PLein Air Easton is Here once again!

For my fourth year in a row, I have been selected to compete in the Plein air Easton Competition. I consider this the premier plein air painting event in the country and is always an exciting and creative time for me. As I am a professional illustrator with a full time job, I really only have the opportunity to do one of these events per year, and if you have to pick just one...Easton is surely the best pick!

I try to plan my strategy and approach very carefully and build on my experiences of past years. Since you need to bring everything with you to create and frame ten pieces, it is a lot to organize.

Watercolor is not the most forgiving technique for plein air. While it may seem simple, the logistics of creating a large scale piece in the heat and humidity of Easton has proved to be a formidable task.

As I seem to have finally figured out how to load thing onto this blog, I plan to show my progress this year in Easton, every evening of the event, so stay tuned! In the meantime, I will load up abunch of paintings and sketches from my sketchbook for you to take a look at.

Tell me what you think!

HEre are some photos from last years Quick Draw in Easton where it poured!! I still managed to get it sold!

Some recent paintings after a long hiatus.

I love to add lots of color to my shadows. Watercolor is especially good at creating luminous transparent shadows.

Near my house in Mt LEbanon PA, and directly across the street from a bustling shopping mall, is a restored early 19th century farm complete with out buildings. this view depicts the edge of the summer kitchen.

Every once in a while as you stroll the street of a big city you need to force yourself to look up! very often you will be greeted with something wonderful.

One of the beach access pavillions in the sleepy resort town of Seaside, Florida.

This image was part of a series of character paintings that I did in Sewickely Pennsylvania. I am a Principal and Chief Illustrator for Urban Design Associates and we often have the opportunity to work on beautiful pieces of property. Trying to catch the first glimpse of the morning sun through the trees was especially challenging in watercolor. 

This composition is an exersise in manipulating the eye level of a painting to dynamic effect. I saw this old house along the road in Virginia and loved the way the white house punctuated the view.

This is a house in Oxford MD that I photographed during 2012 Plein Air Easton. I love the intimacy of these narrow side yards filled with all different color plants.