All About Amelia

Here is our group during the week on Amelia Island. The gals are Martha Elder, Ann Currey, Barbara Murray, Betty Moses,
Sarah Fowler, and

L.J. Huffaker.

Sorry the photos are

so jumbled up- use your creativity to figure out which are which!

Yes, we had a little fun with our studies at the Amelia Island workshop. Here they are calling on their inner Creative Goddesses while going over the notes for the week. The boas made for a different interpretation of "feathers flying". I am sure that L.J. will have to explain to her husband about the feathers everywhere in their home on Amelia Plantation. The highlight was the burning of the creative blockers in her outdoor firepit. We were now ready to paint!

Tuesday we set up at Walker's Landing, a wonderful park including a boat launch and event house that overlooked the marshes. Absolutely a stunning view! Tuesday night we had dinner at the Ocean Club, an Amelia Island Plantation owner's exclusive. It was make your own pasta night with everything you could imagine, including a dessert table. After all the hard work outside that day, we deserved that wonderful meal.

Wednesday was Paint the Town day. Our group lined up across from The Addison House, a bed and breakfast in the historic section of Fernandina Beach. Our lesson that day had been drawing in perspective and this house had lots of it! We were able to have lunch outdoors in the courtyard of La Bodega Cafe downtown. That afternoon we visited Amelia SanJon Gallery (see earlier posts) where I am the featured artist this month with paintings of beach chairs and marshes. (L.J. stands with some of my works and Sandy's display of jewelry and pottery in the gallery)

Thursday we painted at the Tiger Point marina. I had driven there during the summer and loved the drydocked boats. Lucky for us, the marina let us use their event house decks that just so happened to overlook the docks. Artist friend, Barbara Perrotti www.barbaraperrottistudio.com from Ormond Beach, FL phoned to invite all of us to an opening of her artwork on Amelia that night! (That's her in the hot pink jacket at the opening). It was so fun to see Barbara and husband, Lou, and her beautiful paintings of children and figures in beach settings. Another great meal that night at Brett's, a waterfront restaurant in town. The week really flew for me. I hope the gals who were brave enough to go with me enjoyed the introduction to plein air painting Amelia Island style!

If you are interested in information about my next workshop, email me to keep you on an update list: Durinda@Durinda.com.

Happy Painting!

Durinda

Hunter Eddy Workshop Notes and Upcoming Show

Studio class with Hunter Eddy

painting demo

Shown at top is the painting demo by Hunter Eddy next to the real vase of money plant. Hunter was in town at the Gold Leaf Gallery (http://www.shuptrinefineartgroup.com/) for his show. He gave a talk/demo on how he paints. Hunter is an instructor at the Florence Academy of Art, Florence, Italy (http://www.florenceacademyofart.com/) . It was very enlightening to have him explain the procedures of painting that require precise measurements and accurate color mixing. His work is not photographic, but soft edged and very subtle. They remind me of Jean-Baptiste Chardin (1699-1779). Hunter also does large figure paintings, mostly nudes, from models at the Academy.

The other photo is part of the our oil class from the Lookout Mountain Studio who attended the demo: Anne Platt, Sarah Fowler, Hunter Eddy, Durinda, Evelle Dana, and Martha Elder. We now have our notes and observations to compare. On our next workshop trip to Tuscany, we will definitely visit the Academy and see Hunter's studio. Evelle Dana's son, Brent, attended one year after graduation from Baylor and loved it. The first year is very strict about learning to draw from life using plaster casts and then drawing from models. Excellent instruction that some of our American art schools are not teaching. Everyone who wants to paint realism should study drawing, in my opinion. I know there are artists who have never taken formal classes, but drawing consistently in a sketchbook counts too. It is all in training your eye.






Featured Artist for October at Amelia SanJon Gallery:



I will have 5 or so paintings for the First Friday opening, October 3, at Sandy Hinton's gallery in Fernandina Beach. See earlier posts: Around Amelia and Amelia Island Part 2. The show will be up through October. Here is one painting based on my stay there this summer. I fell in love with the area and decided to do a series of beach chairs in different sizes and situations from 30" x 36" to 4" x 4". This is Dune Buddies, 36" x 36", oil on canvas. I also have a couple of paintings of the wonderful Victorian porches and the marshes. An article is in today's Town Talk in the Chattanooga TimesFree Press about the show and the upcoming workshop with students from Happy Painters': L.J. Huffaker, Anne Platt, Martha Elder, Sarah Fowler, Barbara Murray, Ann Currey, and Betty Moses. I am hoping that there will be interest in doing another workshop there again soon.

Lots of things coming up- hope you are having a great start to fall too!

"Every artist was at first an amateur," Ralph Waldo Emerson

Durinda

Amelia Island part 2 and fall paintings

This is SanJon Gallery in Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island, Fl.

Here is the shot of Sandy Hinton and me in front of some of her wonderful works in her gallery I talked about last week. Sandy paints in acrylic and watercolor. She had a painting in the Tennessee Watercolor Society exhibit this year. I put links to her work and the gallery in last time. I hope to show a few tropical paintings in her gallery during October. Amelia will be a great place for the workshop. Lots of interesting things to paint!

I don't know why I couldn't load my photos last week, but I think the computer is trying to tell me something. I think I have every photo on it that I have ever shot with a digital. HMMM- time for a cleaning?

This week in the studio I have been working on fall landscapes. Never too early to get ready for fall shows! My concern has always been how to keep fall landscapes from looking like "Kmart", excuse me, but the contrast of reds, oranges, and yellows, with greens and browns can be too much. I credit Diane Johnson with getting me in the North Carolina mountains one fall to paint foliage. Her advice was to mix a complement with the colors. Since the sap is going away, so is the color, so you need to dull it. Only where the sun hits directly on upturned leaves would there be a brighter hue. I try to keep that in mind when painting fall scenes.

Get out and enjoy the summer while you can!

Durinda

Around Amelia

We have just returned from a long weekend on Amelia Island, Fl. Our visit had a dual purpose: I wanted to check out spots to paint in October when I teach a painting workshop, and Bill wanted a little R & R which included good seafood. So, we managed to do both.

Sandy Hinton, artist and owner of SanJon Gallery in Fernandina, is formerly from North Georgia. She was a founding member of In Town Gallery, the artist co-op in Chattanooga, a past president of Tennessee Watercolor Society, and a signature member of National Watercolor Society. Sandy's gallery is in the historic section of town in a house built in the 1800's. Sandy was very helpful in giving me ideas of places to paint and Bill places to eat. You can see her work on her website: www.sandrabaker-hinton.com and check out the gallery: www.ameliasanjongallery.com. Sandy does a lot of work with the endangered sea turtles, helping the babies to get to the water and keeping an eye on the nests. Seems everything likes turtle eggs!

Fernandina has 50 blocks of old Victorian era houses and commercial buildings. I was able to paint a row of houses on Friday morning by standing on the sidewalk across the street, under a tree. It is nice when a town has wide sidewalks and some shade! I tried to download my photos for you, but I think my camera was set on large file and they were too large to use. I will have to work on that! My new Nikon D80 is great, I love the clarity and playing with my zoom lens, but the manual is like a textbook and I haven't gotten very far!

Another wonderful feature of the area is the marshlands. I love them! I can't wait to see them in October when they will be golden. We saw pink spoonbills on Saturday. From the road they looked as bright as flamingos. Beautiful! It was also pretty amazing that the island had a sunrise view on the Atlantic side and a sunset view over the Amelia River. So much to paint and so little time! It will be hard to decide what to paint in October!

The regular classes at Happy Painters start soon. I am excited to see what everyone has been working on this summer.

Off to paint now!
Durinda