should they be frameable, just icing on the cake!

Here are the dogwood trees I painted second. The painting is a 12x9 on a gessoboard, which is a slick surface. Look at the difference in colors I saw in real life and what the camera could see and translate into a "print". Quite a difference.

Third painting of the day on Friday was of azaleas across the street from where I was for the first two paintings -- but a little toward town. This time I did move my easel down the street on the sidewalk right in front of the home with the azaleas and scraggly dogwood tree. I simplified the background in this one because I did not want the home to take interest away from the flowers.

I love the difference in the two colors of the azaleas. One is quite warm and the other, though still in the same color family, is quite a bit cooler. I did not paint in the small amount of dogwood blossoms because they were small and few and far between. I felt they would be a distraction. Artistic license is wonderful because we get to set the stage the way we want the audience to look. What do you think? Did it work?

Next are my paintings on Saturday . . . first was setting up right along the main street in downtown and doing a painting of the buildings, cars, street, and light poles! What fun and what difficulty for me . . . remember I am a "tree" painter!

Here is the scene first:

Now here is the painting:

So, painting in downtown was quite an experience . . . cars always moving by, changing where they were parked, etc. Look how dark the camera saw the shadowed side of the buildings. In real life, they were no where near that dark!

This was quite a challenge for me. I tried to simplify many of the shapes and just create color notes for the cars and any little bits of the building fronts under the canopy of the small trees. So . . . I did get to put some trees in the painting! The painting might have some small issues, of course, but overall, I thought it was good enough to be one of the two paintings I entered into the show and competition. I wanted to be sure to enter paintings that were authentically "Buford" and not just flowers or trees that could have been painted anywhere!

The last painting before framing and entering was at the Stonehedge Bed & Breakfast property. I have a photo of the painting on the easel and the scene I painted. Then you will see the painting. I sold the painting to the owners of the B&B at the reception that evening. What good luck I had a this Plein Air Festival!

You can again see the difference in what the photograph sees and why my eyes did see. Remember also this affects my taking photos of the paintings themselves. I have to try to "tweak" the photo of the painting to look more like my painting. Not too much is really done though.

Now, I did paint something at the "Quick Draw" and the photo I took of it is terrible. I was taking the photo inside the Tannery and the glare of the lights totally obliterated some of the colors. The painting was quite wet and looks it. So, at this time I don't have a photo that will translate here very well. But, I did sell the painting to a father and daughter that watched me paint it! Another stroke of good luck at this Festival.

I had loads of fun, and spent two days outdoors painting and learning . . . won two awards and sold three pieces . . . what more could you ask for?