Rita Kirkman's Pastel Workshop at PVR

We're finally getting caught up with our internet duties here at Painted Views Ranch and we have to be sure and tell you about the great workshop we had this month with Rita Kirkman, our first pastel artist here at PVR.

Rita started each day with a demo.

The first demo was one of her famous bunnies,
this one titled Marvin.



After the demos, the students picked their photos, and, following Rita’s instruction in the demo, created their own works with a lot of input and individual attention from Rita.

As you can see in the class photo, every student was able to create paintings in Rita’s signature style!

To see Rita’s demo paintings and many of the students' paintings, click here.
To see all the paintings inspired by Painted Views Ranch, click here.
And be sure to check out our remaining 2018 workshops here or on our Facebook page here.

Plein Air Day, Saturday, June 30

 

 

 

 

 

We've finally had the back yard landscaped
and we needed a chance to show it off, so...  

 

 

 

 

Painted Views Ranch will be hosting a Plein Air Paint Out Day
on Saturday, June 30.

The group that was here last year, "Plein Air Round Rock" will be returning but invitees also include those who have contacted us to express an interest in a plein air day here at the ranch and former plein air students who live locally.

Gates open at 7:30AM until 3:30PM (if anyone is still painting that long).

For directions, Use the link below, THEN click on "Directions", enter your address and hit "Enter" and you'll know exactly where we are and how long a drive it is from your place to ours.

CLICK HERE FOR DIRECTIONS

If you're NOT a member of Plein Air Round Rock, we'd appreciate having an email or a comment below from you ahead of time so we can have an idea of how many to expect. Thanks!

SEND US AN EMAIL
paintedviewsranch@gmail.com

Adding another instructor for 2018

ROBIN THORNHILL has been added to our lineup of instructors for you to choose from for this year. She's coming from New Hampshire and will be teaching a plein air class in both oil paint AND pastel! So if you haven't tried one of those, this would be an opportunity to have a go at the one you're not familiar with and still have an alternative that will keep you in your comfort zone.
If you're interested, we'd advise you to sign up soon, because from the emails we've exchanged with her, it sounds like she may already be bringing some of her posse with her!

For all the details, visit our Workshops page at: http://www.paintedviewsranch.com/workshops.html

Apparently, someone needed a battery

This week on "Campfire Tales from Painted Views Ranch"...

Wednesday morning we drove down the driveway to let the landscapers in the front gate and found the door for the gate controller box laying on the ground and thought "It was kinda windy last night but how could ...". and then another glance revealed the 12 volt battery that powers the gate system was gone! Some knuckle head had gotten behind the gate and slinked off with the battery like ... well, like a thief in the night. So we went out and bought a new battery AND a big ol' honkin' PADLOCK!
Who woulda thought you'd need that out here in the country? Well. maybe some of you might have thought it and right now are probably thinking "You big dummies, of course you need to lock your gate box!", but we probably trust in and hope for the goodness of human nature just a bit too much for our own good. So now, that stops. What a shame.
Now we'll just hope we never find out who stole our battery, and we'll leave you to figure out what that means, but it has something to do with the old phrase "What you don't know won't hurt somebody else". And we'll also be shopping for a game camera because on Thursday we learned that in just this few square miles there have been seven gate batteries stolen along with some actuator arms (the device that opens and closes the gate).

But the landscaping project in the back yard is progressing, slow but sure. These pictures kind of show what we started with and hopefully another week should bring us to the time for the big reveal.

So tune in again for the next blogpost by subscribing your email address on the right at the top if you're not already a subscriber.
Happy Trails!
You can check out our 2018 lineup of art workshops just by scrolling down to the next post below.

Here's the Line Up of Our 2018 Workshops!

We're excited about the workshops that are being presented here at Painted Views Ranch in 2018. As it turns out we've got an amazing variety of media and styles of art being offered this year, so no matter what your interests or your skill level might be, there's a lot to choose from. So let's get started! Here's the list, in chronological order:

Rita Kirkman's pastel work has a certain glow about it that makes you think the subjects she shows you are somehow lit from within! Register for her indoor class soon so you don't miss out on learning how to create that masterful glow.

Rich Gallego is coming back from California again in 2018 to teach another plein air class here in the Texas Hill Country in that cool calm and collected style that is uniquely his. We remember when Rich was last here he commented that he "...could stay right here for two weeks and never run out of things to paint." So get yourself signed up and come enjoy the experience with us!
And by the way, his painting you see just above was done right here at Painted Views Ranch. Yeehaw!

Denise Larue Mahlke is our next pastel artist here at the ranch! Click here to see some examples of her gorgeous work up close and personal. Denise loves painting outdoors, so her workshop will be a plein air class and in the month of October we won't have the heat of Texas summers!

For all the details and instructions on how to register,
visit the Workshops page of our website by clicking here.
We look forward to seeing you "back at the ranch"!

In the meantime, here's a peek at some
of the fall color around Painted Views Ranch.

Rich Gallego's First Plein Air Workshop at PVR

When we first contacted Rich Gallego with the hope of persuading him to come teach a workshop here in 2018, he told us that the Texas Hill Country had long been on his list of "must paint" places to visit, and he was ready to sign up NOW! So here we are.

 

Rich arrived two days early and in the evening before his class I had an opportunity to follow his process as he laid some magic on a canvas that depicted a view that I see every day from the north window of my studio.

Rich gifted us this one, and another, that will hang in our classroom.
Thank you, Rich. You're very generous.

 

 

 

The first day of his workshop was windy and cold; always a plein air painter's challenge. But our students bundled up against the elements and watched Rich do a demo painting in the morning under cover and using the house to break the winds.

 

 

In the afternoon the students all set up their gear and had a go at painting the surroundings of our koi pond.

 

 

The second day was a better day with less wind, so everyone ventured down to the cattle pasture with quite different views, and after a demo from Rich, ...

 

 

... dove into creating images of the spreading oak trees that had a hillside to the west behind them.

 

The last day of the workshop started out a little cool but it finally matured into a beautiful day. Students scattered out across the very top part of the pasture among the cedars trees and in every direction they looked there was something different to paint.

After lunch, Rich started the afternoon with a demo on cloud painting, before everyone resumed working on their second piece for the day.

Throughout the three days, it didn't seem to matter if a student was a beginner or perhaps a little more advanced, because with Rich's teaching style of combining just the right amounts of challenge and encouragement for each student, we're pretty sure that everyone went home with something they could use as they travel further on the journey along their "art path".

Good job that, because Rich has already told us that he'd like to come back next fall, so if you haven't already, be sure to subscribe your email address at the top of the column on the right so you can be notified when we set the dates.

We should also tell you that Rich made a couple of interesting comments while he was here.
"I could stay here for two weeks and still not run out of things to paint."
...and...
"If I lived here, I would never get anything done but walk around looking at scenery." That tells us something about our ranch. I'm not sure what, but ... something.
It might explain what's behind the PVR motto that's at the bottom of the "About Us" page on our website

To see Rich's demo paintings and many of the students' paintings, click here.
To see all the paintings inspired by Painted Views Ranch, click here.

This was our last workshop scheduled for this year, but we're already booking others for 2018.
To get the details for next year's workshops, click here.

Qiang Huang's First Plein Air Workshop at PVR

 

  

  Last weekend we had our first workshop with Qiang Huang.

 Friday morning started off chilly, drizzly and damp. but Qiang did a demo under the cover of our (rapidly becoming) famous breezeway, with 10 very attentive students ....

 

 

 

 

.... and produced THIS!

 

 

 

  Then in the afternoon, as the weather cleared off a bit, our 10 students set up their gear in three different spots, all under cover, and got to work. It was amazing to see how differently 10 students can interpret the same view.

 

 

  On Saturday, Qiang started the day in our classroom with a digital slideshow presentation on the principles of landscape painting. Then the class moved outside to the other end of the breezeway facing east, as Qiang did another demo painting of our koi pond with it's many lilypads, while using his umbrella to keep the morning sun glare off his painting.

 

 

And here is his Saturday demo painting.

In the afternoon, the patio was then in the shade and all the students set up to do their own painting of the pond.

Sunday presented a big challenge, because we used our tractor to make a very large set up for a still life.

 

 

Qiang did his third demo ......

 

 

 

 

 

 

  ......by drawing the image while he waited for the light to change and become interesting before he started to paint.

 

 

 

 

It was a challenge to paint quickly enough to capture a good image, but .....

...when he finished, removed the umbrella and the sunlight hit his painting, the effect was amazing!

After lunch, half the class had a go at the tractor from the shade of our oaks or barn porch .....

..... while the others revisited views that they had done previously, but from a different angle.

All in all, everyone had a memorable experience and learned quite a bit, and Qiang said that his workshop schedule for next year is already filled, but he asked us to schedule him again in 2019!

To see all of Qiang's demo paintings and many of the students' paintings, click here.
To see all the paintings inspired by Painted Views Ranch, click here.

We have one more workshop for this year, October 27 - 29 with just a few openings left.
Click here for all the details.

The Strange Tale of Creating a Plein Air Event

Artist MC from Texas meets Artist AP from California in France and becomes a student of Artist AP. Artist MC searches the internet for art workshops in central Texas and discovers that Artist QH will be teaching at Painted Views Ranch. Artist MC tells artist AP about the ranch and Artist AP contacts us. "How did you ever hear about us?" we ask. "From Artist MC, who said I should come teach there. And by the way, you should contact her because she's in a group of plein air painters in your area." We contact Artist MC who says "Our group is always looking for new places to paint outdoors." And the rest is now history because we had a great group of painters here this past Saturday. And two of them will be taking a Workshop with Qiang Huang here on Sept 29th through October 1st.

There is just enough time to grab one of the few spots left in that class
OR one of our October classes. Click this link to find out how to get signed up.
www.paintedviewsranch.com/workshops.html

Now here's some photos from Saturday's event.

In the shade of the breezeway and looking west.

Lined up on the front lawn, painting views from southwest to northwest

Rascal the Ranch Foreman supervises the two painting our koi pond with it's waterfalls from the east patio.

Is that a plein air painter's dream or what?

And just a few steps away there's this!

Rascal keeps watch for possible vulture attacks.
He must have done a good job because all the painters came out alive.

Our only problem is that now Rascal thinks he's an art critic.

To see all their completed paintings, go to our website with this link.
http://www.paintedviewsranch.com/paintings/paintframes.html