Top Prize!

I won it! Most Luminous Landscape in the 2016 Vermont Pastel Society Members' Exhibit at Arts Alive in Burlington. The judge, Mickey Myers (from the Bryan Memorial Art Gallery in Jeffersonville, VT), said this about my painting Winter Garden 4pm:
  

This piece has such an unusual luminosity to it.  At once it is sweeping, and it is intimate.  It pulls the viewer to what lies ahead at a distance, and it pulls the viewer back to the crunch of the ground under foot.    That ironic concept of a “Winter Garden” in the title explains why the luminosity of this piece provides more than just a seasonal picture – it provides the depth of the season itself.  

 I appreciate the judge's comments. More judges should take the time to talk about why they chose what they chose. It can be helpful to the few artists who won awards and the many who did not win this time. She advised members to "watch your frames". Many good paintings look bad when placed in uncomplimentary frames.


I have not seen the show yet, but look forward to seeing it during the last week of April on a short mother/daughter trip to Burlington. The Arts Alive gallery is open 9-5 on weekdays.

Still Drawing Daily

Now I'm working out of two sketchbooks; a Moleskine and a Strathmore watercolor,  both 5.5 x 8 inches, but with different orientations. I am posting some of them below including one from the "unfinished and/or abandoned or total failure" category.

Most of us experience different levels of inspiration at different times or days. When I committed (on January first 2015) to drawing daily I knew there would be some duds. I do not dwell on those, but I usually let them live in (besmirch) my sketchbooks. The ebb and flow of inspiration is quite apparent when you do not have any days off...or pages ripped out.

 

 

 

The three sketches above were all done with a combination of Lamy fountain pen, Copic marker and transparent watercolor. Lamy pens are clog-free due largely to their use of water-soluble ink. This can be worked with and I went from the first drawing which was a total surprise to me...to more control and forethought by the third one. It has a unique look.

 

 

The three above, are watercolor, no ink.

 

 There is something to be learned from this sketch of the Connecticut River bank and Brattleboro;

1. Try to plan your time so you can finish in one sitting on location. At the very least, get enough down on paper so you can complete later and not lose the feeling of the day. 

2. Avoid putting a boring object in the foreground (never draw another patio heater?). 

3. Quit only when you have clearly lost the game! 

How have you been surviving this long winter into spring? (Or, to quote the parking meter attendant..."sprinter"; the season just before MUD in Vermont.)

Let me know what you have been doing, painting, writing, traveling, seeing.

Sketching/Drawing

 4am....why am I the only one up?

This year I have done a drawing/sketch every day. I look forward to it. It is my time to do what I want. I've been inspired and UN-inspired....in that case, I draw anyway...it is only paper. Un-inspired often turns into something when you actually put pen to paper. Good to know that I actually can keep one New Years resolution (for 7 weeks, so far)!

Drawing is my attempt to control the chaos...for a little while. It is also how I learn things; the number of petals on a blossom, the infinite shapes humans take, the glorious and kooky hats worn by Vermonters in winter. Of course drawings go much deeper than that...there are scars and kisses and mysterious amazing tattoos and musicians' fingers and gardeners' souls to look at.

A lot of time is spent looking at the drawings of other artists, which I often find more interesting than the paintings they were done in preparation for. Smudges and erasures and start-overs; all unique and unguarded. My fave time waster is Urban Sketchers...traveling the world through sketchbooks.

Happy Mardi Gras to all! Let me know what You are doing, ok? I am also working on new pastel paintings to be posted in future post.

For Pastels Only on Cape Cod...AWARDED!

Pastel Painters of Chicago Award:
Eastern Horizon, Rodrica Tilley

BARBARA COURTNEY JAENICKE  Juror of Selection and Judge of Awards wrote this about my painting;  "Even on the coldest of winter days, when the warm glow of evening light envelopes the cool hues of snow and is captured just right by the artist, you have a magical painting such as this one. The artist here pushed the extreme warm/cool contrast of this winter scene to create that magic-hour glow. The warm sliver of reflective water is just enough to draw the viewer into the painting without overpowering."

I am honored.


Eastern Horizon, my pastel painting of a sunrise from my dining room window, has been included in the Pastel Society of Cape Cod's annual national juried exhibition; For Pastels Only. You can see it and some other top notch work if you are lucky enough to be on Cape Cod between June 18 and July 13.
So, if you've had your fill of sand and sun step into the cool halls of the Cultural Center of Cape Cod, 307 Old Main Street, South Yarmouth, MA. The Opening Reception is Saturday June 21 beginning at 6pm.

And if you are anywhere near Brattleboro this summer, let me know. We can meet at my studio...exciting news there...more room! Huge (everything is relative) expansion coming. More on that soon.

Season's Greetings

We are getting our first real snow tonight...6"-12" they say. This will make fellow Vermonters happy. I will try to appreciate the beauty of having my world transformed overnight. It is always a magical event and made even better by a little sunshine! If your December is a dark gray gloomy one, here are some rays for you. 4pm Winter Garden.

This large pastel is finally in the frame after a particularly long gestation period in which it just hung around and hung around my studio...sort of like the snowdrops...wishing won't do it...one must just wait until the time is right. Not sure where it's next stop is, but I think I will enjoy it for awhile in it's finished state.

ipad methodology

Because during winter in Vermont most days are too cold or too short for plein air painting, this is the time of year I do my studio work.

During the last year I've found more and more uses for a new favorite tool. My ipad goes most places that I do. I take pictures with it. I use those photos primarily as inspiration, but also as sources when developing ideas for new paintings.  I do not paint literally from photos. Nor do I want my paintings to be mistaken for photographs. My own photo references jog my memory, suggest elements, inspire light effects.

After a session of studio work before I turn out the lights and leave the building, I photograph whatever is on my easel. This gives me a daily record of progress. It also allows me to continue the process elsewhere...3 miles away over coffee before dawn. It was simpler when my studio was attached to my house, but the ipad helps bridge the 3 mile gap.

I do not digitally manipulate either my source photos or the photos of my paintings. I don't care about the quality of my photos. They are always good enough to use for ideas. I plan how I will continue my work when I get back to the studio. It is a chance to step back and think.

Somewhere in the act of transferring work from the easel to a computer screen a critical eye appears; the magic editing tool! Awkward areas, not quite right color choices and clunky composition decisions jump off the screen to hit the artist over the head. Thank you, thank you.

This 24 x 30 winter garden scape is in process right now. I'll post the finished painting sometime. I toned white Wallis paper with pastel and odorless thinner and am working in multiple layers of soft pastel.

Eastern Horizon

This is the view I see every morning. Different colors, temperatures, seasons, moods. I love the sunrise and feel bad if I sleep through it...rarely happens.

This particular pastel painting, done in the studio this month, will be on view at Gallery Wright in Wilmington, VT beginning in February.  On your way to or from Mt. Snow go take a look. Gallery Wright has moved to 103 West Main St,(Rt 9) Wilmington Vermont. 802-464-9922

Eastern Horizon image size is about 15 x 22, framed with a mat to about 22 x 29.

Yellow House

'About time a pastel painting showed up here, huh? This is one of a pair of paintings done on 16" squares of Richeson board. They are both based on observed house scenes in my immediate Vermont neighborhood. I used the actual places as merely a jumping off place, making the transition from actual to "my version" via a series of pencil sketches. 

SOLD 

As always, thanks for looking and taking the time to comment.

Perigee Moon Set

Huge moon setting behind my garden...worth getting up early for! This is another of the 12 x 16 Transitions Series. It is done with soft pastels on a grey Art Spectrum paper.

Hint of Spring?

This is Silver Creek which I have painted many times. For some reason it does have a shimmery silver color to it many days...more so than other nearby brooks. It is a good day for ducks...and artists who like to look for the subtleties in color that are hidden from our view on a bright day. It is painted with a variety of brands of soft pastels on art spectrum gold paper. It is one of the 12 x 16s from the Transitions Series.

Ragged Ends

SOLD 
A February evening in my neighborhood looks peaceful and quiet. I am certainly taking advantage of this exceptionally snowy winter in both Pennsylvania & Vermont. Often I don't get more than one or two snow scenes done per winter because I have a habit of trying to avoid February and March by traveling to warmer climes. This is another 12 x 16 from the Transitions series.

Lewis Road

Yellow is a color that is found seldom in the background of a landscape. It disappears as it recedes into the distance. Most painters have struggled with trying to make a distant sunlit hillside of yellow fall foliage behave and take its place in the background. There are several ways to deal with the problem. In this painting I have used diminishing parallels (the lines in and on the side of the road) to tell the viewer that those trees catching the warm afternoon rays are the farthest object away from us on the land in this picture. That the moon and clouds are further away is something we all know and don't need convincing of, even if they are sometimes yellow. This is one of the paintings in the Transitions series.

Birds in the Bush

This is a familiar view to me and to many of you as well; out the east window of my studio in Pennsylvania. The slate-colored juncos are the early risers here. They spend winter nights in the protection of dense shrubbery so at first light they are up and looking to see what I've sprinkled on the snow for them to eat.

Mondays & Tuesdays are my Cornell Lab of Ornithology Project Feederwatch days, so no matter what I'm doing in the studio I have one eye on the birds. These are the birds I've seen Monday & Tuesday so far;
mourning dove, cardinal, blue jay, tree sparrow, common redpoll, house finch, goldfinch, tufted titmouse, white breasted nuthatch, black capped chickadee, goldfinch,red-bellied, downy and hairy woodpeckers, crow, starling and the dark-eyed (formerly slate-colored) junco. These are the regular customers in winter. If I am in Vermont on Mondays and Tuesdays I count there and I get pretty much the same birds with the red-breasted nuthatch, brown creeper and pileated woodpecker being more frequently seen than here at my particular PA location. I have not seen the Carolina wren this year and I would like to. Nor have I seen an owl or a hawk on count days, but I have seen evidence in the snow of their presence.

Juncos at Sunrise 12 x 16

Fields of Snow

Very pretty around here...lately. Amazing what a good whitewashing does for the place.

Fresh back in the studio from a late afternoon drive around my PA neighborhood I choose this subject photographed across the fields above Williams Pond. I use one of my favorite pastel papers; salmon-colored Sabretooth. It has a deep, open tooth, which means that the color of the paper will show through a bit in the finished painting. I started with a light wash of some purple/red pastel and turps and then worked 5 or 6 layers of very soft pastels into the tooth. I love the depth and complexity this paper gives; you can see into it...like looking through layers.

My snow scenes are popular; probably because they are warm...in hue.

Fields of Snow 12 x 16...I cropped it poorly when I photographed it...there is a bit more sky than seen here.

Gone is my PC world. So using my new Mac and my same old lousy camera skills makes everything take longer so I hesitate to photograph it again for the fourth time right now. I am loving the Mac, though... knew I would.

Transitions

For the last few months my husband and I have been traveling back and forth between southern Vermont and our home of 35 years in Pennsylvania. We bought a house with 5 acres on Black Mountain near Brattleboro and are preparing to move there full time this summer. The frequent 5 hour trips back and forth, although providing a great chance for landscape viewing, often leave me feeling disoriented.

I think I'm going to go with the flow and make some paintings of two similar landscapes that may blend together in unknown ways. I'll be working on 12 x 16 boards with a plein air easel in VT and a new studio easel here in PA. The location of these pieces will be nebulous; somewhere between southern VT and northeastern PA; someplace between plein air & studio work. But the size and subject and medium will give me a sorely needed continuity right now. I may not know what clothes are in which closet in which state, but I'll be able to find my winter north woods color palette.

This is the first of the transitional pictures, as well as being the first painting of the year for me.

Transition #1 12 x 16 pastel

Garrison Road Plein Air

SOLD
Yesterday was my first plein air day of the year. As I navigated the rutted, frost heaved gravel (MUD) roads of my rural county I finally found the picture I wanted to paint; this long view of rolling hills, farm and wood land, but...Oh, no, I had no long paper in the car. Luckily I did have two 9 x 12 sheets of UArt #500 so I taped them together (adjacent) and ran my painting across both sheets. I think I will frame it just like that. Why not? 9 x 24.

Good new! My optometrist today pronounced my eyes in excellent health...that is a refreshing diagnosis.

Looking East from My Studio Window

SOLD
Returning from a month in sunny, but cold, northern New Mexico this sight was a bit of a shock. It turned out OK though (most of the shovelling and plowing was all ready done); just left me with some easel work to pull this together. It is 9 x12 and will be put in a black rustic wide wood frame with a thin gold bevel to match the snow scene from January. Thanks for having a look and keeping the homefires burning.

Hawley Farm

SOLD
Unusually restrained color for me in this typical Susquehanna County Farm scene. The image is 18 x 18 and will be for sale this summer at the Butternut Gallery. I am working on some new Susquehanna County pieces for an August showing by Bob Smith, Betty Bryden & me; part of a year-long celebration of the 200th birthday of our county. My focus for these new paintings will be places and small scenes that interest me; not the county icons. I'm on the look out for little buildings and quirky twists to a typical scene.

Moonlit Winter Garden

SOLD
This small painting was done in the studio yesterday, but the scene is outside my studio window. It is my snow covered garden complete with shadowy creatures and a crescent moon. 9 x12.

Blown Off the Field

I was so excited to be met with a day above 50ºF that I quickly grabbed the easel and a few pastels and drove down my road until I spotted a likely subject. A cold front was moving in quite fast and the sky was very active. I kept a death grip on the easel against the gusts and did manage to get the panel covered with color before the rain sent me packing. I don't care; it was my first day out since Nov. 4!

I like this painting...it has strong composition, interesting color and it is fresh & windy. I might normally title it 'spring thaw' but we are far from spring here and we've all ready had several of these thaws, then ice storms, then foot of snow and we're only a week into winter officially.

December Thaw (11 x 14 UArt #800 on panel) will get some finishing work and I will publish the finished piece then. Such a delight to get out of the studio even if it was brief.

BTW the studio is open for appointments during most of the winter. email is best rtilley@rodricatilley.com