The Great Paint Out

Dan Shaw, Bud Smith, Marjet Lesk, Betsy Lewis and I joined the Plein Air Painters of Maine for the 8th Annual "Great Paint Out" sponsored by the Oil Painters of America. http://www.oilpaintersofamerica.com/index.cfm   Painters from all across the United States will be plein air painting at their own venues throughout the month.  There were 15 participants who painted at Grimes Cove which is located along the scenic Ocean Point Road in East Boothbay Maine.  The weather was glorious and Grimes Cove is such a beautiful place to paint!



Dan (left) and Bud at Grimes Cove 

We had our group portrait taken by the photographer from the Boothbay Register newspaper.  Many new artist friends were made including Carlton Plummer (of the rocks) http://www.plummergallery.com/carlton.html and Bobbi Heath of Westford. MA http://www.bobbiheath.com/  and who I enjoyed meeting and talking to. My friends and I visited area galleries including Corrine McIntyre's Ocean Point Gallery, who was the organizer for this year's paint out.  http://www.oceanpointstudio.com/  

Donning ocean creature hats before dinner

We lodged at Sprucewold Lodge http://www.sprucewoldlodge.com/ where we ate delicious family-styled breakfasts and dinners.  Each evening we relaxed in front of the stone fireplace while enjoying a glass of wine and chatted about art matters, circulated art books and critiqued each other's daily work.






To the right are a few of the plein air paintings I completed during my two day stay in Boothbay.

Also, it is well worth the time and effort to sketch a little drawing to deconstruct the scene and compose the painting's layout before beginning the painting  Below are two of my quick sketches used in the paintings. I tore them out of my book and taped them to my easel support for easy reference.  There's not much details but the quickly drawn shapes and lines help me to contain and simplify the complex scene.