Greetings,
Welcome to the Cooper studio, Grinnell, Iowa, where we just returned, following a lovely vacation that finished with an exciting plein air paint out in Central City, Colorado.
Let me explain please. Oh wait, let's just put the cart before the horse, and give you a visual:
Yes, those would be the 5 paintings I created in 2.5 days of the Central City Opera sponsored 2019 Central City Plein Air Festival.
(And yes, please take note of the three 'sold' tags. As I've already told you, it was ever so exciting!)
Whew!
Now that we have that out of the way, let's get down to the reason for the title of this post:
90 Minutes And Counting.
You see the painting on the lower right of my group? Yes, the flower pot on the light post. That is the painting I painted for the Central City quick paint.
Have you ever heard of a 'quick paint'? Most plein air events include a quick paint. The norm is 2 hours of break-neck paced painting. Central City decided to cut it to 90 minutes. Yup, ninety minutes.
As a result of that extreme workout, I've decided to share my rules for the fastest quick paint ever, with my favorite readers.
Let's begin:
Rules for the quickest plein air quick paint of all quick paints:
1. Scope out the target area in advance. Participating artists were told by earlier email that the quick paint would happen on a 2 block stretch of Eureka Street. I planned two scenarios, one for sun, and one for clouds. We got sun. (Yay!!)
2. Arrive early no matter what. Central City plein air quick paint started at 12 noon. I registered, and got my panel stamped at 11am. I had perfect timing.
3. Have your palette ready to go, with plenty of paint squeezed out. You don't want to waste precious brush time, digging for the right paint tube. Ditto for the gamsol&galkyd. Have your Viva towels and trash bag ready and waiting; brushes and palette knife in easy reach - when the starting bell chimes, you'll be ready to grab and go!
4. This next rule should probably be in all caps, but that would be very annoying? Please, just don't gloss over this very important rule: Get your value sketch down! It's so important, that it's why I gave you rule #2, so you'd have enough time. If your sketch book is laying there with your painting road map detailed in it, it's almost like paint by number. (kiddingjustkidding) But it will definitely be the aid every quick paint artist needs.
5. Central City plein air quick paint had lots of people walking about, eager to ask questions and take photos of the artists. Did you know they don't really mind if you say something completely unintelligible while you are painting? KEEP PAINTING. They will just be amused when they realize the artist can't talk and paint at the same time.
6. Set your phone alarm. I already told you this specific quick paint started at 12noon. I set one phone alarm for 1pm, and a second for 1:20pm.
7. Resist the wayward temptation to change your original value sketch, especially if the tempting happens as the second alarm goes off. Second alarm time is time to decide where to put your signature, NOT the time to make some random huge change.
8. Central City Opera House has a lovely outdoor courtyard, where participating artists were invited to bring their finished (?) painting on their easel and compete in the award judging. I was not the first artist in, nor was I the last - sometimes middle is a great place to be. I did not win the quick paint award, but the judge came over to speak with me after the event, and mentioned his short list :) which definitely bolstered my spirits after such an invigorating work out.
9. I stuck to the quick paint rule book, and played the game pretty darned well.
And there's another quick paint on the horizon - Bluff Strokes, Dubuque, Iowa - I'll let you know how it goes!
Thanks for stopping by!
Later, Karen
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