Artful Endeavors

Did you forget to register?

There's still time to join us tomorrow for my Brown Calf on Artful Webinars. Tomorrow or, on video replay.
It's acrylic and fun!

Finished, maybe. About a week ago my friend and I found this delightful little waterfall on the Rolesville, Millbridge trail. I painted most of it on site an completed it in my studio.
8x10", acrylic. I'm enjoying the Golden Open acrylics.

Be there.

The advantage of plein air painting is that you are right there. You can experience the light, the atmosphere, the time of day, the actual colors, and you can react to what draws you to the scene.

We don't always have the time or opportunity to stay in one place for the hrs it takes to create a painting of this place that caught your attention. We take a photo with our omnipresent smartphone for considering later for a painting. Or remember the colors in that sky that you studied.

But take a few minutes to experience the location, day, temperature, breeze, the ambiance. This is all part of the scene and when you look back at the photo later it will come back to you and become part of your painting experience.

Have you experienced this? Tell us about it. Show us your painting.

I remember this location vividly and keeping going back to my photo. This may just become a painting before long. I've already painted it from a different location. Check the comments for my painting.

I'm an out door person. Ever since I was a child I always love to be out in nature, exploring, imagining, creating something. I'm inside much more than I would like to be these days but painting gives me the opportunity to appreciate the natural world, now through art and painting.

As I began to paint online, landscapes seemed to be my niche. My husband and I often explore trails around home or on trips often to the NC mountains. Since he is an excellent landscape photographer he's taught me a lot about nature photography and this is something we enjoy sharing.

Recently I've been exploring Plein Air painting, learning the different approach to this genre of painting and thoroughly enjoying myself. I love learning and trying something a little different for me. As a studio artist I have all the time I want to work on a painting. En plein air, or painting outside, puts me into the painting, the feel of the moment. However, as time passes so does the direction of the sun, the time of day, and possibly the weather. So decisions have to be made and my painting must progress much quicker to catch that moment. A different approach for me.

But what fun! My friend, Maggie who has been painting plein air and is quite impressive, and I have been taking opportunities to paint en plein air. I look forward to learning and experiencing more. You may see me sitting outside somewhere with my easel and paints absorbing the adventure.

I've enjoyed painting with Golden Open acrylics with their slower drying time. Also different for me.

You can check out Maggie's beautiful paintings on Face Book at https://www.facebook.com/mwatkinsart,

Are you ready to join me tomorrow for some fun mixing paint? Is you'd like to play along with me have some primary red, blue, and yellow, and a little Titanium White paint. I'll use acrylics but you have a choice. It's all about how the color interact. You'll want paper that will accept the paint also. We'll add notes to our sample as we add color swatches.
See you here on my Artful Endeavors page at 2p tomorrow, Tuesday, Aug 4, 2026!

Mixing it up!
If you are interested in color and color mixing join me on Tue, Aug 4, at 2p for a free lesson. I'll use acrylics and start with our primary colors of red, yellow, and blue plus white.
Leave me a comment, let me know if you are interested. The lesson will be on FB for a while if you aren't able to make the 2p time.

Who remembers this happy group from 2014 with Kathie George? What fun!

Join me in Mount Airy, NC!
At Susan Harrell-Talleys
We'll focus on brush techniques. Acrylic.

UPDATE: I found out that my video is no longer available so I adjusted this post to direct you to my packet. I plan to do another leaf study video this fall and will let you know.

If you are interested in learning about painting realistic leaves, I have a packet for that.

There is much satisfaction to be gained from painting a beautiful, graceful flower. If you’re painting flowers, you’ll most likely paint leaves with them. Actually many flower petals or what we call petals, are really leaves and even more flower petals are painted similar to leaves. So it’s important to understand and learn to paint generic leaves and how this applies to most leaves. In my leaf study packet you learn how to use values to create a realistic appearing leaf. We’ll use acrylic paints but the theory applies to any medium.