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September 2010

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2 Paintings Hung at San Clemente Art Gallery

Nestled Cottages, Crystal Cove and Fresh Cut Lemon is on exhibit at the San Clemente Art Gallery from Sept. 20 - Oct 28 for the Fall Judged Show.   The reception is this Saturday, Sept 25 from 3-5pm. 

To see more of a description of each painting go to my website at www.estherjwilliams.com  Thanks!

Update, Fresh Cut Lemon has won an honorable mention!

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Fabulous Crystal Cove Experience, New Plein Air Work

"North Shoreline - Crystal Cove"  14"W x 11"H, oil on Fredrix linen panel.  SOLD Just completed from the deck of a Crystal Cove cottage I stayed in for 5 days.  Funny thing is that an art customer of mine saw it in the making and wanted it before it was done.  I love it when things like that happen.  He wanted a painting that reminded him of the experience that Crystal Cove gives him.  Even though I knew it was taken, I still did my very best to create the greatest piece of art yet from my mind and art soul.  This painting depicts the abandoned, yet to be restored north shore cottages on a summer day in August.
I am painting a slightly longer angle of this scene in my studio from another workstudy, it will be placed in my Bower`s Museum art show on September 11-12 in Santa Ana, CA.  I will post an image of it here on the blog when complete.  I am doing a series of Crystal Cove paintings, any that are for sale will be placed on my estherjwilliams.com website.
If you would like to read more about the above painting and my process of painting it, go to my EstherJWilliams website blog and read the article, complete with several step by step images and a storyline.

Upcoming Art Show at Bowers Museum, September 11-12, 2010

I have been on summer vacation combined with a very hectic schedule lately.  I wanted to post two items of importance.  One is an article was written about me in my college alumni assoc quarterly newsletter, the TC3 Trio.  TC3 stands for Tompkins-Cortland Community College.  It is is Dryden, NY, near Ithaca.  I was featured for the Fall 2010 issue.  I am including the link to the PDF article.  You need Adobe Reader to open it.  Here is the link TC3 Alumni/Trio Fall  Go to page 3 and you will see my picture and an image of my San Clemente Pier painting.  It is a great article by a very creative editor at the college. 

Next, I am going to be in another juried art show.  This one is outdoors in the courtyard of the Bower`s Museum in Santa Ana, California.  The show is September 11-12, 2010, from 10am-4pm each day.  There is an artist reception at 11am on Saturday Sept 11.  Here is the link to that event, Bowers Museum Events  I will have approximately 18-21 works of my recent fabulous art on display racks for sale there.  They will be beautifully framed. 

Here is my latest portrait, I am extremely happy with this one.  It is called "Toni in Sidelight"  12x16, oil on Fredrix Linen Panel.    I am so happy to be an artist!

Hotel San Clemente Oil Painting, San Clemente Plein Air Competition

Day 1 of the 9th Paint San Clemente Plein Air competition: After spending several hours visiting my artist friends on the community center lawn, I decided to load up my art wagon and head out to find the perfect painting spot downtown.  Wherever that may be.  I had an intuitive vision upon awakening this morning that I was going to find a historic building and paint it. That is my spirit, I get inner information, I follow it.  So I set out to find which downtown building sparked my senses the most.  San Clemente has many old structures built by Ole Hanson and I observed several in my walking around several blocks.  I took pictures, did the hand framing gesture that movie producers do when trying to gather what a scene looks like in a frame.  I zigzag a few back alleys and finally rested upon the vivid warm light hitting the east wall of a courtyard cafe inside the Hotel San Clemente.  This building is 90 years old and in the Spanish style with bright cafe blue umbrellas, terra cotta pots and shingles.  There was one palm tree casting it's shadow on the wall and I was driven to paint this scene. The one table that had the brightest umbrella was turning over a group of people every half hour.  They were the focal point under that umbrella and palm tree shadow in a medium violet hue.  I could not focus on one specific group, so in the end, I invented my people with dabs of colors in various values.  I had to shorten the palm tree itself a tad bit so it fit into the 8X10 format and it also molded into the structure which was good for the design of the composition.  This architectural composition was a challenge and I had to render the sketch first to get the proportions correct and distribution of the windows right in perspective.  Thank goodness for my college year in architectural construction.  Plus that book I bought over 40 years ago on perspective drawing, it came in handy.  It was an enjoyable paint-out with ideal results.  This will be available next Saturday, June 26 for $250 unframed or $300 framed.  The regulations are that we can not sell any of our paintings until the event closes.  I can take commissions from them or hold it for you.

Paint San Clemente Plein Air 2010

I will be signing in tomorrow morning at the registration area by the San Clemente Art Gallery.  I might paint by the pier tomorrow or Mimi's Cafe or the nursery called La Casa Verde de Granada at 130 Avenida Granada.  The quick draw starts at 12:30pm - 3:30pm on the lawn near the gallery.  I might watch some of it or attend the wine & cheese reception afterwards.  I get excited to see my peers paint and also inspired, there are so many beautiful quick paintings.  I am not registered for the quick draw, being under pressure to finish a painting in 3 hours is too much stress.  I have done it several times, but for a competition, I think my nerves will get the best of me.
I have prepared 8-9 canvases for this event, I will paint everyday and have extra paintings to sell at my 2 day art fair on the 26th-27th.  Go to the San Clemente Art Gallery link to find out directions and the timeline for the events around this competition.  This is like the Olympics to me, I jogged 5 miles down at Salt Creek Beach this week to get in top physical shape, at least cardiovascular conditioning.   I like to haul my 1950's Radio Flyer wagon to carry my art supplies and need strength all week.

Hope to see you around San Clemente!

On Her Toes, ballerina dancer in Degas style, oil painting

"On Her Toes" is 5"W x 7"H, oil on linen over panel.  I started this a few weeks ago and only sketched in the figure. In an afternoon, I painted the rest alla prima.  The model is Toni Czechorosky who posed during an open figure studio at Randy Higbee's Gallery.  She has become a good friend of mine and I will paint more of the ballet dancer poses.  It is a subject I have wanted to paint for many years and finally started.  This was sold in hours of posting it on Facebook to another artist friend I have met from Randy's Studio sessions.  You can see here the red oil wash sketch I began with. I find that if I paint in my subject this way, in diluted oil color, I can manipulate the drawing to suit my needs for focal point and accuracy of proportions, values and placement.  Once I am content or if I am not, I continue to wipe away and redo until I feel it is ready to add color.  The color painting process can alter the drawing, but nothing is set in stone.  I was very pleased with this in the final completion. 
One more bit of information, I spent a month studying Edgar Degas and how he painted the ballet dancer.  His paintings and statements inspired me.  Although I knew of Edgar Degas for decades and admired all of his works, I was sparked to paint this by the latest modeling session of the above model as she dressed in Degas style ballet attire.  This was an extra pose the model made while on a break and I shot the image.
I wanted to take up ballet as a young girl when I was spry.  My family could not afford lessons, so I would just dance around the livingroom on my tippy toes.  I think it stubbed my toe growth, I didn't wear the proper ballet shoes.  Now, I can experience the magic of ballet by painting the dancers.  More will be made!