Plen Aire Oils

As posted on my Home page, I've taken the plunge and have spent the last two Mondays painting with the Monday Morning Plen Aire Painters. I researched the group some time ago and wrote articles for the Artist Workshop of Sonoma County and the Artists Roundtable newsletters. I first painted at Goat Rock, on the Sonoma County coast. I have some studio work to do on that piece, and if I like the result, I'll post it another time.
My second session was at the Apple Orchards on Darby Road in Sebastopol. This is the second piece from that session. I've reworked it after the critique and like the result so much better.


This is the first piece I painted at the Darby Road site. Once again, the critique focused my attention on the blossoms and I learned it is better to blend the colors than to try to create individual blossoms, which I did on my first attempt. I have so much more to learn!!!

New Work

"Whooo Are You?"
I'm thinking about playing with watercolors. So I created this piece using watercolors, but with no instruction. I like the image but have no idea if I've done it correctly.










Painted on site, "Plen Aire" on Darby Road in Sebastopol. It's my second time out painting with Monday Morning Painters. The critique was terrific and I made changes in the studio based on the critique.










This was the first piece I painted at the Darby Road site and reworked it in the stidio based on what I learned at the critique. I find it very educational to paint plen aire and the critiques are essential to a new plen aire painter.

Go there!

Jane Dunnewold has put in print a lecture that those of us interested in how the world of Art Quilting, Fiber Art, Mixed Media, whatever you want to call it, has and is evolving. It is definitely thought-provoking. I encourage everyone to read it.
Copy and paste this into your browser. Comments are appreciated.

http://existentialneighborhood.blogspot.com/2011/02/formnot-function-lecture.html

This is my entry for my "12 Connected" group.
Changed - Cathy Ortelle


I might have taken this challenge too literally. I first heavily rusted (Change!) some Pima cotton fabric; it reminded me of a topographical map.



I then quilted some turquoise hand-dyed fabric to batting and overlaid the rusted fabric. Voila! Clear blue lakes nestled in Northern California mountains. I tried to machine quilt around the obvious places. Disaster! It looked horrid. So I ripped out the machine quilting and tried some hand work. Even worse. I don't have the dexterity to do good hand work any more. So I will be doing more machine work in the future.

I missed last month's challenge - sorry again. I have a huge Christmas party and my whole house is turned upside down and things are packed away. I still haven't found the challenge that I had almost completed before Christmas. Maybe it will turn up some day.

There's lots of fun work in this challenge. I'm looking forward to the next!


The theme was "Change".





I've also been setting up my Etsy shop and designing new patterns for my Arashi Shibori silk scarves.

I also am working on some articles about plen aire painting for a couple of newsletters.


I've found it's really difficult to try to master different types of media. I'm entered in the Sketchbook challenge and find it difficult to do one a day. But I do several in one night, so I guess it works out.

Fun Ways to Improve Your Art

3 Creative Studios Launch Party!

New website!

New Blog!

Flickr Albums!

Facebook Page!

Terri and Vicki Thank You for being a part of 3 Creative Studios. Look for the January newsletter (January 16) announcing our first Guest Artist and other new programs for 2011. Let’s celebrate with some prizes!

Here’s the first prize of our launch Party. It has 4 original prints and original fabric from Terri, a journal from Sue Bleiweiss, hand dyed and painted fabric and note cards from Vicki along with sequin waste and yarns.

The second prize package has a handmade purse from Terri, a journal from Sue Bleiweiss, hand dyed fabric and note cards from Vicki along with sequin waste, glitter, Angelina fibers and yarns.

The third prize package has Terri‘s book, Creative Paper Quilts, a journal from Sue Bleiweiss, hand dyed fabric, hand dyed scarf and note cards from Vicki along with a package of Texture Magic, buttons and yarns.

As the week goes by, each of these packages will have some additional surprise items added to fill the mailing box! We want to get the word out about our new presence on the web so we are offering you several opportunities to enter to win one of these great prize packages.

• One entry for just posting a comment on this post
• One entry for subscribing to the newsletter (or already being a subscriber) – leave a separate comment about your newsletter subscription
• One entry for “Liking” our Facebook Page – leave a separate comment about our FB “like”
• One entry for posting about this giveaway on your blog – leave a separate comment here with a link to your blog post

The drawing will occur Saturday, January 8 at midnight EST. Winners will be announced on the blog Sunday.

Good Luck!

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