Art

Enchanting Chain O’ Lakes

/ Tamara Brown / 1 Comment

The first painting event of my third year focusing on waterscapes at Indiana’s state parks began with a bang over the 2018 Memorial Day weekend. Located in lake country a little northwest of Fort Wayne, Indiana, the park’s feature attractions are based on a series of nine connected kettle lakes formed by the action of Ice Age glaciers.

Dedicated in 1960, the park wins the prize for most unusual shape based on those kettle lakes (two miles wide and four miles long). Within its 2,718 acres there’s plenty to do, including hiking 23 miles of forested trails, boating and fishing the lakes (electric-motors only), touring the historic one-room schoolhouse, exploring the nature center, swimming at the park beach or camping at the large 400-site shaded campground.

I spent a very pleasant morning on the shores of Sand Lake in between the fishing pier and the nature center painting the perfectly calm water with glasslike surface reflections. Of course all that changed within an hour or so when the breeze picked up and many kayaks and canoes began to paddle through while touring nine of the thirteen lakes carved from rivers of water from the glaciers’ melting ice thousands of years ago.

By the time I was ready to move on to the painting activity I had enough work to show the hiking group led by interpretive naturalist Kaitlyn Sproles, who provided all the hikers with color chips to match items seen on their nature walk. I give Kaitlyn all the credit for an inspirational idea that I really appreciated later on when many of the participants from the hike joined my painting activity and applied their morning’s color observations to their artwork at the shady picnic area! Around fifty painters, parents and supporters participated in the watercolor activity while the swimming beach and an informative snake demonstration outside the nature center gave park visitors plenty to do.

In the afternoon I set up in the picnic area next to the historic Stanley Schoolhouse, built in 1915 overlooking the Finster Lakes. A watercolor artist named Hannah from Fort Wayne joined me to paint the building and chat about art, my favorite topic. And another creative named Grandpa Dave stopped by to describe his ever-evolving Christmas Carny train set and carnival that is truly an artistic labor of love. Check it out on YouTube if you get a chance. You’ll be amazed by all the carnival rides and Christmas characters!

All told, I engaged with over 130 park visitors and saw many happy artists take home mementos from a truly memorable Memorial Day weekend. Many thanks to the Chain O’ Lakes staff for their hospitality and support. Indiana’s lake country is unique and full of beautiful waterscapes. I look forward to painting there again soon.

Ending on a High Note at Falls of the Ohio

/ Tamara Brown / 2 Comments

Last weekend my 2017 Arts in the Parks grant program came to its conclusion high upon bluffs overlooking a unique landscape of barren prehistoric fossil beds in sharp contrast to the sleek skyline of Louisville on the other side of the Ohio River. In the shade of the impressive 16,000 square-foot Interpretive Center showcased by Indiana’s twentieth state park, I enjoyed painting expansive views while meeting all kinds of creative folks visiting that day.

For my morning painting demonstration I found a protected spot on the Interpretive Center’s observation deck where hikers gathered for one of the park’s weekend tours to the fossil beds and beyond. This time of year the dam that runs parallel to the bank lowers water levels enough for visitors to walk over to outer rock beds that are part of an island often submerged by spring floods. I learned that it’s critical for the beds to be consistently flooded to keep from drying out and deteriorating, which seems counterintuitive considering they are made of hard limestone.

For a couple of hours I painted part of the dam built in the 1920s as well as the upper and lower fossil beds created 387 million years ago when corals, sponges, brachiopods and other aquatic life flourished under a shallow tropical sea and were buried in layers of limey sediment that caused them to fossilize. During the glacial retreat of the last Ice Age meltwater scoured the limestone deposits, exposing the Devonian fossil beds and providing a marvelous look at prehistoric life forms preserved in stone for the modern-day visitor.

Unlike many of my demonstrations in the parks, this particular morning I had little use for green paint since the fossil beds resemble more of a moonscape than the usual Indiana scene, even during the autumn droughts which are typical for this area. As predicted the wind began to really pick up before noon and I started to lose the shade provided by the building. I always bring a special plein air umbrella that can be clipped to my easel for shade but couldn’t use it that day unless I wanted my painting setup to sail off the cliffs and over the river like Mary Poppins.

Around noon we found a windbreak for my hands-on painting activity behind some boulders near a welcoming picnic area still in sight of the river and fossil beds, where I engaged with many visitors who were heading toward the interpretive center or coming back from a hike down to the upper fossil beds on an easy path. Overall I engaged with 60 park guests with 14 kids and adults trying out the water brushes and painting supplies.

I also met two Louisville artists who express their creativity in very different ways.  Erik Bendl, otherwise known as World Guy, stopped to talk after collecting driftwood deposited along the river shoreline by high water. He has walked over six thousand miles pushing a large world globe for diabetes awareness and you can read more about his adventures at World Guy.  Albertus Gorman, an artist and art advocate who has an exhibit inside the interpretive center as well as an installation of figurative sculptures near the railroad bridge made from found materials deposited by the river, encourages the public to interact or add to his evolving artwork. Please check out his installations and exhibits at Artist at Exit O Riverblog.

This wraps up another successful grant year at Paints in the Parks. As I prepare my final report, I’m very grateful to the Indiana Arts Commission, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, and my immediate family for their support and encouragement over these last six months of unpredictable weather and challenging terrain. I especially appreciate all of the park guests I’ve met throughout this program who are open to painting in all kinds of conditions and courageous in their creativity. I will always treasure your willingness to engage with nature through art. It’s what keeps me going as I continue my journey to paint in all of Indiana’s state parks. Thank you for joining me.

Return to Spring Mill

/ Tamara Brown / 2 Comments

As the dust settles from my third application for another Arts in the Parks grant in 2018, I’ve returned to the studio to avoid an odd post-Labor Day heat wave and prepare for another September visit to Spring Mill. Hard to believe exactly a year has passed since my first painting trip down to Mitchell, Indiana, the birthplace of astronaut Gus Grissom and home to one of Indiana’s best known state parks.

I’ll be bringing with me completed artwork from last year’s visit including an 8″ x 10″ oil painting of the wooded bank near the entrance to Twin Caves. I found a great spot to set up and visit with a crowd of park guests waiting for their boat ride into the caves the morning of my program last year. And I was able to get a good start on this view of fallen logs left to decay, creating a natural environment for all sorts of plant and animal life. Back at home I’ve enjoyed playing with the differences between what is above and below the waterline, helped by the surface refraction of light and shadow.

The afternoon rain showers that day forced me to seek shelter in a breezeway between log cabins while working with a pastel of the three-story limestone grist mill that is the centerpiece of Spring Mill’s pioneer village. Since pastels and precipitation don’t mix (unless you want an accidental watercolor) I had to make some creative choices about omitting details such as the unfortunately placed little tree in the foreground. No matter, I was able to take some better photos when the rain ended that helped me fill in details later and finish this 5″ x 7″ pastel on sanded paper in the studio.

A year later I’m preparing to paint the grist mill again, this time with oils. I confess that I’m not particularly confident about my skills in rendering buildings, especially using brushes since I have much more experience with drawing. For me trees and organic natural forms are much more forgiving than linear edges and the dreaded two-point perspective. I prefer to eyeball and claim near-sighted impressionism as my inspiration.

Last year I promised to return to Spring Mill in honor of the bicentennial of the grist mill begun in 1817 with several revisions throughout the years. I particularly admire the stone pillars of the flume that transports water to power the mill wheel from cave springs up the hill. Perhaps I’ll find a shady spot underneath those pillars since, unlike last year, the day promises to be nothing but sun in the upper 80s. But I’m grateful to be able to take these challenges in stride because I’m aware that life, as in painting, is made more interesting in its contrasts.

Harvey and the Hay Press at O’Bannon Woods

/ Tamara Brown / 2 Comments

Seems like each year that I offer my state park program there’s always one event where I need to make the difficult decision of whether to go ahead on the scheduled date (usually a Saturday) or wait until the next day (usually a Sunday). Last year Indiana Dunes presented this dilemma although I’d already booked a hotel just in case. This year the remnants of Hurricane Harvey threw a very soggy wrench into my plans forcing me to decide whether to risk a five-hour roundtrip drive that might have been in vain.

Based on the weather forecasters’ best guesses and my previous experience with a hurricane’s notorious unpredictability, I decided to postpone my Labor Day Saturday event at O’Bannon Woods State Park until Sunday. And even when Harvey’s rain did end on Saturday morning in southern Indiana after a 24-hour drenching, the day actually became colder with a damp north wind. Sunday, on the other hand, couldn’t have been more beautiful as often happens after a hurricane passes through and I was assured by staff and visitors that I’d made the right choice.

Located west of Louisville in extreme south central Indiana along the Ohio River, the 2,294-acre park was originally established in 1980 as a recreational area called Wyandotte Woods and renamed in honor of Indiana’s late Governor Frank O’Bannon and his family in 2004. This secluded and beautiful park is nestled within one of Indiana’s largest state forests, the 24,000-acre Harrison-Crawford which is a timber source that also offers canoeing, hiking, hunting, fishing, birding and swimming.

I spent my day at the charming Hickory Hollow Nature Center which houses one of the best nature and wildlife collections and exhibits of any park I’ve visited so far. Directly behind the nature center visitors will find an outdoor wetlands pond, living-history demonstrations in a pioneer farmstead, and a restored historically accurate 1850s hay press and barn with its own museum. On special weekends throughout the year demonstrations of the hay press using one of two oxen housed at the farmstead are offered, as well as numerous interactive demonstrations that include tomahawk throwing, archery, rope making, blacksmithing, yarn spinning, log sawing and even panning for gold.

In the morning I painted the hay press barn where the beautifully crafted stonework on the ramp leading up to the main barn doors caught my eye. Situated along the main path to the pioneer farmstead and all the activities, I had plenty of chances to engage with not only park visitors but also the friendly volunteers who spend many hours sharing their talents and expertise for the love of the park and what they do. In fact, my husband and I were welcomed with hot coffee and blueberry pancakes fresh off a cast iron griddle over an open fire as soon as we arrived. You can’t beat that!

Around noon I set up my painting activity in the sunny courtyard between the nature center and the barn where the hay press demonstration takes place. Almost immediately visitors were lining up to try out my water brushes and paint supplies. Ann, one of the volunteers from the pioneer farmstead, joined me to offer frames for completed artwork as part of their children’s craft. The paper frames glued to regular copy paper could be decorated with crayons and stickers. Some participants even used watercolor paint! The frames really added to the artistic experience and I was very grateful for Ann’s idea that could be a great creative option in the future.

Even during the hay press demonstration with 400 visitors in attendance there were still plenty of artists outside painting on the convenient picnic tables while the sun shone, the birds called and butterflies landed on flowers in the wetlands pond. In total, O’Bannon Woods broke all the Paints in the Parks records so far with over 200 interactions and 85 painting participants! It was so gratifying to watch entire families painting at picnic tables with multi-generations peacefully sharing paints and water brushes, chatting and laughing. Several parents remarked on how easy and natural this activity is but how seldom it seems to happen at home.

Since I ran out of almost all my supplies after such a tremendous turnout, I was able to wrap up with enough time to tour the farmstead myself, interact with the artisans who were demonstrating their own skills, and admire the many forms of creativity and art offered. In fact, the hay press itself is a marvelous piece of art in my opinion with its hand-carved wood and practical beauty. Of course, I need to return one of these days so I can see this art put into action!

River and Ruins at Charlestown

/ Tamara Brown / 2 Comments

The beautiful August day I spent at Charlestown State Park on the Ohio River near Louisville was one for the record books. While enjoying a flawless blue sky and crisp breeze I painted barges on the river, discovered ruins on a mysterious island, and talked to many visitors who couldn’t believe that this was August with such fall-like weather.

Established in 1996 as one of the newest state parks, Charlestown’s 5,000-acre parcel is bordered by the Ohio which is fed by Fourteenmile Creek that runs through the park, one of the oldest unglaciated stream valleys in Indiana. Mostly open farmland or pasture at the turn of the century, much of the park’s reforestation occurred under the resource management of the US Army which operated an ammunition plant on the property from 1940 to 1995.

For my morning demonstration I set up my easel for oils at one of two overlooks along the Ohio near the park’s boat landing where I attempted to paint my first barge as they slowly came into view around a distant bend in the river. While engaging in some great conversations about art and life with visitors who stopped by to experience the river, we saw fish nibbling at the rocky edges and plenty of herons soaring high in an empty blue sky. No chance to practice painting clouds that day.

After lunch I headed down a very steeply graded road across Fourteenmile Creek to Rose Island, the site of a 1920s amusement park that was heavily damaged in the infamous 1937 flood that also affected Louisville downstream. Luckily the DNR van was able to drive me and all my supplies to my painting site across an old 1913 truss-style bridge relocated to provide access to the island. Only a few concrete and stone structures remain of the amusement park that welcomed 135,000 guests a year, offering rental cottages along the river as well as a hotel, swimming pool, dance hall, rollercoaster and zoo.

I positioned my easel at the entrance to the Walkway of Roses where climbing vines once covered the three arches that can still be seen near the foundation of the dance hall. The arches were also lit back in the 1920s providing a romantic path on those happy summer evenings before the Depression and World War II. Now only the stone and metal arches remain with young trees growing in between the posts and nature doing her best to hide the island’s secrets of the past. The purposes to some of the remnants remain unknown and archaeological digs on the island have yielded artifacts from both the amusement park and indigenous people who lived in the area.

My demonstration along the trail provided a stopping point for the Rose Island Guided History tour led by interpretive naturalist Jeremy Beavins, where I talked to over twenty participants about my program and the supplies I’d brought that day. Later that evening some visitors from the tour group met me at one of the spacious picnic shelters for my hands-on watercolor activity. Painting in the golden rays of the setting sun while listening to song birds was the perfect ending to a wonderful day at Charlestown where I interacted with over 50 visitors overall.

Many thanks to the DNR staff who promoted my program and made it easy to experience the best of Charlestown. I hope to return soon so I can go on the complete Rose Island guided tour and hear the rest story.

 

Making Waves at Indiana Dunes

/ Tamara Brown / 3 Comments

As temps finally flirt with the upper 90s outside, I have returned to the air-conditioned studio to finish my series of paintings begun during last year’s Arts in the Parks grant. I’m taking up where I left off after my midpoint post back in April(!) of this year highlighting paintings from last July’s Turkey Run State Park. By August I was hiking the sandy trails and beaches of Indiana’s own sand dunes after a powerful storm on Saturday made me wait until the following day to ply my brush and pastel sticks.

My first stop on that Sunday morning was a quiet spot under the bird observation tower at the end of the beach which gave some excellent shade and shelter from the winds. I enjoyed using water-mixable oils to capture the changing cloud cover that rolled through the area. Breaks of sunlight and shifting winds made the textures on Lake Michigan’s surface and the direction of the waves a challenge to catch in time. Since visitor traffic to the tower was intermittent I had plenty of opportunities to try different techniques while I noted all the colors of the lake, from stormy blues to iridescent greens to delicate pinks and lavenders.

In the afternoon, I tried out a new surface for my pastel painting by using an Ampersand pastelbord, which is a clay and gesso coated hardboard panel with a granular marble dust finish comparable to a sanded pastel paper. This particular 9″ X 12″ sample was tinted dark grey which alleviated the dreaded “white canvas” syndrome and brought out bright pastel tones. My subject was found in the wetlands running behind the park’s grassy dunes with a very wide and accessible boardwalk overlooking a particularly enticing bend in the ribbon of contrasting reddish-brown water that wound through the green button-bush marsh.

The rough texture of the board held my soft pastels well with very little dust waste. Plus the panel was easy to clip onto my easel and unlike my Wallis paper which requires taping to a sturdy piece of foam board it was ready to go when I needed it. My biggest challenge was making a slit to take off the plastic wrap. (A visitor who stopped by to watch suggested using one of my house keys and it worked!) My only complaint about the 9 x 12 size is that getting a good start can be difficult when you’re busy talking to a steady stream of folks strolling along the boardwalk between the campgrounds and beach. I had to finish at home and it took many months to bring this rather impressionistic painting to a point where I was satisfied that I’d captured the strong afternoon light.

In addition, I’m including a pre-event acrylic painting from an earlier reconnaissance visit to the park’s Devil’s Slide, an extremely vertical part of the hiking trail with some interesting sand patterns that I thought would be fun to paint. Since I wasn’t located on the beach during my Arts in the Parks demonstrations, this was a good way to practice a “beach-y” scene for one of my landscape experiences.

As to whether I’ll keep any of these paintings or reuse the panels, I’ll add that Ampersand’s pastelbord requires special framing with glass and spacers under the mat, or fixative that can change the colors considerably. Another option would be to wash the pastels off the panel for a fresh start instead of having to paint over with white paint or gesso like you do with oils and acrylics.  And Ampersand says I can try oils or acrylic on their boards for interesting effects, as well. Stay tuned!

Hunting for Harmonie

/ Tamara Brown / 2 Comments

Located in the very southern “toe” of Indiana near the historic utopian community at New Harmony, Harmonie State Park was my first stop in this year’s quest to visit six of the most recent additions to Indiana’s park system. Established in 1966, Harmonie’s 3,465 acres border Illinois and the Wabash River on its way to a rendezvous with the Ohio. With its river views, olympic-size pool, multiple picnic areas and 200-site campground, Harmonie provides plenty of outdoor entertainment.

Due to heavy rains and flooding my original date for visiting had to be pushed back a week until the flood waters receded. The park had only been open for two days when I arrived on Saturday morning, May 20th during a very active thunderstorm. Luckily the storm moved through quickly and I was able to venture down to the dock of the Little Harmonie Pond, taking only my watercolor kit, a sketchbook and my camp chair just in case there was more rain on the way.

I quickly started working on a view of the pond including one of the beautiful blue benches that reflected so well in the still water. Before long a group of boy scouts and their leaders from nearby Evansville appeared with fishing gear and poles to try their luck at the pond. I enjoyed watching the young fishermen cast their lines and listened to their friendly banter while waiting for a bite. I was able to get a good start on the painting by the time I was scheduled to head over to the Nature Center.

The sun was just beginning to peek out while I set up for the watercolor painting activity under some shade trees next to the building. Facing the campgrounds, I was able to entice young and old alike to grab a paint set, water brush and an assortment of Inktense pencils, Micron pens and (new this year) watercolor crayons. Visitors were able to sit at several brand-new picnic tables nearby and spend a leisurely hour or so painting and chatting with friends and family while listening to the sounds of nature surrounding them. Around fifteen children and grownups stopped by to paint and let me take their photos while proudly displaying their artwork.

For the afternoon demonstration I set up along the Wabash River which was still very high and had overflowed its banks just a few days earlier. In fact the spot I’d chosen to place my easel had clearly been underwater at some point. But with a good coating of bug spray I was blocking out color in no time under some lovely shade trees overlooking a scenic stretch of the river.

Just in time too because I was placed at the river for a reason. For the first time ever I was actually part of a photo scavenger hunt. Participants had to find the artist and take a picture with me and my painting as one of a long list of clues. Not only was this an excellent way to see the park and learn about all the features you might otherwise miss, but I had the opportunity to interact with visitors and show them some plein air painting in action. Scavenger hunters had a chance to compare what I was painting and note my use of colors you wouldn’t expect. For instance instead of brown or blue water, the surface of the river had a pink glow in the afternoon light that day and everyone could really see that.

All totaled I visited with about 55 guests for my first park, many of them braving the damp conditions to camp that weekend. Considering that half the state had canceled all kinds of plans for the weekend because of the wet weather, I call that a success!

Pastel Pursuits at Turkey Run

/ Tamara Brown / 2 Comments

The next stop in the countdown to my 2017 visits to Indiana’s state parks goes back to a beautiful day in July at the unique Turkey Run State Park. Easily the most visited state park in Indiana, I spent a productive morning at the busiest spot at Turkey Run — the suspension bridge over Sugar Creek. You couldn’t ask for a better position to engage the public. I broke all attendance records for the morning alone!

In order to visit most of the dramatic cliffs and canyons in the park you must cross the creek over a bridge that does move a bit depending on the wind and traffic. I set up for the morning in the cool shade of a convenient clearing in view of everyone hiking up and down the steps of the mossy concrete support for the cables that hold up the foot bridge. Even with many pauses to chat with visitors at this visible spot I made enough progress on my painting that people could recognize what I was working on.

I chose to paint with pastels that morning and had already prepared a piece of sanded 8″ x 10″ Wallis pastel paper secured with white artist tape to a piece of foam board. I’m able to clip this setup to the easel of my pochade box the same way I do my panels for oil painting. That way when I’m finished and need to move on I can carry the pastel clipped to the outside of the box or place it in one of the plastic bins I bring along to protect the fragile pastels from the elements and keep everything else away from the dust.

I use several brands of soft or chalk pastels although I’ll be experimenting with oil pastels in 2017. I have used the firmer Prismacolor NuPastel sticks since college and prefer them for crisper edges and a wide variety of colors at a reasonable price. I also use Derwent pastel pencils for clean, sharp lines and details. A few years ago a painting teacher at my local art center introduced me to Rembrandt pastels which are softer and pricier. After enjoying the depth of color I’ve achieved with these I finally took the plunge and bought a few of the very expensive Sennelier soft pastels in buttery, darker shades. I’ve learned the hard way that you have to pay big bucks for those very necessary dark shades that pop the lighter colors and add depth to your painting.

After taking shelter under the nature center’s covered porch for a big thunderstorm, I hauled only the basics (my pochade box and a camp chair) down the many steps to the bottom of Turkey Run Canyon. Perched on the edge of the swollen creek I began an oil painting on a 9″ x 12″ panel while hikers tried to cross over on the few remaining rocks jutting out of the water. Few made it across without getting their feet wet. Meanwhile I tried to replicate the beautiful saturated colors left by the rains as the sun’s rays hit all the water particles suspended in the air, turning them to diamonds.

Neither photo nor painting could do justice to the enchanting scene I hoped to capture that afternoon. I hope to remember it always, and now have a completed painting to help jog my memory. I particularly enjoyed painting all the warm colors found in the water, pebbles and sand as complements to the cool blues and purples of the canyon walls and woods.

Keep an eye out for a change of pace and completely different scenery when I head up to the sand dunes of Lake Michigan for my next installment. Until then, happy creating!

Painting Matters at Mounds

/ Tamara Brown / 2 Comments

With one successful park program under my belt last May I began June’s visit to Mounds State Park near Anderson, Indiana, with a little more confidence, boosted even more by the two lovely ladies who were waiting to draw with me that morning. The park naturalist had done a great job advertising the Paints in the Parks event and they had brought along pencils and paper to capture the Great Mound with me for a pleasant few hours.

The weather was sunny and mild that day, maybe the best of all the park visits last year. I found a good spot with a little shade near the trail leading to the Great Mound’s entrance where I could talk to visitors strolling by as I took advantage of the strong morning light and shadows. Faced with the largest of the earthworks created by a group of prehistoric people I could only capture a portion of the mound, reenforcing the plein air painter’s need for framing and omission in the composition of a painting.

I’m pleased to report that the Great Mound’s distinctive shape topped by tall trees and surrounded by a rustic rail fence prompted park guests during subsequent events to immediately recognize the subject whenever they saw this painting on display. Considering that these remarkable landmarks had to survive the construction of an amusement park on top of them in the early 20th Century, I’m very lucky to still be able to capture the spirit of this sacred site.

The above glimpse of my palette gives me the perfect opportunity to introduce my choice of paint and colors. A friend who is an accomplished art teacher and oil painter gave me a beginner box of Artisan Water Mixable Oils made by Winsor & Newton. Since I began my training as an acrylic painter and knew nothing about oils, I was eager to try an alternative to the traditional thinners and mixes, and use water for mixing and clean up. I supplemented with tubes of Duo Aqua Oil by Holbein, which are very creamy and easy to use. My color palette includes the usual basics like Lemon Yellow, Cadmium Yellow, Cadmium Red, Alizarin Crimson, Cerulean Blue, Ultramarine Blue, Burnt Sienna, Yellow Ochre and Titanium White. But I also like to include Dioxazine Violet, Raw Umber, Cadmium Orange, Cobalt Blue and Prussian Blue.

And then there are the greens. Because you need to work fast in plein air, I prefer to go the “lazy” route of pre-mixed greens (suddenly I have a hankering for salad) which include Sap Green, Light Cadmium Green, Phthalo Green and Terre Verte. As you can see, that makes for quite a few colors lined up so it’s helpful to have them already squeezed out before you head out to paint. I use a covered palette with a piece of palette paper cut to fit in the bottom for easy cleanup. This arrangement has worked for me but there’s still some waste despite the small amounts. In 2017 I hope to try a more limited palette that will control the relationship between color groups and emphasize values better.

Around lunchtime I packed up the oils and moved down the trail to the Bronnenberg house, pioneer residence to one of the first settlers in the area. I will admit that buildings, straight edges and perspective are not my forte; give me a twisted tree trunk or winding stone-strewn creek any day. With that in mind I had already gotten a good start on a pastel of the historic site in my home studio based on photos from a previous visit. I knew the tiny details of countless mullioned window panes would be my undoing on a rickety easel along the breezy and uneven trail. Some work is best done flat on a table.

What was left was mostly what I enjoy, like filling in plantings and the rail fence in the front yard. My preparation paid off as I continued to greet and chat with a large group on a nature hike as well as folks touring the house. I even gave a short video interview for a reporter from a local newspaper as I nervously dabbed at my picture with soft pastels. One of my friends from Indianapolis joined me to paint with her watercolors. The sun continued to shine but wasn’t unbearably hot.

After a couple of hours that went by too quickly I was ready to pack up and head for the Nature Center to offer my watercolor painting activity and participate in a big birthday party with an enormous sheet cake to help celebrate Indiana’s Bicentennial and the state parks’ Centennial.  More next time about my pastel palette and pastel paper preparation. Until then, help yourself to some cake!

Countdown to the Parks

/ Tamara Brown / 3 Comments

The grass is greening, tree buds are bursting, geese have returned (well, they never actually left), and warm spring breezes are calling to make art outdoors. I have another Arts in the Parks Grant for 2017, this time in six of the newest state parks throughout Indiana. In preparation I’m finishing and featuring the paintings from visits last year, one set of park paintings per week until the official kick-off for my Paints in the Parks event the first weekend of May.

This week’s completed works are from my very first 2016 Paints in the Parks event on Memorial Day Weekend last May. I nervously set up my easel and supplies by the edge of Big Clifty at the most popular spot in Clifty Falls State Park near Madison, Indiana. I’d just been informed that a well-known Indiana photographer for Outdoor Indiana magazine was coming to take photos of me painting by the falls.

Working against the clock, I quickly located a good angle, framed the composition in my mind, and chose an appropriately sized panel. By the time photographer Frank Oliver arrived I had roughly blocked in all areas and was working on details, trying to capture the movement of that rushing water over rocks, all while chatting with park visitors and trail hikers.

When it was time for me to move on to my next spot in the park, I was close to completing the painting, needing only a few touchups when I returned home. This particular one of Big Clifty, of all my 2016 park paintings, is truly a work of plein air, capturing the movement and lighting in that fleeting moment. All because of the threat of being documented with an ugly canvas. Guess I work better under pressure.

In late afternoon I was set up across the canyon from Big Clifty on a trail that provided a dramatic lookout over the sea of green canopy. Through a distant slit in the leaves you could catch a glimpse of Big Clifty’s distinctive rocky cliffs and falls. By now I was becoming more comfortable engaging with the steady stream of hikers who paused to take a breath after a steep climb out of the canyon. The muggy weather threatened rain all day but now the heat and humidity were building up for an afternoon thunderstorm so I was watching the skies closely.

Despite all the moisture I chose to try my hand at some pastel work while chatting with curious visitors who peered around my easel to see what I was doing. Before the visit I had prepared a piece of sanded pastel paper, cut to a small standard size and taped to some foam board for stability. That way I could secure the painting surface by clipping it to my pochade paint box like any other canvas. The danger with pastels is always the possibility of knocking costly pastel sticks to the ground and breaking them but I managed to keep them steady for a quick impression of the falls before the skies finally opened up. I then took the work in progress home to finish in drier conditions.

I find that I enjoy producing several versions of the same subject using different mediums. The chance to introduce to the public a variety of ways to paint and make art is worth hauling so many supplies into the state parks and up rugged trails. The countdown continues next week so stay tuned for another set of finished paintings from last June. Until then, happy creating!