Tilghman Island Wetlands; Plein air painting

This piece was painted at about 5 pm. after a full day of painting in the hot, hot, sun. Sun sets around here at around 8 pm. but even so the light changed very quickly. There was a pinkish haze in the clouds and sky which may not be showing up that well in the image here, and the greys are really have more color in them, but I'm using limited image editing software on the road. This painting is 8"x10" and painted with the same 6 color + white palette I used yesterday.

A hazy day at Tilghman Island

If you are on the east coast, perhaps you witnessed some of that torrential driving rain that came through various parts yesterday. Well, I drove through it to get to the Eastern Shore! But I finally made it in one piece and got out to Tilghman Island to paintthe boats near the marina.  It was a very hot, hazy and humid day. The sun was out but it was a rather diffused, flatbut ever changing light that made for fairly close value ranges and a bit of a challenging subject. I started rather late in the morning but made this oil sketch with a limited palette of 6 colors plus white:

For this painting I used cadmium yellow light, raw sienna, alizarin crimson, permanent rose, ultramarine blue, ivory black and titanium white.  This is not my usual palette which is more of a double primary plus an extra color or two (and also devoid of black). But I'm practicing with the limited palette en plein air because it really helps to learn how to mix colors. It is also much lighter on the load if you can carry fewer paints!

Off to the Eastern Shore

I'm taking off for a few days to the Eastern Shore of Maryland with the intention of doing a little painting on location.  Blogging may be spotty if at all due to limited internet access, but I will try. I have been taking advantage of travel this summer since things always seem to kick into high gear in the fall and things at the gallery can get pretty busy. In light of my travels I will not be participating in the August First Fridays Richmond Art Walk (I'll gear back up again for the Art Walk in September). But there will still be a lot going on at the other venues, so be sure to check them out if you are in Richmond.

Dusk landscape oil painting; Between the Dark and the Daylight

This new oil painting is of the countryside near Staunton, Virginia. It captures my favorite time of day when the evening sky puts on a brilliant show.  It has been quite a while since I've been able to actually complete a studio oil painting. What can I say, it's been a hell of a summer! But I'm gearing up for the fall season so I am back at it. This painting is one of a new series I'm working on for a fall show about the "luminous landscape".  The title comes from a poem by Longfellow called "The Children's Hour" (one of my mother's favorite and oft quoted poems.) 

"Between the Dark and the Daylight" Oil on Canvas 24" x 20" (SOLD) ©Jennifer Young

Buying art online

Have you ever had a miscommunication in email? Email is great, but because we are not dealing face to face, we have none of the subtleties of communication to observe when words alone are insufficient. Just as there is no experience like chatting face to face, there is no experience like seeing a work of art in person. Art is a visceral experience. On the other hand, viewing art online offers convenience & accessibility. You can look at your computer monitor after dinner in your jammies  (something you really can't do in most of the galleries I've visited!)  And probably one of the biggest advantages is that you can search through a massive array of styles, subject matter and price ranges all with a few keystrokes.  Of course, the down side is that you can also search through a huge range in quality as well, so you kind of have to love a good scavenger hunt!

But the online experience can provide a certain intimacy as well. One can become intimately involved in a work of art through various aspects of the online experience. This includes artist's blogs, information on the website, demonstrations, videos and more. By intimacy  I don't really mean people knowing each other's personal life; just intimacy with the artwork and the artistic experience through stories, connections, information about the art, etc. Many online collectors have the advantage of knowing a little something extra about the artwork or the artist. And often unlike some gallery experiences, one can even dialogue more readily with the artist as well.

I show my work both online and in the "real world". They both offer certain benefits to me as an artist, and I think each venue complements the other very well. I also shop both online and in the real world, (yes, for art! and other things too) but more and more I am becoming quite comfortable with shopping online. Of course I want to know that my purchase is guaranteed with a sound return policy and that there are testimonials that speak to quality and the buying experience, so those are things I would look for. But the world is changing and I think soon buying art online will come into its own.