Wednesday, October 13, 2010


Plein air oil sketch at Rockaway Beach.

Wow, what a way to start the day this morning, taking my oils out to the beach for a little work out. We're having incredibly warm weather here on the coast and I certainly wanted to take advantage of it, because tomorrow could very well be a different story entirely.

I'm not doing as much plein air as I'd like and I feel so stale because if it. I was just looking at my pochade box the other day and noticed how new it still looks, a testament of how little work I'm doing outdoors. My box looks like it just came off the shelf, with very little "battle" wounds and scars of color adorning it.

I'm finally getting used to not having a day job, since I closed down my interior painting business, I feel like I've reached some mid-circle of retirement. It was strange at first, but I'm finally getting comfortable devoting my day to studio work and developing my teaching cirriculum. I worked hard for 26 years to get to this place so I'd better damn well enjoy it...




8 comments:

  1. Hey, you are right down the street from me! I used to paint there a lot. Let me know if you want to paint together sometime. Today I am monitoring tree trimming at home.

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  2. I will, message me on FB with your phone number. But I do hear the fog is coming back later this week, we have such a small window of opportunity to paint outdoors here.

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  3. Nice job, Denny! Looks like you had the ideal weather conditions.

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  4. Indeed, S, and I just checked, fog returns tomorrow :(

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  5. Nice study Denny, plein air painting is so much fun.

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  6. I honestly don't know what plein air is since I'm not an artist, but I love the colors and the calming effect in this piece.

    Enjoy your semi-retirement and paint away. No one deserves it more than you!

    Jedidiah

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  7. Jedidiah~
    Thanks for checking in. Basically plein aire is just a fancy-pants way of saying "I paint outdoors, I'm too cheap to rent a studio". Semi-retirement is fun, but I do miss my money coming in, oh well, time to hustle more art work, I suppose. How is the fur trading business going up there in the Yukon? If you ever need a spare taxidermist on hand, let me know.

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