Plein Air Conference - Tucson
I have been meaning to post this for a couple of months. We got back home at the end of April, but it took a while to get around to posting about the Plein Air Conference. I think it was because none of these paintings could be considered "finished" and I hesitated to put them online. But then I decided to just go ahead and do it.
I had a fantastic time at the Plein Air Conference & Expo in Tucson with my painting buddy Sue Flanagan. We stayed at the beautiful El Conquistador Hotel in the Catalina Foothills north of Tucson. It was billed as the "World's Largest Gathering of Plein Air Painters." There were 900 artists attending the Conference. In the mornings and early afternoons there were talks and demonstrations by world famous artists. In the late afternoons we all went outside to paint at various locations. I have painted many Arizona desert scenes, but only from photographs, never from life. It was a wonderful experience. I brought home about six or seven paintings. None of them are finished paintings, only studies. But they can be used as references for future finished paintings. A few of them may become "wipers." I'm still deciding if it is worth saving them or just wiping them down and painting over them. I will post some of them today, and will decide later if I want to post the others.
This first painting was the view from the patio of our room. I could get used to seeing this view every day.
This image is from Catalina State Park where we painted on the second day.
The next day we painted it was at Picacho Peak. I was trying to paint the saguaro cactus against a background from a whole different direction. I am not sure that was very successful.
Then that evening Sue and I went outside to the area around the parking lot and painted some prickly pear cactuses that were blooming.
I think this is my favorite of all the paintings we did that week.
I have a few more paintings from that week, but I am not that happy with them. It is very different painting in Arizona. The atmosphere and colors are different, shadows are sharper. I think I needed another few weeks there to really get familiar with the differences. But I am very glad that I went. It was an amazing experience.
