Painting at the Philadelphia Art Museum

For the groups third outing to paint in the city last Thursday we ended up at the Philadelphia Museum of art at the Fairmount Waterworks, located right behind the PMA. Originally we had wanted to all head down to the Race Street Pier, but a phone call from Aaron, one of our group who lives near there warned us that the pier was closed for some wedding, or event. So Lexi suggested the PMA and the waterworks so we all detoured there which was a great choice. The Museum and the Waterworks are probably two of the most beautiful and scenic areas of the city, and the Waterworks has been a spot that many, many painting classes and workshops have taken advantage of to paint the beautiful landscape where you can see how beautiful the city can be. We had great cloud formations all day as the weatherman called for the increased possibility of thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening. But the day was so beautiful it sort of cast a spell on all of us.

Alina set up not to far from where I was so I was able to sneak over and snap pics of her progress on her painting as she worked on it. Once I got hunkered down myself I didn't get so watch the others as much.

This is Alina's final painting for the day, what a great little plein air piece! It's hard to simplify and design all that building and nature.

Dave Wilson climbed up to what seemed like the top of Mount Olypmus to work on one of the two paintings he did this time. Dave had an awesome view looking west, stretching out over the Waterworks and the Schuylkill River falls.

As the day wore on it became more cloudy with patches of intense sunlight that would suddenly fade from view then in something out of a Cecil B Demille movie come bursting back.

This is the last super-quick little painting Dave did of the PMA itself just before we all packed it in.

Here is a nice shot of Dave's great painting from the the PMA of the river and the waterworks.

Here is a pic of Alina and Lexi stretching their legs along the lagoon. Every once in a while you have to get up and take a break and refresh you view of your work.

This is a shot of what I called the "God Effect" as the sun started to set amongst the rolling thunderclouds.

Kathryn perched near the lagoon and sketched.

Here is Lexi's great bold painting of Boat House Row. Great use of the palette knife!

I decided to set up under some shade that gave me a nice dynamic view. I was also not far from the car or the bathrooms, which is something that is really important when you paint outside!

Here is my final painting of the waterworks and little lagoon. I decided to go for more of a square composition this time as opposed to the typical horizontal composition. I am happy with this painting, even happier than the ones I did last week as I feel the composition is much stronger and more interesting with the perspective of the canal leading us back.

Here is Rachel Constantine's rough block-in of one of the Waterwork Gazebos.

We all would draw a crowd of curious on-lookers as we painted, here you can see a few onlookers watching Rachel painting.

Eventually the storm clouds did force our hand and the light changed too much so we all packed it in and headed home as the wind started kicking up after a very successful day of painting. A big thanks to Lexi for some of the pictures!

Darby Road

 This last Sunday the PPAP all headed out into Delaware County on a gorgeous day in the beautiful countryside to do some plein air painting. I had painted this spot a few times last year with the Dirty Palette Club, and we met the owner Allen who invited us back any time to paint on their beautiful property that borders and wanders along the Darby Creek. The other great thing about this spot is that it's only 15 minutes from my house.

 We arrived about 11 am and unpacked and we all marched out to find our spots to paint, and there are so many great views it took a while for some of the group to choose, but eventually we all settled down and got the gear set up and started racing the sun and the light. The weather started out great, but the forecast called for some possible thunderstorms in the afternoon, which did suddenly roll up around 3pm but passed us by with only a few stray drops and some thunder.

 Will Setman found himself a great spot right down on the creek to paint.

 Alina and Lexi set up a little further back along the nature walk which afforded them some shade to paint in. If you don't have an umbrella or a good hat it's vital to have some good cover to paint under.

 These are two of Kathryn Vaughan's small studies that she did during the early afternoon.

 Alina Osipov painted away as the sun past over the solar noon of the day.At this point it's a real race becaue all of the shadows will really change and the light start to reverse direction.

 Kathryn working on another one of her small studies pictured below.

 Will painting on the creek bed. Since its still fairly early in spring the bugs were not too bad .

 This is the first of two paintings that Alina did during the day. Below is Dave Wilson's painting of the Darby Road Bridge. Dave painted this bridge last year and sold the painting so he wanted to tackle the subject again.

 Here is my painting of the sheep barn with the one-eyed horse that I finished just as the sun changed the light and shadows too much. The hardest part was the horse who kept moving around, so I must have repainted him four or five times. I painted this same barn and horse last year and sold the painting in my show at Rodger LaPelle last March, so I thought it would be good to try the subject again for two reasons, the fist to compare the two paintings to see how much growth or progress I have made as a painter since last year, and the second to see if it will bring me a sale.

Below is Lexi's wonderful, bold composition! I love this paintings and one of the great things about painting in a group of good painters is to see how they also interpret the same or similar subjects. You can learn a lot from each other on painting trips like this.

Here is my set-up and my start of my painting which was over and old painting I sanded down.I will try and reuse old supports to save a few dollars and I like how the surface of painting over and old painting feels as well. Below you can see that Dave found himself a second spot down on the creek to paint the bridge from the opposite side.

Nancy Bea Miller works on her painting of the same Sheep barn with our friend the the one-eye'd horse. Dan Morano decided to do drawings instead of painting and Kathryn decided to take a nap. She reminded me of one of Sargent's figures in the grass. Dan with his drawing of the sheep barn which was a popular subject this afternoon. Dave painting the old Darby Road Bridge.
Patrick Neilson, a fellow PAFA student who just finished his first year in the master program along with Nancy Bea, found another great view along the nature walk and produced a few compositions during the paint-out.
Here is one of Patrick's paintings from the afternoon. Eventually hunger overcame everyone and we just couldn't keep going on apples or empty stomachs and packed up and headed over to the LLanarch Diner on Townshipline for some lunch or dinner. It was a great and very successful day for us as a group and just a lot of fun overall. Word has spread and so a few more painters are looking to join us on our trips out into the wild or into the urban to paint, paint, paint!