Louise Treacy's Plein Air event in America

[Louise Treacy]

Hi fellow Artists ,

Well, tomorrow I will be heading off to the U.S.A. PG.

I have registered to take part in the Escalante Canyons Art Festival, which has a plein air painting competition. The event takes place from 20th Sept until 27th Sept., 

Last year, 76 artists took part in the event, just a FEW less than Art in the Open!!

I have packed up my gear for Oils, watercolours and inks with a few oil painting panels and some W/C paper  thrown in!!

My total weight of art supplies is 12lbs (in old money),5.5kg, in new, including paints, panels, brushes,tripod, pochade box, (which I made myself), masking fluid, etc, in other words all I will have to do when I get there, is squeeze out some paint and GET ON WITH IT! Or with W/C just spray my paints and activate them, then PAINT!!!!

One thing that I will have to do, is to organize my frames in advance, and as the competition is "out in the boonies" I will have to bring frames with me. These, I hope to purchase, on the way.

Of course, this means having to choose what dimensions my canvas or surface will be, difficult, for me, but I have kind of settled on 12x10ins or 10x14ins for oil.

Watercolour is a different matter, and as you artists realize, W/C never looks at its best without a mount and a frame so THAT may prove to be a tad more difficult as I love to PAINT BIG!!! when doing W/C. 

I am sure I can source frames to suit me but that will have to be in advance of the event, as the place where the event is, is about 60-70 miles from the nearest large town where framing would be available.

That's what I have gleaned from my research on the area, I could be wrong, only time will tell.

I have long wished to take part in a plein air  event in the US, and it looks like I will shortly realize my "dream".

I will try to keep any of you who are interested, up to date with my exploits. I will give my opinions about the trip, good, or bad, any differences I spot between the ethos and ambience of a plein air event here at home in Ireland and one in the USA will be expounded upon, ad nauseum. (LOL).

I think it will be a BLAST!!!! So looking forward to the adventure!!! 

I will post my blog and images of my work and photographs of  places and people I come across, as often as possible. I am NOT bringing my laptop as I just don't want to lumber myself with more stuff to carry on to the flights. I will welcome any questions or feedback from anyone who is interested and answer when I can.

Have to hit the hay now, as I have to be up at the crack of 4.30am to get on the road.

All the best Plein Eiristas!!

Talk soon!!

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Hi fellow artists,

Well we arrived safe and sound, following three flights to our first destination Palm Springs California.

We fell into our beds and conked out, we had been awake for about 29 hours.

The next thing there was an unmerciful racket from just a few yards down the road, a fire brigade, some ambulances and the police arrived to the scene of a fire, which had begun in the historic Community Church which was built in the late 1920s and is one of the few examples which remain in Palm Springs of the type of architecture, of that era.

Most of the damage occured inside the historic building, which had been vacant for a number of years.

The ambulances arrived because the building was known to have been used in the past by squatters and transients passing through the area.

Thankfully the building was not in use by any of the aforementioned so only bricks and mortar sustained the damage.

I got up early this morning and went along the street to see if I could manage to do a passable painting of the old building and as it gets to about 103 degrees by noon I got out at 7.30 when the shadows would be fairly long and it would only be 75 degrees.

Luckily the road block was gone and I got myself under a nice tree across the road  to paint.

I got as much done as I could in between people chatting to me etc etc. and put away the brushes after about an hour and a half. I can go back later this evening to put any final touches to it if I feel its needed.

I even had a chat with the Chief Fire Officer of Palm Springs, who took several photos of both my painting and myself, and who returned to see the "almost" finished product!!!!

He asked for my card and my contact number as he seemed to like the work, and knew by then that I would be back later to finish off.

I haven't yet managed to find a shop in which to buy a shade umbrella to get under, you all know the ones I mean , the silver ones etc.

I just did watercolour yesterday and posted it on face book.

I cant seem to be able to post things I mean photos,from my phone to plein eire and on pleinairartists, but I will find a way to do it asap.

Oh yes the organisers of the event next week sent participants out an extension of the hours that they would be available to stamp paper , canvas etc., on the Fri and Sat, I emailed them and said that I would not arrive till the Sunday, lo and behold they emailed me back and said for me to call them when I was an hour or two away and one of them would be there to stamp whatever I wanted !!!. I was really delighted at that piece of generosity especially on a Sunday, as Utah is a mainly Morman state where Sunday rules are observed as a norm.

I will try to post my paintings and photos as soon as I figure out a way to do it from my phone.

Bye for now.

 

[Plein Eire Administrator]

Blog no. 3

In bed now as all the places which serve food and alcohol close at nine pm .
Its a very righteous state, you can not purchase an alcoholic beverage withtout ordering food in the state of Utah, that's the law!! So people get a plate of tacos with sauce whether they want them or not.The faces of Europeans is priceless when this is explained to then, and that included ours!!!
The town of Escalante is lovely but quite small and that makes it not viable for the restaurants two to stay open late plus the fact that the Morman community do not usually take alcohol smoke, or drink coffee.all the beer taps are usually in the back and not on view.
This is a festival that is great for getting lots of painting done the scenery is breathtaking to say the least, there are many back packers and hikers and lots of tourists coming and going.
The reception tonight was lovely,great grub lemonade, coffee and water were the beverages served and no wine.
However it was lovely to meet up with all the other artists at last, I thought it was a pity that it didn't happen at the start of the event. One of the organisers asked me how our AITO goes so I explained that our meet and greet happens at the start with the barbecued and sort of continues all through the week at a designated watering hole after all ya don't HAVE to drink alcohol but you could have a good time and make great contacts and network s etc. she agreed that the social aspect left a Lou to be desired and even came up to me tonight and page she believes that with the more diverse artists taking part that aspect of the event needed a new view .
I had a great days painting today painted with JAmes Bradley Holt, and Carol Johannsen all afternoon, very relaxed as I had my two hand in pieces all framed up and ready to go.
For once I was early and ready to submit.
Tomorrow is the exhibition of work and I can't remember when the prize giving is, but I will blog again when there is internet and more to relate.
Please excuse any typing errors I am writing on my phone and the text jumps around sometimes.

[Plein Eire Administrator]

Blog no. 4

Hi everyone.
Today was the start of the exhibition and the judging was completed at eleven am, the prize giving is be announced tomorrow as advertised, but when we went in all the winners were signified by rosettes and stickers, so the element of surprise has been lost. The winners had gorgeous work and the standard was high. In addition to the exhibition one could put ones paintings done during the week up for sale at a venue outside the hall. Each artist could hang five paintings for sale the event takes twenty five per cent commission which is not exorbitant.
Some artists and vendors had tents erected with their work inside. The day was beautiful and earlier two artists Sarah Straw and Darlene Hanson had erected their booth aka tent.
They had about sixty paintings hung on kind of grilles in the tent. Well the next thing a little whirlwind took up and raced across the area it got under their booth and lifted the whole lot off the ground and the tent landed about fifteen feet away, it happened so quickly no one could do anything. a lot of the frames were damaged and The two women got the fright of their lives, luckily no one was hurt but several of the paintings were damaged beyond repair as were some frames.
Philip and myself managed to re erect the booth and The grilled shelving hanging system along with the two artists, who were very upset. Luckily they managed to sell quite a few pieces but I never saw anything like it and only their booth, and one booth theirs landed on were damaged.
We will be heading off on our travels tomorrow and one of the organizers will meet us next week and return my paintings to me if they don't sell.
It was a lovely day with great input from all the local community.
There were lovely performances from local dance groups and singers plus other performers on piano. The local people are so friendly and helpful once you have met them you couldn't find nicer .I have had a great time painting and exploring t.e area but a year would not be enough time to try to record this landscape, and I really mean that. i don't think a hundred years would even put a dent in it!!!AMAZING ALTOGETHER!!!
TALK SOON
HAPPY PAINTING!

[Plein Eire Administrator]

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[Lori Putnam]

Hi Louise, I can get an umbrella shipped to your hotel in 24 hours. Let me know if you want the "attach to your easel small kind," or the "stick in the ground big-ass" kind.