Taking a Group to Greece

I am organizing my next painting trip, and this year it is to Greece.  We have a fabulous travel agent whose specialty is archeological sites.  She will lead us through the ruins of Greece and take us to great places to paint.  We also welcome anyone who just wants to travel with a group.

The trip begins on May 2, 2015, and we will fly to Athens.  We will stay there two days in the heart of Athens and tour around the sites of the city as well as Sounio.  Then we will head out to the Island of Tinos.  It's a place that hasn't been discovered by tourists, but a place where the Greeks love. It's called the most romantic island of Greece.  We will be stationed there for 5 days in a boutique hotel right on the water.  Each morning we go out and paint.  For our travelers that aren't painters, they will tour around the town that we are visiting.

After we leave Tinos, we will head to Delphi.  We will be stationed there for 5 days and will visit the ruins of Delphi as well as close by seaside towns.  We will paint and tour our way through Greece.

After that, we will head back to Athens and return home.

Breakfast and dinner are included and we will catch a lunch in whatever town we happen to be in that day.

It's going to be a fantastic trip because our guide is one of the best in the whole country.  She was recommended to me by someone who travels extensively, and she told me of all the guides she's ever had in all the trips she's ever taken, she felt this one was the best!  So we are very excited to be apart of this tour.

If you'd like to travel and want to go with a group or if you want to take some painting classes along the way, this is the trip for you.  Space is limited, so please let me know if you are interested.

I'd be glad to send you a brochure if you would like to look over the whole itinerary.  Just let me know.

Opening Up a Can of Worms

Opening Up a Can of Worms
by Jane McElvany Coonce

Once again I entered the juried show at The Art League at the Torpedo Factory, and my painting was selected!  It's kind of a funky painting.  It's a plastic dinosaur getting ready to devour a can of gummy worms.  (Can you tell I've been on a diet for a while?)  There were over 500 entries and the juror only selected 90.  I feel quite honored.  You never know what a juror might like.  But it always makes you feel good when you get into the show.  If you get a chance, go down to The Art League this month and see the 90 works that were selected.

Key Bridge - Part IV

I have to apologize for not posting for a while.  My life has been crazy.  I've had 3 weddings, 3 weeks in a row, and quite a few commissions to do.  Life has been hectic.

  I want to show you the next step in the big Key Bridge painting.  I painted the light hitting the underneath part of the bridge.  I let that dry and then I painted the bridge itself.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the other steps so you will only see the finished product.

I've entered the painting in a digital entry form for a show at The Art League.  I hope it gets in, but I never bet the bank on juried shows.  Every juror has his own agenda, taste, and ideas.  Nothing is a sure bet.

Twilight Over Georgetown
by Jane McElvany Coonce

I'll keep you posted if I make it.

Sorry I forgot to take photos of the other steps.  I was just madly painting this as well as 2 wedding presents and several other commissions.  I need a vacation!

Key Bridge - Part III

I worked under the bridge today.  I only had one building, the Potomac Boat Club, and the beautiful stone wall next to it.  I'm not sure what this structure was but it looks like it might have been the foundation for a previous bridge.  If anyone knows, please let me know. The two areas under the bridge are a lot less stressful because there is not as much detail.  It still took me the whole painting session today to do these two areas.

The painting is starting to take shape.  I'll let this dry. The bridge will be painted in two different sessions. I have to paint the underneath part of the bridge and it has to dry before I can paint the main part of the bridge.  Otherwise, if I paint both parts at the same time, and I accidentally hit the section with the other color, it could make a big mess.  That's why these paintings take so long.  I paint a section, then I have to let it dry.    

Key Bridge - Part II

I've made so more progress on the Key Bridge painting.  I forced myself to do the buildings on the left. This area is very tedious as is the buildings on the right.

I went back in and re-drew the area for the houses on the right.  I am using several different pictures and in some photographs -the towers might be clear and in one photograph, but the houses may be a better in another picture.  It gets kind of confusing, and I'm always looking through my pile of photos for a better  close up photo of the area I'm doing. After finishing these buildings, I had had enough and quit for the day. It's mentally grueling.  You can see it's a slow process.  Each photo I've taken is a day's work.

 Then the next day, I did the townhouses on the right and some of the greenery.  I know when I finish this part that the hard part of the painting is over.  It gets more fun now.

Here's a funny story.  I have a painting similar to this one over my mantle.  A woman commissioned me to do a Key Bridge /Georgetown scene and came to pick it up. She looked at the painting over my mantle and said, "Hey, you left out my house."  I remember when I painted it that I ran out of space so I deleted a house.  What are the odds of that person coming to my house and pointing that out to me?

The Start of a Key Bridge Painting

Many people ask me how I paint the Key Bridge/Georgetown paintings.  They are sort of my signature pieces, and I usually do about 4 or 5 a year.  They take a lot of work because there is so much architecture that has to be correct.  I spend hours on the drawing itself.  I've gotten smart over the years, and I save my drawings.  Then sometimes, I trace part of the drawing and do a section of the Key Bridge for a new painting, using an old drawing I had for a previous painting.

This is a painting I've just started for an upcoming show at The Art League (in the Torpedo Factory). It's called "Large", and all paintings have to be 30x40 inches or larger.  This one is 30 x 40 inches! I have to have it done by October 1st, so I've been madly painting to try and get this done.

If you look at the picture on the right, you'll notice tape on each side of the openings on the bridge.  I tape it because it's easier to get a clean straight line this way.

I also always start with the buildings.  I do this for two reasons.  The first reason is because the first time I ever did a painting like this, I did the sky first.  Then I did the buildings.  But I needed to reshape the building and cut them down a little, which meant I had to go back and mix up sky color and fix around the buildings.  Of course, it's impossible to match up the paint because it dries a different color than when it's wet.  So then I had to paint the sky all over again.

But the main reason I do the buildings first is because it's the part I hate.  It's so tedious and one must be so precise.  So I tell myself, "Ok, today, you must do 1/3 of the buildings. " It's like taking bad tasting medicine in small doses.  When I finish a third of the buildings, then I let myself paint something else. In this case, I painted the small opening archways.

After I finished all the small openings on the bridge, I remove the tape.  Then I stick the painting in the back of my car where it's nice and hot and this helps dry it by the next day.

Notice that the top of the towers are a little bit smudgy.  I will correct this when I put in the sky.

I will take pictures as I progress in this painting so that you can see how the painting evolves.

Let me know what you think as I work on this.

Save the Date!

I want everyone to save the date of Sunday, September 21 from 5:30 - 7:00.  We are having a reception for an art show of all the paintings done in Italy by the group of artists I took to Umbria last May.  The show will be at Cassatt's at the Lee Heights Shops in Arlington.  There are 13 artists participating in this group show.  It's amazing how many paintings were finished in the two weeks were there.  The show will hang from Sept 14 until Oct. 19.  I will post more info about the show in the next few weeks, but I wanted everyone to put it on your calendars so that you can meet the great group of artists that painted Italy this spring!

Todi Hillside
by Jane McElvany Coonce