Richmond plein air class info is up

Heading out early again to get in some morning painting, so hopefully I'll have something new to show later on. Meanwhile, I've posted details for "Warm Up to Plein Air" in Richmond, VA.The France workshop/painting holiday info is almost ready (promise!), but it has been a time nailing down pricing what with the Dollar/Euro conversion and the communication limitations due to time zones. More on that very soon.

Early morning at Byrd Park

With so much going on this week, I have to get out pretty early in the morning to have time to do any painting at all, let alone blog about it. But it was really beautiful this morning at the park. I left the house at around 7:15 a.m. to do a little plein air painting, and the light was still low, soft and luminous.  Here is the result of my morning's effort--another one of these back-lit little islands on the water:

"Dawning" Oil on Multimedia ArtBoard, 8x10" (SOLD) ©Jennifer Young

Plein air on the James River

After a summer break (of sorts) I'm getting back to a more regular painting schedule this week. To kick it off, I'll share a little plein air painting I did last Thursday at James River. I painted this at the foot of the Lee Bridge, near the entrance to Belle Isle section of the James River Park System in my town, Richmond, VA.

"Rambling River" Oil on Multimedia ArtBoard, 6x12" (SOLD) ©Jennifer Young

It was really a beautiful evening last Thursday, but it was also incredibly windy. I had packed my lighter plein air painting setup with the intention of backpacking it across the footbridge over to Belle Isle to do some afternoon painting. But from past experience, I was afraid that the wind would have blown my nifty little lightweight pochade setup completely away. So I decided to save myself the aggravation and instead went back to my studio to get my sturdier Soltek. Whatever problems I've had with this easel, it stands up great against the wind. But just to be safe, I returned to set up near a bank of trees on the "mainland", giving me a little bit more shelter.

All of this meant that I got started later, but as it turned out, the timing was just right--The light was just beautiful and turned the river rocks a beautiful rosy gold . Dinner could wait (apologies to the D.H.!)

A few announcements

Being heavily immersed in summer activities I'm afraid I've kind of fallen off the blog wagon lately. But things have been happening behind the scenes, and I'd thought I'd share a few interesting tidbits of what's coming down the pike.

• France in 2009! I've just gotten the word that my dates for a 10 day plein air painting workshop at Le Vieux Couvent have been confirmed! If you've been reading my blog, you've already heard my raves about this beautiful, enchanting part of Southern France.

I'm excited to have the opportunity to take a group there myself, for 10 days of painting, touring, eating, and just soaking in the atmosphere. Dates are June 3-13, 2009. This year during that time period I had word from the workshop host that the poppies were in full bloom and the roses were going crazy in the garden. I'm preparing my brochure now and should have it up on my website by next week. If you have an interest in joining me for this wonderful creative adventure, please check back, or just contact me and I'll send you a brochure with all the details as soon it's done

•  Moving ahead. Well it just seemed like yesterday that I moved into my beautiful gallery space, but the time has come for me to make another move. I don't have a lot of details to share yet, but come fall I will be letting go of the downtown gallery location. I'm sure I'll be writing on that in the weeks ahead but a lot of details need to be ironed out before I really have anything solid to share.
•  Warm up to Plein Air! Since the time of my last workshop this past spring, I've received a number of inquiries asking when I'd be having another class. Due to the aforementioned upcoming move, I had to wait a bit to schedule anything solid. But here's what I'd like to do: In September I'd like to offer some one-day plein air modules in the Richmond area that I'm calling "Warm up to Plein Air."  If you are a painter who has always wanted to try plein air painting, this will be a fun opportunity to give it a shot. Experienced plein air painters can benefit as well, as this day-long module will include a demo and time for painting. We'll talk about the tools of the trade that I've found useful, plus tips to make the most of your time outdoors. I'm limiting these modules to a very small size so we can make the most of our time together. Dates and details will be posted on my website, hopefully also by next week. Meantime, feel free to contact me if you're interested.

Poppies en plein air- "Dusk in the Lot Valley"

I've been taking some time off to deal with matters at home these last few, but I still have a few paintings to share from my France trip. If you've spent any time on my website, you might have noticed that this little plein air is a subject that is a familiar to me--poppies!  In the south of France they are seen profusely in springtime. But, as with sunflowers and lavender, there is no precise way of knowing just when they will be in bloom. Sometimes the sunflowers come "early", or the lavender "late". Or sometimes any one of these flowers can be plowed over (in the case of poppies) or harvested by some farmer. (The nerve!) 

Our group got lucky. It had been an unusually cold, wet spring up until just before we had arrived, and there were few to no poppy fields in sight. I was pretty okay with it, having painted them quite often (not to mention that we had no shortage of beautiful scenes to paint!) But most of the group seemed to have their heart set on it, and I was a little worried that they might be disappointed.

But we were lucky, not only because nature, at last, decided to cooperate, but also because the folks at Le Vieux Couvent remained on the lookout for our perfect field of poppies. And boy, did they find it--complete with two charming little cabins (cabineaux) set against a mountain backdrop. It may have been one of the prettiest poppy fields I've seen to date....or maybe the thrill of the others was just very catching.  Here's my little plein air from that afternoon, painted around 5 PM or so.

"Dusk in the Lot Valley" Oil on Multimedia ArtBoard, 6x12" (SOLD) ©Jennifer Young

And a couple of gratuitous shots of us in the poppy fields: