Category Archives: blogging

Season’s Greetings

Posted on December 19, 2011 by jennifereyoung| 7 Comments

It’s hard to believe that in just a few days’ time, Christmas will be upon us, and we will shortly after ring in a new year. I need only look at the cherubic face of my daughter,  a near-18 month old very active toddler,  to find truth in the saying “time flies”. Her progress has been great and swift. I can’t say the same for my painting or my blog this year, but that is life.

I have (thankfully) been busy with some commissioned work this fall and winter, so the studio isn’t completely covered in cobwebs. But time has been tight and consequently the blogging has suffered (as it is plain to see). So to the readers who are still with me, I feel like I should offer my apologies.

I can sometimes feel a little sad when I reflect on it, because up until the last year or two I had devoted quite a bit of time to this blog, trying to find things thoughtful or useful or interesting to post that could actually help or inspire someone else. There have been times this year when I stumble upon old blog posts and marvel at their length and how indepth some of them were. I find myself thinking, “Geez, I had a lot of time.” Time, now, is an elusive stranger, and I have struggled these last twelve months or so to wrangle it, without, I’m afraid, much success.

The truth of the matter is, that along with motherhood (which, while incredibly rich and rewarding,  still feels very much like a new shoe in need of breaking in) I am also dealing with some health issues. While not immenently  life-threatening, they are nonetheless, significant enough and  have really thrown a wrench in my ability to wear multiple hats. So when push comes to shove and I only have a finite amount of energy to devote to either art or motherhood, motherhood wins hands-down (and rightfully so).

I have to admit, I am not really a heart-on-the-sleeve kind of person and I don’t go much for “diary-entry” type posts on my blog. It’s supposed to be an art blog, after all, right? I also learned in my ”professional artist” training that if you want to be successful, you must present yourself that way. So with that intention, my plan has always been to keep things mostly on a professional level here. But as John Lennon once said, “Life is what happens to you while  you are busy making other plans.”  And I just felt that it is better to tell it like it is rather than to have you just think I have neglected blogging because I just lost interest or something.

I feel certain that I’ll find a way to overcome the health issues and, in time, get my energy level back. I feel just as certain that I will return to the easel and the blog on a more regular basis, as I am still carrying a very big torch for painting.

In the meantime, I am enjoying being Santa to the  smart, funny, amazing little cherub running around my house inspiring me to be a better person, (and to get to feeling better so that I can chase her around and maybe even catch her once in a while!) And, in addition to my little girl and my wonderful husband, I have another forever-kind-of-love in painting, that is ready for me when I am. My wish to everyone reading this is that your life is equally as rich and full.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy 2012 to all!





Jennifer Young; Vibrant Landscapes
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Posted in blogging, The artist's life, Uncategorized

Independence Day

Posted on July 6, 2011 by jennifereyoung| 2 Comments

It was hot and humid and overcast. Our baby had been sick part of the week prior and through the long weekend with a 102 degree fever and hand, foot and mouth virus. And to top it all off, we woke up on July 4th sticky and without power from a tremendous summer storm the night before. But believe it or not, I had a great morning, as I was allowed the privilege of escaping getting outside early to do this little plein air painting.

 plein air painting of water by Jennifer Young
“Pond Reflections”
Oil on board, 12″x9″
Click here for more info, or just contact me to purchase.

The location is Young’s Pond in nearby Bryan Park. I’ve painted this location before a number of times, and this approximate scene once before, which you can see here. There were a number of nearby spots I could have chosen, but on an overcast day it’s nice to paint a water effect, as then you have some luminosity built in, when the light is otherwise fairly flat.

I spent about 3 hours on site working on this piece, which was longer than I normally would do on location. But I think the combination of fairly steady light conditions, and my private glee at having the entire morning completely to myself kept me lingering longer than I would have otherwise. 

Here’s a shot of my setup right before I started.

plein air painting setup

Next time I would like to get out even earlier than I did, to try and capture that wonderful atmosphere (aka humidity) before it settles into just plain old hot heavy air. But with a baby, you gotta do what you gotta do, and I was happy to get out at all. My setup has remained pretty consistent over the years, with my Soltek easel still being my go to plein air easel due to the ease of use and quick setup time.

The sun made its appearance often enough that shading myself, my painting, and my palette was a concern. I brought my umbrella with me, but it is a pain to set up and doesn’t really work that great with the Soltek (one of the easel’s down-sides…I’ve yet to find a really compatible umbrella that can attach to it without falling over.)  So If I can get away without, I usually do. This often means avoiding standing in the blazing sun, even if it means forgoing a preferred view. Otherwise my painting ultimately suffers (not to mention my skin.)

In this photo I’ve set up my painting panel so that the sun (when it peeks out) is behind it, making it shaded. I am relatively shaded by tree branches overhead.  Since I am right-handed, my subject is to my left, so that I am not having to reach across my painting when I look/paint. Often times I can shade my palette simply by wedging another panel between it and my painting. In this case I am using a flat wet panel carrier called the Art Cocoon.

This is actually a pretty neat concept for a wet panel carrier, which I read about some time ago on another artist’s blog (when I still had time to read them) owned by Ed Terpening . The advantage is that you can use the carrier for different sized paintings with the provided inserts, and it is nice and lightweight and not bulky. But the down side for me is that it is made out of cardboard, which eventually warps (especially in our hot Virginia climate) and when that happens it stops protecting the painting effectively.

For that reason, my go-to wet panel carrier is still the RayMar. It’s a little more expensive, and bulkier,  but still lightweight. And its coroplast  construction means that while it won’t last forever,  it lasts a good long time and doesn’t warp.





Jennifer Young; Vibrant Landscapes
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Posted in Art of the American South, blogging, Plein Air Painting, Southern Landscapes, The artist's life

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Little things

Posted on June 22, 2011 by jennifereyoung| 6 Comments

My painting (and posting) has been so sporadic lately that there are times when I am tempted to just announce a summer hiatus once and for all. At least this way, (I say to myself) I can engage myself fully in mothering an already active baby (who is soon to be an even more active toddler) and I won’t have this anxious, “torn between two worlds” feeling when I can’t make it to the easel (or produce anything noteworthy when I do). But the hubby doesn’t think this is a good idea, and doubts I’d be happy with not painting at all, if even for a couple of months. He’s probably right, but that still leaves me with trying to figure out how to enjoy the time I have in these two seemingly opposing life roles, without the anxiety I sometimes have that I am not doing well enough at either one. 

So I was taking my baby out for a stroller ride not long ago, and ran into a neighbor, who is also a mother, and happens to be a very fine artist. We have exchanged pleasantries a few times, but this was our first actual introduction and chat. We spent a good deal of time talking about the ups and downs of being both a working artist and a mother . We talked about finding the time and the peace of mind to be fully engaged in both roles, and perhaps most importantly, to enjoy the process along the way. I asked her if she felt that her work had changed as a result of having had a child.

“Oh yes!” she replied, “For quite a while I had to paint a lot smaller. ”

This may sound like a punchline, but in fact, it makes a lot of sense. Before the baby, I had become accustomed to painting small in the field and using my studio work to develop my ideas and studies into larger scale works. As a landscape painter, my feeling was, why paint small landscapes inside if I can paint the same small scale from life? 

But at present, plein air opportunities have been few and far between, so often it is studio work or no work at all.  While I never really paint HUGE, I have struggled with my studio sessions, as they are both shorter in length and spread farther apart. Often enough I have found myself spending a good deal of a studio session just trying to get the painting opened up enough to start working on it again…just in time to clean up!

So, it makes sense, for the next little while, to try and work on a few small things. They may not all be landscapes, (and who knows? They may not all be oil paintings) but at least I will still be doing something.

So that is my commitment to you, dear reader. I will do something instead of nothing. And furthermore, I will post it here often enough so that you know I am still alive.  How’s that for an inspirational statement of purpose?  Sorry, but this is the best I can do right now. ;-)

Even if it’s just a little thing, it will hopefully keep the creative juices flowing, and perhaps make it easier to develop some skills that need brushing up, or to experiment with various designs, compositional choices and different color palettes. In the very least, I will get the satisfaction of having finished something!

Tuscany landscape painting olive groves

“Evening Light, Tuscany”
Oil on linen, 6×12″
Click here for more info, or just contact me to purchase.





Jennifer Young; Vibrant Landscapes
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Posted in blogging, Experimental work, Italian Landscapes, The artist's life, Tuscany Paintings

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Of Paint and Palette Knives

Posted on May 6, 2011 by jennifereyoung| Leave a comment

 Here is a recent message I received from a reader that I thought I other blog readers might find of interest:

Q: Can you tell me if you use painting knives or if it is all done with brushes? And do you have a favorite brand of paint? -N.M

A: Hi N.M-  I paint primarily with a brush, but here and there I have been using the palette knife as a painting tool (rather than just a tool for mixing). If you can get your hands on Richard Schmid’s video on painting the landscape (June in particular), he has an excellent demonstration of how he uses the palette knife in his paintings. I am experimenting with his technique (as I understand it) but, not for every painting. So I wouldn’t call myself a palette knife painter by any means. 

As for paint brands, I’m looking at my paint bins now, and I see Winsor Newton, Gamblin, Holbein, Daniel Smith, M. Graham, Rembrandt, and Old Holland! I probably use Winsor Newton and Gamblin most often, but I have had good experiences with all of the above. I often base my decision on which brand to buy by the pigment I am after. Some pigments seem to be pretty particular to one brand. But even paints that go by the same name can vary quite a lot in hue, value, or color temperature. For instance, Winsor & Newton’s Cadmium Yellow Light is warmer and I believe, a bit darker than Gamblin’s, which is more lemony. That’s not necessarily better or worse– it all depends on what you’re after. In any case, I make sure that I buy professional grade paints, rather than student grade. They are more expensive, but there is a big difference in quality.

I hope this helps, and happy painting!





Jennifer Young; Vibrant Landscapes
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Posted in Art Instruction, Art supplies, blogging, Painting Technique

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Back to Tuscany; Vineyard W.I.P.

Posted on April 21, 2011 by jennifereyoung| Leave a comment

I think I will just make a deal with you readers (and, for that matter, with myself) to stop making lofty statements like, “I’m finally getting a regular schedule!” because something (like a 9 month-old cutting new teeth  or reaching new milestones, for instance!) always seems to come up right afterwards. Still, I know I am fortunate to be able to do anything art-related at all, and  I have finally worked out my compositional pencil sketch for the next studio painting that  I thought I’d at least share. (Incidentally, I just want to say thank you to those of you who have sent me such nice, encouraging comments lately. I am glad to know that these W.I.P.s offer some interest. It’s a format that works well for me in that it keeps me posting regularly here on the blog, so I will try to stick to it at least for a while.)

This is again a scene of the visually dramatic area in Tuscany known as La Crete.

Tuscany pencil sketch

These little sketches are definitely not meant to be any kind of finished drawings, but with all the stops and starts in studio time nowadays, I am finding them really helpful. They help me to determine whether the scene will work compositionally, what I need to  edit out and include, how I might create interest with line,  light and shadow, etc. Though more detailed, they serve a similar purpose to the thumbnail sketches I have used from time to time while plein air painting.

Watercolorists know this approach well, but until recently it has typically not been  my way with my studio oils. It takes a little bit more time when some days all I want to do is just dive right on into painting and get ON with it already! But with little sleep and even less free time, it’s helped me to feel less disjointed and to backtrack less when I am standing in front of the easel, bleary-eyed with a cuppa jo, trying to get my brain to start.

In case you can’t tell what this is to be, it’s a vineyard in the fore with a small outbuilding in the middle ground and a little Tuscan hamlet in the distance.  What interested me most about this scene is the movement of line from front to back. There is a lot of information in this scene, (maybe too much? We’ll see…) and not much sky at all to speak of, so I feel that in order to make my present plan work I should use a canvas of at least 24×30″.   Well, that’s a whole lot of writing for such a simple little sketch, but what can I say? Baby girl has napped well this morning. :-)





Jennifer Young; Vibrant Landscapes
Oil Paintings and Art Prints Online
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Posted in blogging, Italian Landscapes, The artist's life, Tuscany Paintings

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