Prairie Fest!

Hello everyone!
Today I participated in Tandy Hills Natural Area's annual Prairie Fest in Fort Worth, TX. They had all sorts of wonderful booths of local companies/small businesses, as well as scrumptious food and an assortment of musical entertainment. I heard of these festivities from an artist friend, so I decided to check it out - several local painters gathered and painted for hours along the paths and lush, green hills (that's right - hills! And in TX too!) of the Park, dotted with vibrant wildflowers. It was a gorgeous spring day, and we, the painters, were greeted by Fest-goers and passersby as they enjoyed the serene scenery :-)

Each painting completed throughout the day was then displayed in the Artists booth and up for sale - a silent auction, in fact. We are still awaiting the results....Oh the suspense! Half of the proceeds go to maintaining the beauty of the park :-) It was a fabulous festival day filled with fun, friends and flowers. We were even serenaded by a group of bagpipers (dressed in full Scottish attire, kilts and all!) while we painted. An enchanting day I will never forget!

I wanted to share a few photos with you:

The Bagpipers played an assortment of tunes - The red of their attire contrasted wonderfully against all that green of the foliage!


"Spring," Oil on canvas, 12"x9"
I decided to paint a fellow painter while she painted :-)
I just loved how the blue of her shirt stood out amongst a sea of greens, and I wanted to capture it!


"Spring" detail


"Countryside," Oil on linen panel, 6"x8"
The hills looked like a snapshot of an English hillside, yet the cactus in the foreground reminded me I was in Texas!

Spring in Texas is quite lovely - I'm grateful for the array of gorgeous wildflowers (especially the fields of bluebonnets!) that the Lord gives us. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend - come back soon to see more paintings! :-D

*Copyright Alicia Templin 2010*

"Classic Beauty"

The days continue to fly by more rapidly .... but, as they say, "Time flies when you're doing art!" At least, that's the version I'm familiar with :-)

I just completed my large, 48"x36" painting, and, as promised, I took progression photos to share the process with you! My lovely cousin Laura was the model for this painting I titled "Classic Beauty." I embarked upon a journey of paint, and I gleaned so much along the way - when painting, I have a board of inspiration to help me continually focus on my artistic goals and learn from some of the best! For this painting, I pinned up examples of Jeremy Lipking, Morgan Weistling, Dan Gerhartz, Michael Malm, James Tennison, and, of course, Sargent, Sorolla and Cecilia Beaux are always present. :-)


So, here is the underpainting that I began with (I did the first phase of the drawing in acrylic, but I soon had to adjust the measurements, so I will be doing the underpainting in oil from now on! Live and learn...)


Phase 2 - Blocked in the darkest darks and began work on the portrait.


Closeup of the beginning stage of the portrait - a long way to go!


Phase 3 - A lot of work on the main figure, alteration of the profile, and the addition of the reflection - I had to make sure that colors, values and shapes remained consistent in the main figure and the reflection of the figure!


You can see how much the portrait changed from the beginning - I removed the waves of hair behind her face to highlight the soft elegance of her features.


Detail of the reflection


The completed painting :
"Classic Beauty," Oil on Linen, 48"x36"
(In honor of one of my good friends and great inspirations, I painted James Tennison's painting hanging on the wall!)
I just entered this painting in Southwest Art Magazine's 21 Under 31 Competition, but I won't find out if I made the cut until September! So time will tell...
I would love to hear your thoughts about this one!
Thank you for visiting - More paintings will be coming soon to a blog near you! :-)