My only excuse...

Is that I have been painting.

I've been out weekly, painting with one or more Plein Air groups in Northeast Florida.  We have so many great days to paint outdoors that I have been trying to take advantage as much as I can.  But not as often as I'd like.  My painting is a slow process, which is not how most plein air painters work.  So it's still try and error sort of thing.  I have no compunction about wiping out a days painting if the results do not appear worthwhile.  But that's alright, as I'm still in the "learning" stage of plein air.  I've had a few successes, and I believe that finishing up painting in the studio, is the only way I can achieve what I fell is a decent painting.  I'm now at a point where some workshops with experienced outdoor painters would help.  These will be mostly local workshops here in Florida.  It's the this landscape that I'm interested in learning and want to use.   

I've been showing work not only with the St Augustine Art Association, but with the First Coast Plein Air Painters, and the Flagler County Plein Air painters. 

Is it Winter or Summer?  It depends on which side of the clouds the Sun woke up on...

But it's February now, and very soon it will be our Florida version of Spring.  This season starts well into what everyone else on the planet calls Winter.  Confusing, but so nice to live in.

I've been painting with Plein Aire Flagler, and now this group has morphed into a varied group from as far away as Georgia, Hello Mary O!, to the wonderful group of painters in Palm Coast.  Radon Eddy has started her Tuesday get together, On the Road Painters, with some interesting sites. Last Sunday was not Sunny as promised, but it was still a great day to paint.  The Shrimp fleet of St. Augustine was the subject.  I even met a fisherman who worked in colored pencils in his spare time.  I can't say my attempt to paint a shrimp boat was a success but maybe with a few corrections it won't embarrass a sailor. 

I've nothing to show at the moment, a lot of not quite finished canvases, and much work painted over for a new beginning.  I've not really painted in the outdoors much.  I've only had one or two successes.  But I have painted a lot from my outdoor attempts and from numerous photos of places I've come to know by visiting often.  So I will keep working plein aire until I've succeed with a good painting I can show. So please forgive my long silence.  I promise I will show some completed work within a month or so.

But just to keep you interested, here's a drawing I put in last month's Black & White show at the StA Art Association.