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Carole and I each taught a day of our workshops at the Cheyenne Arboretum. We decided to go back to the pond for one of our required days painting in Cheyenne as part of the Wyoming Plein Air event. I was intrigued with the reflection in the pond and the coy swimming partially in and out of the shadows.
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For the Wyoming Plein Air event we had two weeks where we could paint anywhere in Wyoming but three of those days had to be in the city of Cheyenne. I chose to paint this sculpture on the lawn of the State Capitol building. I painted this over two afternoons. The first day I blocked it in and was having fun with the colors in the bronze until the clouds showed up. The second day was cut short too as they turned on the sprinkler; I guess they wanted me out of there. See photos below to see the start and end of the first day. You can also see how the light changes so much in 2 hours!
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This was painted near interstate 80 in Green River, Wyoming. We really liked the area around Green River as Carole and I passed through on our way to Cheyenne to teach a couple workshops. Once we finished the workshops we checked in for the Wyoming Plein Air event and then headed back to Green River to paint for a few days. I spent a couple evenings on this maybe for an hour or two each. The first evening there were these great cloud formations as a storm was brewing. Maybe an hour in to it from out of the blue both Carole and my hats blew of at the same time. We both darted across the road trying to get our hats back before they were gone for good. We looked down the road by the hotel and a wall of dust, maybe 12 feet high was quickly heading our way. My first thought was a funnel touch down but it was just a large gust. We grabbed our easels and ducked behind the truck for cover holding on to everything as the wind was trying to take it all away. Dust everywhere. Heavy rain soon followed as we tried to tear our gear down and get into the truck. We watched the storm pass through the rain with lots of thunder and lightning as the sun went down.
When we went back to finish the paintings a few nights later it was a completely different sky so I went with the new sunset. It was a calm night and a few folks stopped by to chat and let us know that this was a great spot to take photos. We agreed.
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This was a demo I did for my Cheyenne workshop last year.
To see more of my plein air paintings please visit my web site; Alfredo Tofanelli Fine Art.
I did this quick oil demo, maybe 15 minutes, at my workshop in Cheyenne, WY. I wanted the students to start with just two values depicting light and shadow and designing interesting shapes to help describe the form and likeness. I later added a third light value.
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I did this painting late after painting earlier in the day. I thought I arrived too late to catch the sunset but Carole talked me into it. I walked down a ways to get a better angle on where the sun would set in my painting and then quickly started placing color spots down as the sun was setting fast. I didn't even have the board covered by the time it got dark so I went to the car and dug out my head lamp, the type that mounts on your head, and went back and finished the painting. The light uses LCDs so the colors were off and I had to paint more of what I knew than what I was seeing on the board. I was pleasantly surprised when I brought the painting into the house that night. The judge for the the Alameda Plein Air must have also liked it as he gave it the Water Scene Award.
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This was painted at the 2 hour quick draw for Alameda Plein Air. Rebecca worked at Julie's Coffee and Tea Garden and I ask her if she would pose for a painting. She was a terrific model and fun to paint. We set up in the garden patio in the back of Julie's; great spot. I had 2 hours to get my board stamped, drive up to Julie's, paint the portrait, frame and wire it, drive back and check it in within 2 hours. Weew! Carole Gray Weihman and Victoria Brooks were painting inside of Julie's too.
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The folks at the Frank Bette Center arranged to have the artists paint at Cardinal Point in Alameda. I arrived a little late and Verdi asked if I would paint her portrait as all the other artists had already started their paintings. We went out into the outdoor atrium and she sat for me for about 2 hours. She was a great model! She wouldn't take a break and held her pose beautifully.
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This was painted at the Alameda Plein Air in a cafe called Julie's.
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This was painted at the San Clemente Plein Air - Quick Draw. This was an unusual quick draw as it was 3 hours instead of the average 90 minutes. The quick draws are typically in the center of town and the artists are restricted to a certain area in order for the public to be able to watch all the artists paint. The the artists at the quick draw could paint a landscape, cityscape, a still-life or a model. Their were two models this year and I had set up ahead of time before the models arrived. I received 2nd Place for this quick draw!
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I painted this on the last morning to paint for the Carmel Art Festival. This is painted off the corner of the lower parking lot and when we arrived the fog was thick and I could barely see the distant bluffs and trees. I decided to stay in the parking lot while Sterling hiked up and painted his award winner. The scene look rather simple at the time because there were just large shapes to wotk with due to the fog. I decided to do a 16x20 and quickly started putting down color spots based on the distant bluffs. Of course the fog started to lift and I had to go back to my memory of the scene. Luckily for me, it never lifted completely.
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After the morning fog we decided to head farther south in hopes of finding some sun. We found this scene off of a restaurant. As we moved in closer to get a better painting spot we discovered three other artists were already painting the scene and they welcomed us to squeeze in to paint. I discovered later that they were local painters and not involved in Carmel Art Festival. Their work was great!
I really enjoyed painting this scene. I seem to work best when I know there isn't much time to paint as the fog was fast approaching. This is one of my favorites; at least for now.
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Sterling Hoffmann took me down to this beach area just south of Carmel to paint. It was pretty foggy when we got there and Sterling painted a large Cypress just to the right of these trees. I looked around the area for almost an hour before settling on this scene.
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This was my first painting that I painted at the Carmel Art Festival this year. I was looking northwest from the beach off of Ocean Avenue. The light was fading fast so I had to get my first color spots down before the light changed too much.
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Alfredo receives Best of Show at the 2009 Biennial Juried Plein Air Exhibition at the Napa Valley Museum. Two paintings were accepted into the show with Light Play receiving the 1st Place. The prize for the award is a One Man Show at the Napa Valley Museum in the spring of 2010. Some of the other award winners were Carole Gray-Weihman, Wendy Franklin, Frank Gannon, Wendy Brayton and Larry Cannon. Other friends in the show were Camille Przewodek, who won the Best of Show in a previous Biennial, and Sterling Hoffmann.
Camille Przewodek, Carole Gray-Weihman and myself, Alfredo Tofanelli are the artists behind l'Atelier aux Couleurs: the Art Academy in Petaluma, Cailifornia where we teach weekly classes and host painting workshops for top plein air painters and colorists from around the country.
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This was a demo that I painted at The Pelican Art Gallery during our show that was held there between the end of March and the middle of June. It was a four person show for the folks behind our art school, l'Atelier aux Couleurs in Petaluma, CA. The artist were Camille Przewodek, Dale Axelrod, Carole Gray-Weihman and myself, Alfredo Tofanelli.
Another artist with the gallery sat for me while I did an oil sketch on a 12x16 canvas board. I was demonstrating how to get a likeness by sketching lightly and building the value up as you work the whole painting at once. This allows you to make adjustments as you bounce around the board. Any early errant marks, since they were put down on the board lightly, will not take away from the likeness. This is done in a similar manner as a charcoal study, it's just that oils are less forgiving.
I use to start my head studies and portraits this way but rarely do anymore. They can be valuable as a rehearsal to the color painting but I find it more of a hindrance as you don't want to loss your beautiful drawing. Typically when I paint a head study I will only sketch in the big shapes with linework and then go right into blocking in the big shapes and shadow patterns in color. Adding features way down the road only after I have the correct color relationships down on the large masses.
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This is a preview of the second painting the I sent to Nomadas del Arte which will be held at the Southwest Gallery in Dallas Texas.
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This is a preview of one of the two paintings that I sent to Nomadas del Arte which will be held at the Southwest Gallery in Dallas Texas.
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This was painted at Devil's Gulch Vineyards as part of Art on the Farm and will be on display at Claudia Chapline Gallery in Stinson Breach, California from March 8 - March 29. Part of the proceeds are going to the Marin Organic Loan Fund.
NOTE: This painting was featured in the August 2009 issue of Southwest Art magazine's Best of the West|Rocky Mountains section.
I painted this over the weekend in the evenings. I didn't have a model available and wanted to paint a head study so I purchased a stock photo and painted from that. I wanted to try to capture the subtle temperature changes in the face. If I get time I will finish the hair as it is just blocked in. I would also lighten the eyes a touch.
These were done in Peggi's weekend workshop. The two smaller ones were 20 minutes each and the larger one is a 40 minute pose.
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I will be part of the California Impressionists show at the Link Gallery from October 11-30 in Cheyenne, Wyoming along with Carole Gray-Weihman and Rich Gallego. The opening reception will be Oct 11, 5-8pm. Associated with the show will be the William Sitting Bull fundraising action. William is also an artist at the gallery. He has recently been suffering from poor health and is in need of a kidney transplant and is without insurance. Because of the urgency the gallery owner has decided to hold a joint opening and auction where Williams and his wife Bonnie will be auctioning their artwork along with some donated pieces from some of the gallery artists. Many of the gallery artists will also donate a percentage of all sales during the show to William's fund. For more information about the show and William's auction please visit the Link Gallery web site at: www.link-gallery.com.
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This and most of the other paintings done over the last year by all the artists in Art on the Farm will be on display at Point Reyes Vineyards on October 19, 2008 between 12:30-5:00pm. Food from Marin Organic family farms, Wine and art are available for purchase with part of the proceeds going to Marin Organic Loan Fund and part to the artist. Point Reyes Vineyard is about 1 mile north of Point Reyes Station on Highway One at 12700 Highway One.
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This was painted at the Greater Petaluma Paintout in conjunction with the Oil Painters of America. It was a cloudy day with the light going in and out of shadow. I decided to paint the hills looking east and the clouds above them. The sky in this painting was completely done with the palette knife.
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I joined a local organization called Art on the Farm this last spring. I have been too busy to go on the paintouts until this paintout held at Fresh Run Farm. The organization teams up artists and organic farms with a show at the end of the year where part of the proceeds from sales go to the Marin Organic loan fund and part to the artist. It's always great to paint with a bunch of artists and make new friends but it also feels good to do something for a good cause. The Show is October 19th. More on that in the next Art on the Farm post.
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This is a sketch of Fidel that I painted on an overcast day. I started by covering the board using a palette knife then switching to a brush. The palette knife helps you block in large shapes and keeps you from getting into the detail too early.
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The first week of September we host a Peggi Kroll-Roberts workshop here at the l'Atelier aux Couleurs. My partners and I facilitate the workshop and paint once everything is set-up. I painted this study along with 5 other sketches on a 16x20 board and was rather pleased with this one, especially for a quick pose, 40 minutes or so. I did another 20 minute sketch following this one and then went in the studio to get something for one of the students. When I got back I saw Camille and others with a long face and saw my board was leaning against the easel. When I was away a gust blew my easel and board over and the paintings landed face down in the dirt and dried grass. "Oh well", I said and started to clean up my set-up when another gust blew over my paintings for a second time. Doh! This painting and the last sketch where completely covered with debris. I decided to wait til it dried to try and remove the debris and this is what survived.
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On our last painting day in Estes Park we drove to a different area and found this nice grove of aspens with green grass behind them. It was late in the day when we started painting and we had to rush to capture the light as it was moving quickly behind the trees. the effort paid off as this painting recieved an Award of Merit for the Estes Park Plein Air event. This painting and all the other unsold Estes Park paintings are available at the Earthwood Collections Gallery in Estes Park, Colorado.
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The area around Moraine Park in the Rocky Mountain National Park is just spectacular. If you walk out in the valley to the winding stream and look up at the snow capped peaks it's awe inspiring. And the mountains look different every few minutes as the clouds go over them, or the rain comes in or when there's fog in the valley. Sometimes the distant mountains are crystal clear and other times they disappear into the atmosphere. This was painted late in the day and it was dark when I packed up. I had to work on it a second time to get the effect I was after which was the way it looked when I first set up.
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This was painted off the road between Estes Park and Allenspark looking out at the Twin Sisters. The clouds were a big challenge on this piece as there was a short window when the sun would peak over the top of the mountain and give me the shadow pattern I liked. Too early and all shadow. Wait too long and there was just a little shadow. If the clouds came over during that time I would paint by memory for a while then pack it in. It took 3 trips back for this painting.
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I started this painting in the afternoon after I painted Colorado Vista. I loved the clouds that were coming over the bluff in Lyons so I quickly set up my gear and got a glimpse of the clouds in my painting. They quickly passed over my head so I used the next set of clouds to use as reference. And then the next set, and the next, and so on. I didn't realize how fast they were moving when I set up but I guess because I am looking up in this scene and the clouds were so low to the mountains it really accentuated how fast they were moving. This painting is available at Earthwood Collections Gallery in Estes Park, Colorado.
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This is the first painting I did for Estes Park Plein Air event. I enjoyed the red rock near Lyons and found this spot looking through some trees to frame them. I was excited to have a strong start on my first day of painting and I also started a second painting that I'll try to post tomorrow titled "Colorado Country". Unfortunately the weather turned on our third day and we lost two days due to rain.
All of my unsold paintings for this years event can be seen and purchased at the Earthwood Collections Gallery in Estes Park, Colorado.
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We left Cheyenne on Wednesday and Thursday to head up to the mountains for some different scenery. We went up in search of the Snowy Range not knowing what we would find but it sounded good. We were amazed to find this beautiful range with snow still on it in August and clear lakes below it. On Wednesday I started a 16"x20" but there were clouds covering the sun all day along with some rain. On Thursday the light was completely different so I decided to start a new painting to take advantage of having the sun out. I look forward to going back to the Snowy Range to do some more painting.
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This is a building in the downtown section of Cheyenne. It is just down the way from where I painted the Tivoli window.
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While I was painting the Tivoli window Earl walked up and asked me to put him in the painting. I told him I was almost finished with that painting but if he could wait a few minutes I could do a new painting of him. He agreed so I quickly finished the other painting and moved my set up over so he could pose for me. He kept saying "I'm being immortalized" while I was painting. He also ask that I get his cigarette in the painting. He seemed to really enjoy being the focus of a painting and I was glad to have a good model. He held the pose really well too.
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This is a window detail of the Tivoli building in downtown Cheyenne. It is a beatutiful piece of architecture and I love the color and simplicity of all the details of this building. I chose to paint the window because of the way the reflected light was bouncing into the shadows.
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This was a sunset painting I did after a day of heavy rain. I had earlier in the day chosen a scene I wanted to paint and sketched it out in oils. Just when I was about to start in on covering the canvas it started to rain. I was thinking I would tough it out since I had a small umbrella to cover my painting. Just about then a lighting strike came over the hill and then the thunder close belind. I looked around and noticed I was standing under the only power lines around and about three feet away from a power pole with a transformer on it. I didn't think that was the smartest idea to continue to paint but I decided the painting was worth the risk. Then a loud boom came over head and the lightning stike was a lot closer and the rain started to really come down so I quickly threw my gear into the truck and decided to wait for the storm to pass. Several hours later it did pass but it was time to meet the other artists and gallery owners for a dinner on the ranch. I never did get a chance to paint on my sketch.
This painting of the sunset was done after dinner and on our way back to town. We had been wanting to paint a sunset and we thought we might get a good one with the clouds and rain coming down in the distance. I really enjoyed painting this painting and it looks better in real life. I think I captured the rain showers in the distance but they don't show up in this photo of the painting. This painting along with the rest of the Wyoming Plein Air paintings can be seen at the Link Gallery in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
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