Stacy Weitz Minch

8x10", oil on linen mounted to hardboard Another plein air water sketch. Water is some tricky stuff, and the way the light was reflecting in the distance  here was really hard to capture. I kinda liked how the foreground came out though. It has some feeling of movement and depth, and contrasts nicely with that big rock in the corner. I haven't painted much water at all, but so far I find it to be really interesting to study. It's fun to look at something that is so complex and in constant motion and try to simplify it down into its most basic shapes and colors. It's a very impressionistic process, which seems to be right up my alley. I love laying down the impression, but getting into the nitty gritty finishing aspects of a drawing or painting is always a challenge for my patience. I can do it, but I'm not always a happy camper while I'm at it ;) I'm sure I'll learn to enjoy those aspects more with time. I always get frustrated when I'm learn...

This is an 8x10" piece I painted on location in the canyon over two sessions. It's kind of nice to get the basic drawing and values down in the first session, then solidify the color and build up paint in the second session. The first session we got rained out, and we only had about an hour to start, so it probably would have been okay in one session too, if we had had more time. I really want to study the effects of water more. Those purple reflections in the water were pretty elusive to me, and my teacher pointed them out and helped me put them in. And in my opinion, they kind of make the painting :) But wouldn't have done anything if I hadn't had a solid base to build on, I suppose.

11x14", oil on panel, 1.5 hours I decided to venture out and do a little plein air painting this afternoon.I kind of like where the clouds were going here, but painting mountains is really tricky (especially when the cloud shadows on the mountain change so quickly!).I was at a park and there were all sorts of soccer goals, jungle gyms, and other structures that I didn't really want to include in the picture. Which left me to invent the foreground and it's feeling a bit bland. Maybe next time I go out and do plein air painting, I will try to choose a more zoomed in scene that I can copy more faithfully. Painting outside is hard enough without having to make it up ;) Maybe I should have drawn a little footpath in there or something (not that I still couldn't...). Definitely the worst part of plein air painting is gathering all the materials to go out, and then carting them all back (plus a wet painting and palette!) when finished.

Happy May Day! I finally took my new Soltek out yesterday (to the side of the house--I'm so adventurous ;). And I painted some lilacs. This was probably an hour to an hour and a half or so of painting. I could be happier with this painting--seems like I could have been using a larger brush for those blossoms, because they're feeling a little too broken up, especially in the shadows. But, that's alright. At least I painted. And next time I'll have some ideas on what to do differently. That's what I like about painting small and often (though often hasn't been often enough lately, mostly just Sundays--my time is spread pretty thin these days). But there's always next time to build on what I learned last time. And I also like analyzing what I did afterward and writing it down, so I can refer to my last painting and push a little further with each attempt. 

  I might spend a lifetime trying to figure out how to paint. And I might never really get there. But I've decided that it won't be for want of trying. I'm just going to keep at it. 20-30ish minutes on this little one.

  Just a really quick 5x7" sketch of the view... pretty good Sunday morning if you ask me :)

7x5", oil on linen panel Ha, well, plein air painting is hard. Painting flowers in plein air, harder. Painting YELLOW flowers in plein air, impossible (at least if you're me). I think I went way too dark on the background. The shadows seemed really dark out there in the sunshine, but I overdid it.  Sometimes I get to a certain point and just don't know how to move forward from there... soooo I don't. This is looking like a very rudimentary underpainting, and I froze at this point.  The light had changed pretty drastically (dappled shade) by the time I got here, so it seemed that if I tried to make it more complete I would have to change it completely. On the positive side, I don't think the drawing of the flower was really all that bad. Those petals all fit together pretty much how they should have, so that's something anyway ;) But I apologize if you come here looking for pretty pictures. It's not always pretty here.

6x6", oil on canvas panel (sorry for the glare. again) I was hoping to try to capture this beautiful turquoise lake (and even try a sunset!) in paint during our camping trip this weekend, but we got a pretty good rainfall in the evening ;) So the little bit of lake peeking out from behind this stump will have to do, ha.  I quickly sketched this in about an hour while my baby was sleeping--and my sister and her husband set up their camp chairs behind me and made a rather attentive audience while I was painting this, which was sort of interesting (for me, not them, ha ;).  But seriously, I had never seen such turquoise blue water in a lake . It looks like the Caribbean (but don't be fooled--the water is COLD). My sister discovered this hidden gem during an underwater modeling shoot and fell in love with it. Anyway, we had a great weekend hiking with the kids, paddle boarding, getting dirtier than I like to recall, toasting marshmallows while chatting over a sparks-fly...

5x7", oil on linen panel It was calm and sunny when I headed out to paint, but within a few minutes of setting up, the wind had started blowing across the lake, pushing that ominous-looking cloud directly my direction (and whipping my hair in every other direction--next time, ponytail!!). I painted as quickly as I could, and I'm pretty happy with how the clouds/mountains/water turned out. The foreground is a bit of a segmented mess, but I was in a major hurry, so I'll forgive myself (this time). After that plein air workshop in April, I was all fired up to get outside and paint, but finding the time in my real life is another story altogether--I'll count it a success that I got outside to paint at all! It's always a fun adventure, if nothing else :)

7x5", oil on linen panel This was about a one-hour study at a park near our house (what a beautiful day!!!). Okay, I was trying to figure out why this was feeling a little bit weird to me, and I think it's because those pines in the distance are darker than the shadow on the grass in the foreground. Even though I think they were darker, this might have been a good place to force some atmospheric perspective.  Anyway, I have this new goal to try to be a little bit nicer to myself in terms of my art, so maybe I'll start playing a little twist on the Polyanna glad game in my posts and list a couple things I like about what I've done (because you know I can't resist picking it apart--maybe this will balance things out a bit ;).  I think I did a much better job of simplifying the mountain down to a manageable color mass than I have in the past--and it's a pretty color :) I kinda like that I incorporated the goal net for a little added interest--thoug...

This weekend will go down in history as the best Mother's Day gift to date (hats off to the tall, dark and handsome fella who took two days off work to hold down the fort!). I went to Paradise, UT for a plein air workshop with Josh Clare. It was the first time I've  ever attended a workshop, and it was a blast. Paradise is all sorts of nestled-up-in-the-mountains gorgeous--sweeping purple-mountain views, larger than life clouds, and rustic, historic buildings every which way you turn (but if you're looking for a gas station, you're outta luck!). Josh seems like a very down-to-earth, small town kind of guy with a darling little family. They live in a charmingly restored century-old brick home (I loved that the interior doors have windows above them so the light flows from one side of the house to the other). He paints in a small studio attached to the home (killer north-facing skylight, too!). I've been admiring Josh's paintings for a while now online, and th...

6x6", oil on canvas panel, 4/20/16 Aside from the steaming bag of dog poop 10 feet away (I really wish I would have spotted it BEFORE setting up, painting, and taking down--such a pleasant day apart from that occasional whiff of what is that!? ;), this was actually pretty fun. (And people, if you bother to pick up the poo, please at least walk it over to the garbage can. Really).  I like painting from life, though like other living things I've encountered, nature doesn't stand still. There's something invigorating about painting in real time, though, as opposed to staring at a static photograph. I really needed a little break from that special kind of tedium. My main focus was trying to match value/color here. Drawing was a bit secondary (and I left out the fence and row of houses on the horizon there. It seems you have to be a bit selective when doing landscape painting--especially when painting this small. There's just so much out there. Note ...

  My sister Jackie gave me a very cool plein air umbrella for Christmas, and this was the first time I've had the chance to use it. It was a beautiful day and the umbrella was awesome! But my plein air skills are, well, let's just say they're not where I'd like them to be ;) Getting the values right outdoors is tricky.  Jackie says my mountain looks like a melting ice cream cone. Ha, she's right--slight room for improvement here (oh, the possibilities! ;) Maybe I need a little more than an hour... or a smaller panel... or a thousand more hours of practice. If at first you don't succeed...  Also, I don't know what the deal was with my paint, but it felt like I was painting with honey! It's been sitting in a backpack in the house for 5-6 months or so, but it was really really hard to handle. Maybe it was the cooler weather? Or my palette/canvas were sucking up the moisture? And let's just not get started on the drawing and colors, ha. ...

We're spending the week in Southern Arizona with family. It was a chilly morning while I was attempting to paint this barrel cactus (painting fail :P). Plein air painting is hard.

10x8", water mixable oil on linen mounted on gator foam, 12/9/15 "Give a tree its gesture... in a tree there is a spirit of life, a spirit of growth and a spirit of holding its head up." ( The Art Spirit , Robert Henri). I love Robert Henri... a lot of his paintings are really great. I really like the laughing children he started doing later in his career--his quick, bold brush strokes really capture the feeling of the moment. Some of his stuff doesn't really do much for me. I recently saw one of his quickly rendered street scenes in the Portland art museum, and was like, hmmm... but really, I find that encouraging. Everyone has their failures and triumphs (not saying he would have considered it a failure--he was so instrumental in championing art as an individual mode of self expression and a way of living a life, so I appreciate his work anyway, even if I don't find some of it particularly beautiful). Anyway, his passion and enthusiasm for painting are c...

8x10", water mixable oil on canvas panel, 11/13/15 A quick plein air sketch I did yesterday afternoon (about an hour or so). It was so sunny and beautiful and peaceful out in the crisp fall air. And then I came home, turned on the 5:00 news, and learned about all the tragedy in Paris. :'( "You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty." -Mahatma Ghandi

Some quick plein air studies from yesterday afternoon.

5x7, water mixable oil on linen panel, 10/23/15 The clouds have been unbelievable lately here in Utah--so big and billowy. Whenever I go outside, I have this urge to paint! But I'm not a landscape painter (yet)... not that I wouldn't like to be. I'd like to be able to paint whatever I want :) However, I used to have this idea that I just couldn't paint landscapes (after a couple of miserable failed attempts).  But now I'm thinking, "Why not?" I'm sure I can learn how with some practice, and I do want to. I'm finding lately (especially since starting this blog and recording some of my thoughts as I go along), that I have this constant inner dialogue regarding my art. There's always a voice saying "you're not any good and you might as well not bother." I don't like that voice. And since I'm more aware of it, I'm becoming more effective and pushing it away. Who really cares if I'm not any good anyway? No on...