Postcards From the Lake: Art Camp Ends, Rick Continues!

Sigh. We wrapped up art camp last weekend, after 18 days of friendship and creativity. And a good 18 days it was, filled with lots of painting, walks, good summer food and some good nature sightings. And, I might add, some pretty nippy weather. Even Lizzie hunkered down by the heater!

 

Our weather turned cool (no, cold!) and we found painting on the porch was no longer a possibility -- well, at least till the last day or two. It didn't stop us but it's not nearly so much fun! Here's some of the stuff I did. These are some cards.

Postcards from the Lake: Art, Cold Days (and Rick Update)

Art camp usually brings warm sunny days and it certainly started out that way. Painting on the porch was a joy -- the sounds of the lake punctuating our foray into color, pattern and image.

 

More than once we've seen Harry North, our resident heron, stalk the beach for his early morning or twilight meals. And, we had another sighting of Eddie the Eagle, perched high in one of our pines. 

Postcards From the Lake: Art Camp -- It All Comes to an End

Our two-person art camp wrapped up on a lovely day -- the kind that makes it hard to leave the lake. It was a productive thirteen days -- and a fun one!

Postcards from the Lake -- More Visitors, More Art!

We had our first no-art day (or at least, as I write this, the one day when neither of us did art). But there was a good reason. Absolutely grim porch weather (and that's where we work) kept us inside. That's changing as our temps return to normal and the rain and gloom is a thing of the past. 

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That doesn't mean we haven't been productive or having fun at our two-person art camp! The past few days have been very productive -- and also fun!

Postcards from the Lake: Art Camp's Special Visitor!

My friend Kate and I began our annual "art camp" holiday at the lake this week. For those who aren't familiar, there is no scheduled program. It's just the two of us, creating our own art, sometimes sharing a technique or video, and spending the rest of the time walking, reading, watching a video, maybe (if the weather is right) swimming. 

We kicked it off by getting some provisions at the farmer's market -- cherries, peaches and blueberries are hitting their stride and fabulous!

Postcards from the Lake: Road Trip to Harbor Springs

While Kate and I were at Art Camp we decided (for the first time in all our art camp years!) to do a road trip. And it was a very special occasion.

We were off to the charming town of Harbor Springs, Michigan, to meet up with artist Elizabeth Pollie -- whom Kate hadn't seen since she babysat for her decades before! It was an afternoon filled with fun, laughter and a delightful visit to a charming town. 

Postcards from the Lake: Art Camp

My fellow Artist-in-Arms Kate and I wrapped up our annual Art Camp in mid-September, having not only have a marvelous time, but perfect weather! We also celebrated both our birthdays very belatedly and did a good deal of art! No arguing with that! We even got in a road trip!

For those who haven't followed me long, art camp is a week period time when Kate and I head to the cottage and focus on our art. But there is also time for long walks, swimming, books, Britbox and Acorn, good wine and great food. It was also the only truly relaxing time I've experienced all summer.

Postcards from the Lake: Art Camp - The Nature

In my last Art Camp post I mentioned that we had an unexpected guest during our time north. Life is good when you look out the porch window and see this.

Harry the Heron appears to have an up-north cousin, aka Harry North. And he was pretty stunning.

Postcards from the Lake: Art Camp - The Food, the Fun

It happens every August. My friend Kate and I escape to my cottage for a week and enjoy what we call "Art Camp." Every day we paint (or draw or create whatever we're into at the time). Kate works on her annual calendar; I just do whatever I feel like, though I always try something new, too. 

But it's not all art! More on that next time! This is about the fun and the food! Our days are filled not only with art but with books, walks, swimming, market-visiting, Lizzie, and yes, good summer food!

Postcards from the Lake: Art Camp - the Art

More from art camp where our supervisor is taking a break!

For the first time I decided to have specific goals. They were to:  Use materials new to me, including the pan pastels Kate gave me for my birthday and my watercolor brush markers; work outside my comfort zone and rely a little more on drawing it all instead of tracing through the key outlines with graphite paper; learn to work a little more freely and creatively and to watch some instructional videos instead of just diving in!

Kate's goals were to complete two or three of her pages for her 2020 bird calendar which she does every  year for our November sale.

 So, how did we do?

Let's start with new materials.  My first efforts at the pan pastels were not great! (A first time, what can you expect?!) But I like this new mediium, both for using on its own, like this cat...

...or sunset.

I was probably happiest with this bunny. Still not right, but all pan pastels. They have wonderful blending qualities.

You can also use them on watercolor. I did this sunset scene from one of my photos in watercolor, then enhanced the water and sky with pan pastel. It's not my best work but it was good practice.

Remember this one? I enhanced the sky and ground with the pan pastels here, too, and I like it much better than the initial version. It's a little brighter and has more energy.

The sunflowers were also a watercolor, enhanced by pan pastel.

I also learned that when you are finished with the work, you have to spray it to keep the pastel from "spreading" its color on just about anything you come into contact with!

Kate graciously sprayed mine because of my lung issues. I'll have to wear a mask when I do this at home. The stuff is seriously stinky!

I'd say I really enjoyed working with the pastels and will continue to use them often. I suspect I will probably use them more for highlighting watercolor than independently, but when I watch some of the videos on the soffttools site, I am amazed at their potential. (And by the way, watching those videos helped meet another of my goals!)

Another new material to me was my watercolor pens. I've had these a few months and fiddled with them and can't say they knock me out but I did get some practice with them.  I'm inclined to think that they will be most used for adding detail to my regular watercolors. Maybe it's just this brand -- Arteza -- but they don't seem to blend very well. Most all of the blending below came from -- you guessed it -- the pan pastels!

Another goal was to incorporate my drawing or sketching more than I usually do into my art. Quite often for the main outlines or details, I will sketch in over a graphite paper, an erasable paper similar to carbon paper. This helps keep my lines straight and proportions right but even though I know a ton of artists who either use this method, a light box, projections or pencil-scratching on the back of a photo and tracing over the main lines onto the painting surface, I feel a teeny bit like it's cheating. So the sketch below is from hand only -- looking at a photo.

Then I drew it freehand onto my watercolor paper. (To be honest, I like the sketch better!) I painted it in, enhanced the sky with the pastels and then added some sketch detail lines. It's a little wonky but I kind of like it!

And this one was just free-drawn from a Paris photo I took of the bouquinistes. I did this in pencil and added the back detail lines later. I'm still not gung ho on the bookcase. There was so much shadow in the original, I'm not sure I could really get it like I wanted. But I still feel really happy with this one overall.

I often feel my painting is a little tight -- a little too detail-oriented, a little over-painted. Not long ago I shared this book of wonderful watercolors from Paris., rene Ochia's "Carnet de Paris 7e & 15e Arrondissements."

I like the style of the sketch as well as the fading out of the extraneous material. Earlier this summer I did this one. (At least one blog reader should recognize this setting!) If you note, it is "fully painted" and it's harder to find the subject of the painting -- the fellow with the bicycle.

This is the re-do. I like it much better. By lightening up the building next door to the house, the cyclist shows up better. He will show up even better when I add another gentle layer of blue to his shirt!

I also did a couple of Christmas cards and this one -- a get well card.

All in all, a good body of work.

And how did Kate do?

Very well!  She finished two of her paintings for her 2020 calendar and the preliminary sketch for her last page. Happy camper indeed!

I leave you with a burst of color, courtesy of the sky.

Future painting, maybe?

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Postcards from the Lake: More from Art Camp

My favorite week of the summer is Art Camp! As I think I've explained before, art camp is just an excuse for my artist friend Kate and I to get together up north and spend most of our day doing art.

That's not all we do. Far from it! We take walks around our area of the lake. We're lucky to have a woods right outside the door so there's lots of shade.

This overturned bear in a swamp is the closest thing we've seen to a bear at the lake!

We'll count bunnies along the way and I am continually trying to get better photos of the eagle. So far, this is the best I can do!

And we look for signs of autumn. Alas, we are seeing too many of them!

We don't leave the lake often, but going to town to the farmer's market is a must.

Sometimes we even discover an antique market while we're there! (More in a different post on that!).

During the evenings when the light starts to change, we read, watch Midsomer Murders (since I couldn't get the internet to handle my computer, we watched on her little ipad screen!) and watch for the ducks on the lake.

We enjoyed many sunsets (but skip the sunrises).

We'll take a dip if weather permits.

And now and then, spot a butterfly!

I was chasing this one down the beach!

On occasion there's a bit of unwanted adventure.

Fortunately, no one was hurt and nothing damaged with this small electrical incident, as smoke came out of the electrical outlet. Three cheers to the volunteer fire department and police in Gaylord! (And the electricians who came later in the day!) Not that they weren't wonderful people, but I was glad to see the back of them!

Sometimes a friend will stop by for lunch or on their route home from other spots.

And while we mostly cook at home, we'll be sure to get out for dinner once or twice.

This time we went back to our favorite restaurant, Bennethums. They have the best happy hour in the north -- so they say and I believe it!

It's always good to toast the week!

It is so relaxing to sit in the garden under a beautiful green umbrella on a perfect early evening, make a dinner out of appetizers and enjoy the mellow!

But mostly we did art, even if it was too nippy and windy to work on the porch. Just move the table in!

And of course, we were under continual supervision.

 
I'll share more of the work in another post, but it was indeed a productive week -- and that's what it's all about!

(I know I'm jumping around a bit, but I'll continue with more from the Isabelle De Borchgrave exhibit soon. Some of you had questions about the art and I'm trying to suss out the answers for you!

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