Plein Air Fabulous!!,Values and Contrast, Oops!, Tasty Pecans

Here is Grayson, hard at work at Plein Air Monthly.



Here is another part of my Plein Air Monthly Group.
Left to Right Liz, Dottie, Rick, Leslie and Kitty. Notice the perfect symmetry of their heights. It was totally unplanned and I did not see it until I got home to view the jpeg.


This was a really successful session for them. I saw amazing growth from January to February for my returning students. We studied Value and Contrast Dominance in composition for this month's session. This is a group serious about painting. As I handed out assignments, you could have heard a pin drop. No gossiping with these painters, just serious effort.


Each month I bring a printed copy of the day's lesson, which they insert in their notebook. By this time next year, they will have quite a good notebook and a thorough understanding of painting concepts. We always start with a warm up exercise, which is actually important to good painting. We have to train ourselves to focus on work and the warm up gives us a transition between the laundry and errands we still need to do and the actual business of paintng. This is really important. Focus ie everything in good painting. Making a transistion from one world to another really helps. Even if you simply practice your brushwork for 10 minutes, you will be more prepared.


The last thing I do is send out a page of notes on the lesson we did after I get home. That reinforces what we learned onsite and gives them notes to refer back to in their own study time away from the group.

OK Here is the laughable anecdote to the session. I worked throughout the lesson on an 8x10 painting, illustrating the lesson for the group. I managed to finish the painting and was going to take it home to tweak if necessary, but it looked fine, in fact I was very pleased with it. I got to my car and was packing stuff up, talking to painters and such. I think I left the painting on the roof of my car. Alas, it was gone with the wind!! I hope whoever finds it will enjoy it. Since I did not sign it, the artist will be a mystery. I don't mind. It's kind of cool to know it will be a happy surprise for someone.

Today's Recipe:

Tasty Pecans


4 cups pecan halves
3 Tbs. melted butter
1/2 tsp. of ground cumin
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves
pinch of ground nutmeg
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 T packed brown sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Toss all ingredients in a bowl until well coated. Spread pecans out on a greased baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes or until fragrant; stir often to prevent burning. Makes 2 cups.


That combined sugar and spice tastes yummy.