This past weekend found me in heaven! High on a hillside, overlooking rolling meadows, a sweet little pond, and a wealth of plant life in gorgeous colors: lavender, deep violet, burgundy, greens of all sort, gold, white... I was in Nelsonville,Ohio, painting with the Ohio Plein Air Society's (OPAS) 1st Annual Competition.
A month previous, I was walking around "downtown" Nelsonville... had lunch at a great little deli called Fullbrooks, and saw a couple working on a retail space, painting, etc. Asked them what was on the way and soon discovered Gallery 4, owned by Gayla Parks of Athens, OH, and a member of OPAS. She told me about the competition and once I visited their website, saw the quality of members' work, and that they would take the prodigal painter, moi, had to join. I haven't painted outdoors for about 15 years! What fun it was.
And, I was a lucky winner. On the Saturday, they had a wine and cheese party for the artists and sponsors. I picked the winning raffle ticket and came home with a larger than life-size book on Andrew Wyeth, 1968 version now out of print.
On Sunday, the 53 participants gathered in the town square on a beautiful sunny day, and with work on easels waited expectantly for the juror, David Mueller. If you have time, visit his site, DavidMuellerfinart.com and see his extraordinary work. I had a great talk with David and his wife, Lori, on Saturday night and it was inspiring to hear his story of artistic growth. Congratulations to David as he has recently added a NYC gallery to his resume and they will be showing his work in the coming year.
Finally, anyone interested in beautiful Ohio, might want to check out the work of the OPAS artists in The Land We Call Ohio painting project. Also, OPAS artists' work is online at the gallery page.
I spent Saturday and part of Sunday painting the beautiful rolling hills and pond of Fullbrooks Lodge. Check out their website for photographs and info on having a stay there.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment