Saturday, October the 17th was the first day of the Paint Rowlett Plein Air Event. When I headed out to participate in the paint out, my easel was still loaded with the limited palette I had used in a John Pototschnik workshop mentioned in previous post. It was a Quadratic Square, with Violet, Red Orange, Yellow and Blue Green. I setup at the first location, an old almost 100 year old train bridge, which was built in 1922. It was on Main Street, not far from the point where Main dead ended into Lake Ray Hubbard. I liked the angles, the light and the relative quietness of the spot. I ended up painting in direct sunlight, something I don’t like to do; struggled with the values and color in the hard light of the sun. After a couple of hours I called it quits on this first piece – Over and Under, 12 x 9, Oil on panel.
12 x 9 oil on panel, titled “Over and Under”. This piece won First Place in the recent Paint Rowlett Plein Air Event.
After a bit of an afternoon lunch break I setup at the Rowlett Community Center which was not far from the old railroad bridge. The Rowlett Community Center seems to always have something going on – sports, wedding receptions, various meetings;
Limited palette used to paint “Over and Under” and “Community”
and it’s also the meeting location of Artists ‘Round Texas, the Rowlett art club that meets once a month. The interesting thing that inticed me to paint the center was the curved front, glass and walkways. It had somewhat of a retro look to it, with the before mentioned curved front. With the addition of the American flag, it just seemed like a good place to paint. It was going on 4:00 in the afternoon when I started painting the center, and the sun was sinking in the west, making the colors richer and the shadows longer. This time of day is always a good time to paint because of this beautiful lighting. Painting outside around people is always an adventure. Lots of kind words and questions about the painting and the process. I worked on this piece for two and a half to three hours before I finally packed it up.
Since the rules of the competition allowed for some work to be completed in studio, I took advantage of these instructions and re-worked a couple of things in each of the two paintings I did that first day in studio.
12 x 9 oil on panel called “Community”, a rendering of the Rowlett Community Center. This work, painted on location and touched up in the studio, was selected for the Purchase Award in the recent Paint Rowlett Plein Air Event.
Later the next week, October 20, I found myself back down at the old railroad bridge, but this time setting up on the opposite side, out of direct sun in a nice inviting shade, looking west up Main Street. It was the same angles and interesting lighting that attracted me back to the almost 100 year old bridge. From this new angle, the engraved date the bridge was built was visible – 1922. You can’t help but ponder the years the old bridge has seen. The almost 100 springs, summers, falls and winters the much aged structure has silently endured.
Triad-Split Complimentary Palette of Blue-Violet, Orange and Yellow- painting below- Spanning the Years.
I scrapped the 4 colors I used to paint the two pieces above off the palette and decided on another limited palette, this time a Triad- Split Complimentary consisting of Blue-Violet, Orange and Yellow.
When I was about an hour into the painting, I noticed a rather large, skinny cat came out of the woods almost at the base of the bridge. The hungry looking feline looked a bit strange to me, then I noticed the “bobtail” it was sporting. The bobcat seemed rather relaxed as it stopped and looked at me, turned and looked up Main Street and then wondered slowly across the road and back into the woods on the other side. I think he had smelled the lunch I has just eaten, which included a bit of meat. I believe both me and the bobcat probably feel the same way about meat, and I was glad it didn’t come to a contest as to who would retain control over the tasty protein.
This third entry into the Paint Rowlett competition is as I left it the day I painted it on location and may be my favorite of the three.
12 x 9 plein air oil on panel called Spanning the Years
All three of these works are available at the Paint Rowlett Plein Air Art Competition Show. The reception will be November 7, 2:00 p.m., at the Rowlett Annex Building, 3900 Main, Rowlett, Texas. The show will hang until Saturday, December 5, 2015.
Bridging the Gap
Bridges are very interesting when you really take a few minutes to ponder their purpose and nature. They usually span two banks of a river or two land masses separated by seas or impassable terrain, or in the case of the old railroad bridge above, they allow a road to pass under the railroad tracks, thus spanning two otherwise separated track beds. In a broad sense, bridges link two things or places that are separated. Separated by something that cannot be traversed by other means. They make a “crossing over” possible.
Earlier I mentioned visiting my kids, one of which was my daughter, who lives in Memphis, Tennessee. Problem was that the “Mighty Mississippi” River separated Arkansas from Tennessee. The car simply could not make it to Tennessee simply by driving. The rent-a-car we were in could not swim. It’s true…it swims like a rock. But of course we had no problem crossing over into Tennessee because of a huge steel and concrete bridge had been built across the river; the impossible was now possible in the same car that didn’t have the ability to swim the river. The bridge that spanned the Mississippi River at Memphis linked the community of Arkansas with the community of Memphis. It linked me and my wife with the community of my daughter and her husband. Bridges are really cool when you simply contemplate what they are able to do.
A bridge may cross a river, a gorge, or it may simply cross over a busy highway. Bridges make a way of passage where there would otherwise be no way to pass.
When I think of the nature of a bridge in this present world we find ourselves, I cannot help but think of what Christ did on the Cross. In our universe (a universe we did not create ourselves) we find ourselves in a dilemma. There is a chasm, a gorge, a canyon that we cannot cross. It’s like a car trying to swim the Mississippi. Under its own strength and design, it will never happen. But now enter the “Bridge”. Christ spanned the gap between a sinful and broken mankind to an infinitely holy and Loving God. Here is how Paul said it in his first letter to Timothy in chapter 2, verse 5 and 6: “For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time.”
The definition of mediator is this: “one that mediates between parties at variance”. You don’t have to live long to recognize that we and all people are at variance with a Holy God. Only by the blood of Christ can this variance or gap be “bridged”.
God is a bridge builder.
“and through Him God reconciled everything to Himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. Yet now He has reconciled you to Himself through the death of Christ in His physical body. As a result, He has brought you into His own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before Him without a single fault. Yet now He has reconciled you to Himself through the death of Christ in His physical body. As a result, He has brought you into His own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before Him without a single fault.”
Colossians 1:20, 21, 22 NLT
