Kurt Plinke, Artist and Naturalist |
Between the Waters
life, Art and The Nature of things Between the Atlantic and the Chesapeake
A Workshop Full of Fun, What's Going on Out There, Painting as Fast as I Can, Shows Around the Shore, & this Month's Featured Painting (with a special low price)First, July's watercolor workshop at the studio... On Saturday, July 29th, we'll be painting a Chesapeake Bay workboat as it is reflected in calm water. An easy painting with some interesting techniques, including masking out whites and an effective way to accurately depict reflections in water. This is a great project for both novice and experienced watercolorists. To reserve a chair and be a part of this one-day workshop experience, contact the studio at kurtplinke@kurtplinke.com. For more information about this and other workshops, see here. What's Going on Out There... Last month, I watched the Pink Lady's Slippers progress through their blooming cycle, beginning as a couple of small, unfurling wide green leaves. Then, a flower stalk began to poke it's way up from the center of the whorl of leaves. As the big bud at the top of the stalk opened, the bright pink flower began to nod, looking like some sort of weird shoe dangling at the end of the flower stalk. The Lady's Slippers were one of many species of flowers to be found in the woods in late May and early June. The trees had not fully leafed out, and plenty of sunshine managed to reach the forest floor. Now, however it is early July. The sun is shining brightly and longer. Even so, the woods are a dappled place of deep shadows, and the woodland flowers are few and far between. Now, the flowering plants are more prevalent in open spaces, along road edges, in marshes and in fields. Chicory, Queen Anne's Lace (really a wild carrot) and some early Asters dot open areas with bright splashes of blue and white. As lightning bugs begin to fill the sky with bright flashes, they are echoed in the marshes with the occasional big bright flower of the Marsh Mallow. Escaped Daylilies, free from their original garden homes, drift in orange-yellow clumps along the roadside. Down near the river, the scorching red of Cardinal Flowers surprise the eye with their brilliance. Summer has arrived. Painting as Fast as I Can... With Summer and warmer weather here, I've felt the urge to really get out there and paint what I see. This season, my goal is to paint faster, and to work to create more dynamic compositions as I paint both in the studio and en plein air. Oddly, while I have been working to paint faster, I found that for some time my painting has been in a rut, and I produced no paintings that I wanted to show anyone. The saving grace is that there is always the other side of the paper to try again. But now, I'm beginning to feel that I can see a light, and I'm heading towards it. I'm using different brushes, more contrast and really looking at the stories behind what I paint. I'm trying to get out of my "horizontal versus vertical" compositions and I hope that by the time Summer really heats up, I'll have some new work that I really like. Shows Around the Shore... I'll be a part of several plein air festivals and galleries over this Summer. - I'll be a part of the Plein Air Easton! festival as part of the Working Artist's Forum in their Local Color show, located in Easton, Maryland's Tidewater Inn on July 21st, 22nd and 23rd. - The Riverwalk Arts Center in Milford, Delaware will include several of my paintings as part of a two-month gallery exhibit entitled "Play." The arts center is open most days. - The Foundry in Denton, Maryland features a number of my paintings as part of their gallery rotation. I just added a number of new paintings to the gallery there. - Artists paint OC, a Plein Air event in Ocean City, Maryland starts on August 9th and runs through the 13th. During the event, I'll be traveling around the Ocean City area, painting en plein air. A closing exhibition of the paintings completed during the competition begins at The Center for the Arts in Ocean City, running through the remainder of August. - One of the best events in Denton, Maryland each year is Summerfest, August 18th and 19th. As I do every year, I'll have a booth at the festival. This year, my son, Lloyd Plinke, will share the booth, displaying his sculpture and blown glass. His work is beautiful, interesting and very affordable.
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What's News?Kurt Plinke: About Life, Art and the Nature of Things on the Eastern ShoreI write about things I've noticed, places I've been, plans I've made and paintings I've finished or am thinking about. Archives
February 2020
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Sewell Mills Studio & Gallery
14210 Draper's Mill Road Greensboro, MD 21639 (410) 200-1743 kurtplinke@kurtplinke.com |
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