The Plein Air Convention and finishing A Flower Gardner

I am standing next to my art pal, Birgit. She is the one who coaxed me into doing the photo. I am glad she did. Its a good reminder about how fun the convention was! I am really thinking of going next year. It will be in Tuscon which looks awesome. Anyone up for a trip in April 2016? The convention was filled with lots of activities. Everyday there was art marketing boot camp at 6:30 am, then starting at 8am the demonstrations, panel discussions and various programs began. I know some of the people I ran into felt they were on overload but you can pace yourself and take breaks or in my case take naps. There was plein air sessions in the afternoon and then there were evening sessions. There were nocturne demonstrations and critiques.

This is the night I will never forget. It was a critique session with Lori Putnam and Quang Ho. I wish I could have recorded what they said because all I can recall is "blah, blah, blah, shapes, seeing this well at 130 mile per hour, blah, blah , blah". They were both complimentary and the room gave an unexpected supportive applause. I think I am still high from the whole experience.

10 x10

acrylic on cradled panel

So this is the finished version of the critiqued painting. You probably can't see it well but I moved the red rose out from the center. A very accomplished artist, Charlie Hunter had asked about it during the critique and while Lori and Quang said it worked fine, it started to bug me. I also put in a little more detail. I may enter this into a group show. Still debating.