View from Libby Hill

Today I joined up with local members of the Mid Atlantic Plein  Air Painters Association (MAPAPA) for an urban paint out.  Not being able to paint lately has driven me a bit batty, so I was really looking forward to today. The paint site was Libby Hill Park, which has a nice panoramic view of the James River and some of the Richmond skyline. It was apparently this view that gave the City of Richmond its name. The story goes that William Byrd II is said to have thought that this view resembled the view of Richmond upon Thames in England.

View from Libby Hill, Richmond Oil on panel, 8x8" © Jennifer E Young

It has been brilliantly sunny all week, but this morning we woke up to clouds and haze. I grumbled about it (which always does worlds of good in situations over which you have no control) but I went any way. I'm glad I did. Thehaze did eventually burn off and now we have nice blue skies and sunshine. I had to leave around lunchtime so I could pick up my daughter from school, but I'm happy that at least I got one painting in today.

"Winter Sunset" recognized in FAV15 at FASO!

"Winter Sunset, North Run Creek", Oil on linen, 16x20" ©Jennifer Young

I'm taking a break from packing to post a quick update. I am very excited to learn that my painting "Winter Sunset, North Run Creek", was selected as part of the FAV15% (jury's favorite 15% of the entries) in the March 2015 BoldBrush Painting competition! This is only the 2nd time I have entered one of these online contests, so I feel pretty happy to have been recognized.

Thank you FASO and Fine Art Views!!! http://faso.com/boldbrush/fav15/160

Big change ahead

So this is a bit of a personal announcement, but since it's definitely going to affect my art making ability this spring and summer, it seems worth announcing. We're moving.  The new house is not too far from where we are, but it's out of the city and into the county, to a small college town of Ashland, VA. It's a very cute walkable town with a lot going on, (for a small town) only about 20 minutes from the City of Richmond. This is going to be different for me as I have lived all of my adult life in the city and pretty much have loved it. But it will be a good move, and the new digs will have more space for our family, a bigger yard, good schools, and the kiddo will actually have a place to ride a bike.

What it won't have is a studio, and leaving my current one is kind of breaking my heart. If you've read this blog for any length of time, you will recall my chronicles of building my current studio from the ground-up. I thought it would be my forever studio and I very much doubt we will be able to undertake that kind of elaborate project again any time soon. But the new house does have a garage that I think will be serviceable to convert. No doubt I will be consulting my own blog archives when fixing up the new site for a work space!

Any way, this is all happening pretty fast. What this means for this blog is that if there are some large gaps between posting, I will likely be packing 10 years worth of accumulated "stuff", fixing up the old house for the market, and fixing up the new house for living.  I will have my portable easel at the ready, so I still hope to do a little painting, and even some posting here and there too. Wish me luck!

Daffodil Season

I'm back to work from spring break, and since it was such a beautiful day yesterday I decided to kick off the week with a little plein air painting at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens. It is a great place to visit and paint! Tulips are everywhere right now, but there were a ton of people visiting yesterday. And since I had gotten a late start and needed to set up quickly,  I wanted to avoid setting up in high traffic spots and those completely devoid of shade. So no tulips. However,  I found a lovely spot (with shade) in a quieter area of the gardens near the Bloomenthal House profuse with daffodils and pansies:

"Daffodil Season" Oil on panel, 8x10" Jennifer E Young

It's pretty gray and rainy this morning, so I may need to re-photograph this when I have a bit more natural light. I had about an hour and a half to work on this painting, and then it was time to close up shop and pick up my daughter from preschool. But  was such a beautiful day in the gardens, that I returned with my daughter to share with her my enjoyment of this beautiful place.

Pear Squared!

Change is in the air. Nothing seems to change as fast in spring as the appearance of blooms on fruit trees. One minute they are ablaze with blooms, and the next they are leafing out. Here's a little ditty I did yesterday morning right from my own garden. Mine is largely a late spring/summer garden, but my neighbor shares a little early spring splendor from across the street:

"Pear, Squared" Oil on Panel, 8x8"  Jennifer E Young

It used to be really spectacular, almost cotton-ball like. Then a year or two ago a huge chunk either blew off in astorm or it got struck by lightening. The top was split in two and I was so sad because I had always meant to paint it at this time of year and something always seemed to pop up to prevent me from getting to it before it leafed out. Any way, thankfully, it survived. And in spite of yet another very windy morning, I managed to get it down.