The Villa and fall classes in Austin!

The Villa, 16 x 12, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2013

This lovely villa is the prominent feature at the Art School where I teach painting - one of my favorite places in Austin. When I painted this scene on the grounds a few weeks ago, I was delighted to see hordes of children there for summer art classes. It's thrilling and reassuring to see young "creatives" hard at work becoming the next generation of artists. 

When I asked some of them what they were taking, I got the funniest answers. One little girl answered that she "does it all" and has known "all her life" that she wants to be an artist. She was about 8... such confidence! Another one opened up her pink backpack and showed me what she was literally "taking" (as in, taking with her to the class). After all, who doesn't need their pink lunchbox, pink hairbands, and pink lip gloss for an afternoon drawing class? Ask a silly question... :)

Painter Friends in Austin, registration for fall classes begins today. I would love to see you out painting - Wednesdays at 9! :) Click here to register: The Art School.

Windy Bay - Door County Plein Air Festival

Windy Bay, 12 x 16, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2013

This is my final installment of paintings from the plein air festival in Wisconsin. On my last painting day, I went over to a state park on Lake Michigan and set up my easel overlooking Newport Bay. Very quickly, the wind picked up and I was almost blown away. It was such a beautiful view that it was worth enduring the opposition! :)

Below is my painting from the 2 hour quick paint on Saturday morning. For this event, all the festival artists met up in a four block circumference at 9 am, and painted for two hours (with a buzzer to start and end us). Then we quickly framed the paintings in the backs of our cars and brought them to the auction tent where they were immediately auctioned off. It is a CRAZY scene!

Lilies in the Sunlight, 12 x 9, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2013

Door County Quick Paint - SOLD

Me, painting in the Quick Paint.

Bea's Place - Door County Plein Air Festival

Bea's Place, 12x16, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2013

Day Three of the plein air festival was a full one... I painted on the bay in the morning, in the countryside in the afternoon, and back at the lake for the evening sunset. I'll admit that I was exhausted at the end of the day, but it was SO much fun. It's nice when my only task from sun-up to sun-down is to paint, paint, and paint again. 

Rocky Shore, 12 x 12, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2013

NFS

Sister Islands Sunset, 9 x 12, oil on panel, L. Daniel © 2013

OH!! And my parents came up to Door County for part of the week, and they were there to root me on during the sunset paintout. (Did I mention that all forty of the festival artists were painting for a crowd in Sister Bay that night??) It was so much fun to have them there!