The Hidden Gardens of Lambertville

Last week, I talked about how I would be painting out in public along with other Artists' Gallery members during the Hidden Gardens of Lambertville tour. The tour was very successful and there were well over 200 visitors passing through. I'm not used to painting with so many onlookers, but that wasn't really bad at all. Most of the visitors were thrilled to see us artists in action! Unfortunately, the painting I came up with was not that great and I had a lot of witnesses. Since I told you about this event already, I feel obligated to show you the painting:

"Garden Gate"
8x10" oil on panel

I think the main problem was that I was rushing. I didn't have time to check out all of the gardens first, and the few I did look at were just too small to accommodate a painter - these are private, back yard city gardens after all. I found one large enough, it was shady and pleasant, and a fellow artist was there for company which was nice, so I set up there. I started painting the garden gate because it was an attractive garden feature, but that's not enough to make a good painting. I rushed to get something down on canvas since so many people were watching, and poor composition is the basic problem here. Plus I had one big technical problem: I've recently started using a new medium (Gamblin Galkyd) and it had really gummed up in the bottle making it difficult to use. And the gate went from full sun to full shade within an hour. Excuses, excuses...

This fall, probably September, our gallery is having a special exhibit of the garden paintings we created, and we'll be donating a portion of the sales to the Kalmia Club, which organized the garden tour and which does a lot of work for local charities. I really want to be able to show a good painting for this good cause, so I did another one from photos. This one is a much better composition, and since I had more time, I included the table and chairs which really would have added some interest to the first painting:

"In Kevin's Garden"
8x10" oil on panel

Here I am in action. Carol Sanzalone is the artist sitting down working in watercolor: