Painting My Way Through Life

Sunday, March 4, 2012

March Madness!

It's March and I'm restless as a bear in it's den about now. I've been in my den, my studio, for way too long, attending to details and deadlines, but this past week I decided that it was time for me to leave the Madness of the studio behind and head outside for some fresh paintable air. I'm having a good time in the studio, albeit a restless one, painting a lot of paintings from the Cape Cod region right now for an exhibit that I will be a part of with my friend and compatriot, Frank Gardner of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Frank's work can be found on his blog and website by looking him up on the menu of Artists on the right of this blog page. We will be showing at Addison Art Gallery in Orleans, MA ( There is a link to the gallery on the right side of this blog page ), the opening will be on June 30, 2011. More to come about that in future posts. It should be a fun show, I for one am painting a bunch of nocturnes using that area as the subject. And again, I'll make a blog post once I have the bulk of the work painted.

Back to my resltess self... We had a good amount of snow late in February and it's still nicely blanketing the landscape, though quickly disappearing now. I decided that since I hadn't been out painting it much, not at all, I should do that while it's here. I was in Colorado last month and painted a couple of paintings... they're following these first paragraphs... but that's been it for my plein air work since about October! That's not good, I thrive on getting out and painting from life... I need that as much as I need anything in my art world.

With that in mind, this past Thursday I headed out to dust off the plein air gear and see what might happen if I put the brush to the linen. I painted 3 on Thursday and 2 on Friday, they follow the Colorado paintings below. I'm painting these to lube up the painting elbow, they're smaller sized pieces, all 6"x8" on oil primed linen boards. All I can say is Man did that feel GOOD! It felt so good that I'm going to keep this up for the next few weeks, until I have to depart for Scottsdale, AZ and the Scottsdale Artists' School to teach a workshop the first week of April. I'm making a side stop on the way down in Sedona, AZ to paint with some friends and to visit my gallery there, Wind Rush Gallery, and drop off some new paintings for them. From there I'll head on to Scottsdale to teach for a week, after which I'm heading to Red Rocks, Nevada (Las Vegas) for Plein Air Magazines 'Plein Air Convention' in mid April. That should make for some interesting blogging... I have no real idea what to expect other than something like 700+ other painters will be there and there will be demos, classes, etc.. I'll fill you in on that one later too.

That's what's happening here. Let me know what you think or any comments that you might have, they are always appreciated... Thank you.

'The First Time' oil 8x10 NFS

I had a chance to visit and meet some wonderful new friends in Colorado last month, it's a long list of great people who are also artists. As this title suggests... this was the first time that I painted the area, the second time is below.

Ani Espriella and Me

Me, Lamya Deeb and Jake Gaedtke

I want to thank a few of them, Ani Esperiella and Jake Gaedtke in particular. Ani, who is a fine painter, a wizard with the camera and also has an amazing background as a professional singer, was my host and did an amazing job of showing me more of the area around Boulder than I could ever have possibly found on my own. It was her photographs that I have been seeing on Facebook that caused me to want to go out there and spend some time looking and painting. I was not disappointed, Ani is an enthusiastic lover of that area and she took countless hours from her own busy family life and schedule to share her beloved Colorado with me. She arranged for my being able to sit in on their Friday Figure drawing session at Gaynor Cooke Nelson's studio, for which I am grateful to Gaynor for. Then she threw a dinner party for a bunch of painters in the area and me, and she took beautiful photos of the entire week. I can never repay her kindness to me during my stay.

Jake Gaedtke, a wonderful painter and gifted teacher, was generous enough to line me up with a very nice apartment for the week on the property where he lives. Jake can cook, big time, so we had a good couple of meals and time to talk 'art' quite a bit, but we needed more. I can't thank Jake enough for opening up his home to me and for allowing me to come and go as the schedules dictated. I can't wait to get back and visit both of these very special people and all of the others too.

'The Second Time' oil 8x10 NFS

Lamya Deeb, a wonderful pastel and oil painter, Ani Espriella, Jake Gaedtke and I painted on both of the days that I painted these pieces. I loved painting there, the sun warmed us up so nicely so that even with snow on the ground it was nearly T-shirt comfortable. Love, love painting in this area. I can't wait to get back and do it again.

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Since I'm doing all of these little studies, I'm offering them for sale too. Not too much interest in the galleries I'm in for small winter paintings, so I'm offering them out of my own studio at what I think is a pretty fair price. They will come to you, if you are a collector and purchase one, unframed, packed well, insured and varnished. It may be a month or so before I get them shipped out to you if you purchase one, depending on the drying time of the paint. They are being sold with a PayPal 'BUY NOW' button that is linked "BELOW" each painting. Click that button and PayPal will guide you through the rest. Once you do that, I'll receive an email with your information on it and will get the paintings off to you ASAP after they're dry enough to wrap and ship.

How many of these and how often I paint them is not known... This is not going to be a project like my 2009 April Marathon or my 2010 September Nocturne Marathon. I have a very busy schedule right now and am not able to commit to the kind of endeavor that both of those projects required. I am hoping to paint 2 or 3 a day, hopefully daily, but won't be posting them each day. I'll post when I have a day or two's worth of sketches done.

They are all FOR SALE FOR $295.00, unframed. That includes shipping and insurance. MN residents, the appropriate sales tax will be added to this price.

Please enjoy them all. Thank you for looking and if you would like to own one, thank you for that as well.

All but one of these studies were painted in Wisconsin between Dresser and Osceola along a little out of the way marshy wetland that the Wisconsin DNR uses to raise trout fingerlings for later release into the many trout streams that are in the region. It's running water so at least part of it is almost always open in the winter. I've painted the area winter, spring, summer and fall, it's always a joy to behold.

The fresh, heavy March snow was covering most everything when I arrived to paint. By the time I left, and the next day, most of the snow had melted off of the logs and grass hummocks. The dark water was marvelous agains the stark white of the snow on this over cast day.

Seems like the kind of place where a fishing line would definitely get snagged, hence my title.

This was one that I have been wanting to paint because of the subtle color temperature shift on the flat snow plane. I used two colors plus white to paint the snow. When I sensed a slightly warmer temperature, I used more alizarin crimson, when I sensed the temperature as slightly cooler I used more viridian. This was really subtle, the snow was mostly a flat color until I looked very hard at it and saw the differences.

Friday morning found me out on the ice of Little Lake, north of Taylors Falls. The high bright overcast was so strong, so bright that I cold barely stand it out there without sunglasses on. I went ahead and painted this scene, simple but an exercise in my learning about the color of the sky against the snow value and how much warm or cool color is in each one. When I head out to do these kind of studies, they're learning tools for me. I'm investigating these sort of issues, trying to understand more about the very subtle differences. The big differences are easy to see, easier to paint... it's these times when everything in the landscape is so closely related that are the most challenging to paint in my opinion. I don't just want "a gray" for the sky or "a white" for the snow... I want 'THE WHITE' and 'THE GRAY' that is out there, in my paintings.

For the last painting on Friday I went back to the little slough in Wisconsin to paint. The snow was nearly gone, other than the ice shelf on the slower water, but the light was amazingly flat yet full of color. That was enough to paint in my mind. As I was painting the geese were there haggling over territory, and there was a pair of trumpeter swans who would circle every so often, trumpeting in that very low, melodic sound that sends me right back to primordial times. What a treat it is to see these magnificent creatures out there while painting. What a life it is.

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3/5 and 3/6, 2012

I wrote this on Facebook yesterday after an amazingly nice day out in the field...

Beautiful, long day painting in the field today. Four observations done. I love being a visual chronicler of the change that happens through a day. The change that all of those people flying by on the road, and tossing sand and mud on the easel and me, miss. Painting all day outside slows the march of time and lets you savor the entire picture in slow motion, rather than wonder where it went. We painters are a lucky bunch.

All of these paintings were painted within about 3 or 4 miles of each other, or less. And they are all for sale for $295.00 unframed, including shipping and insurance. More details are above.

Monday morning found me north of Taylors Falls again, out on one of my all time favorite circuits to travel and paint. I got a late start and had a dinner deadline, so I only managed two pieces. My interest in this one, on a rather flatly lit day, was the color that the red house brought to the view, and to balance with the red of the road. I love painting these views looking down, or up, the country roads in the area. This time of year it's a bit dicey, they're full of moisture so that any passing vehicle almost always gives you a good spraying of grit. Several of these paintings have the grit in them still.

I don't know the actual name of the man who lived in this house, I could probably dig around and find out who he was. But I do know that he was very old before he passed yet every summer evening you could see him on his little John Deere riding mower out taking care of his yard. He could barely walk, but he had pride in his home, a home that may have been his or in his family for who knows how many generations? His house is on a corner that I turn on almost every day. I miss Old Gus.

On Tuesday my first stop was at this farm that sits a ways off of the road, but which has such interesting buildings that it has drawn me to it several different times in the past. The light today was warm but filtered, making the color cast slightly ocherish. I was surprised at the slight difference between the snow and the white of the milk barn. I enjoy seeing those little changes and making note of them on the paintings.

There's another lovely milk farm on my favorite painting road that I have never painted until this one. I think I'll probably spend some more time here in the near future. I painted these livestock paths going to and from the barns because I liked the dark lines. You can see how they always take the same line on the way out, and on the way in. Kind of like me, always painting the same road.

This was the time of day, about 4:00 pm on a warming winter day when the temps are in the high 40's to mid 50's, that I was waiting for. I love late winter, early spring when the melting snow fills the air with moisture and it becomes heavy and accepting of the color of the lowering sun as the day closes. Rich, saturated, but gray is what really gets me going as a painter. The palette of this painting is probably my favorite of anytime of the day or year.

As long as it was a nice warm afternoon, and I had three paintings done, I decided to try the ending hour for the fourth one of the day. I wanted to be sure to get the snow for color, and the sky and treeline for contrast. It was hard to find a place to paint in a hurray that had those ingredients. Fortunately there is a development near where I painted the 'Crossroad' painting, a few miles away, that hasn't 'developed' yet. It's roads and empty lots. I pulled into there thinking that the empty lots would give me the fields of snow needed. Was not ideal, but I finally just said enough, stopped and painted what was happening. These sort of paintings are always fun to do, a challenge for sure.

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3/10/12 and 3/11/12

With warming days our snow is all but gone now. On Saturday and Sunday I went out to try to find the remnants of a less than typical Minnesota winter. The winds were up but so were the temps, in the high 50's to mid 60's.

On one of my regular painting hunting roads, one called Red Wing Ave, I stopped immediately upon seeing this scene. The line of the snow that was left, though on it's way to a good melt, marked by the ATV tracks was all it took. That combined with the geometry of the composition, pretty dramatic as the road disappears over the hill top, and the texture of all of the trees and shrubs lining the fence made it a real treat to paint. As I was working along, nearly finished, an ATV approaches me from behind, stops and I see a man and woman eagerly wanting to know what I was painting. As we talked, it turns out that the property is theirs, he cut the ATV trail recently and is very proud of how it looks. They told me it's an animal magnet, deer, turkey, fox, raccoons and more, all use it to get across the road that we were standing on, into the next field over. It's always a plus to have the landowners come by to see what you're doing, it makes them proud, makes me glad that they appreciate the art.

Later in the day, staying out of some of the strongest winds, I stopped at this farm that I pass all of the time but have never painted. I'm on the same road, a few miles south of the one above. In the summer and fall, these roads are hard to paint on because of the dust. They're so wet right now that there is no dust, nice to take advantage and paint some areas that I don't get to normally. I was attracted at first by the melt water in the plow furrows from the previous year. My surprise when setting up was to see all of the goodies around the farm yard that I could use to add some little touches of color to the painting.

Sunday was a little windier so I drove to a road, May Avenue, because I knew that I could find some shelter from it in some nice areas. One of the attractions that I like on this road are the small bodies of water that pepper it along the way. I stopped at one, but found my interest in this cedar tree that was on a hillside away from one of the ponds. I liked it for the warmth of the palette, balanced by the snow shadows.

In the afternoon the winds were really up and the light was flattening out. But in a nice little area along the St Croix, on a Wisconsin Rustic Road, I found this, part of the DNR Hatchery property. This is the area where they let the fingerlings learn the ropes, fingerling rearing area they call it. I can attest to it working. In the current were many nice little 8"-12" brown trout. At one point a guy showed up with spinning rod in hand to see if he could surprise a nice one. He told me that last year he caught and released a nice 17" brown. Guess what I'm doing this spring with my fly rod? I didn't know you could fish here, and I've been hanging around the area for nearly 6 years now!

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3/16/12 and 3/17/12

I spent a few days in the studio last week, hence the break in postings. On Friday I couldn't resist it any longer, temps hitting the high 70's, even an 80 degree day! Friday was beautiful, calm and with skies that had some activity to them, making it more interesting to me than a flat blue sky day. On Saturday I was up early and down to the river to start the day, then the day slowly became more windy and cloudy so I made it a short day.

NFS 3/16/12 #1 'Morning Impression' oil 6x8 ©2012 Marc R. Hanson
I loved this first part of Friday morning, humid, atmospheric and full of color. This piece is what I could see, just the shapes of the trees spotted around the field. I worked hard at not allowing myself to paint more than my impression of the subject, what I could see while squinting down on it.

SOLD 3/16/12 #2 'Mid Day Hues' oil 6x8 ©2012 Marc R. Hanson
Man was the sky and landscape rich and full of color by about 11:00 am! All of the heat and moisture in the ground resulted in some moisture rich air. When ever the air is that saturated, the color is amplified when looking at it with the sun at your back. Looking the opposite direction, into the light, the moisture has almost the opposite effect and lightens all of the shapes, creating nearly washed out color. This is why I love painting from life... you can't dream this up, even if you know and understand the principles, every single situation is different every single time.

3/16/12 #3 'Dang Flat' oil 6x8 ©2012 Marc R. Hanson
Later in the afternoon the high overcast caused the already merging color, closely analogous, to become even harder to separate and distinguish. The title refers to that, the color being so flat and tough to find difference in. That's not a big deal, you paint what you see, but it is an exercise in being subtle.

SOLD 3/16/12 #4 'High Sun' oil 6x8 ©2012 Marc R. Hanson
Staying in the same spot as Dang Flat, I painted the sky to my right. A nice big could formation creating some drama was plenty to paint. All of this is a study of what is going on out there. While I'm not trying to 'copy' all of the specifics of what I am standing in front of, I am almost always trying to capture the color relationships as accurately as I see them. I do that because this is what is building my own visual library for future use. I don't want to make things like that up, I can change the land shapes, remove or add objects or their placement in the landscape. For my purposes, trying to replicate the color relationships is paramount, is my reason for wanting to be outside painting from life.

SOLD 3/16/12 #5 'Just Up The Road' oil 6x8 ©2012 Marc R. Hanson
By now you are probably noticing that this was a good painting day for me. I was hoping to be able to box up 6 for the day, but with some driving time using up the #6 painting time. But 5 is a good day. This last one is a spot just about 1/2 a mile from my house, at the edge of town. Every time I drive past this on my way out of town, I look up this road and think "I should paint this sometime.". Well I finally did, it only took about 6 years. I had to work fast, this was about an hours' worth of painting time, light shifting fast, shadows expanding, leaving, coming back a different shape and color... Whew! But I managed and then went and had an ice cold beer and some dinner across the river. A satisfying day for sure.

SOLD 3/17/12 #1 'Morning Breaks' oil 6x8 ©2012 Marc R. Hanson
Up and out early enough on Saturday morning to paint the sun coming up over the Wisconsin side of the river. It's mostly a color exercise, there's not much land mass to include. But what a beautiful morning it was!

3/17/12 #2 'On The Marsh' oil 6x8 ©2012 Marc R. Hanson
It was looking to be a promising day so I took the drive north to Crex Meadow in Grantsburg, WI. Just as I arrived, the clouds moved in and the light left... such is landscape painting. I had already set up and was excited by what was in front of me before it all changed. With what I remembered and the occasional splash of sunlight, I managed to get this one painted. I've painted this spot in the spring, summer and early fall, all while the greens predominate, so it was fun to paint it at the end of winter when the tones of dormancy were still dominant. Lot's of birds all weekend, cranes, swans, geese and ducks. Also a lot of shorebirds arriving now.

SOLD 3/17/12 #3 'St Patty's Day' oil 6x8 ©2012 Marc R. Hanson
By now the wind of the day was getting to be tiring. Being pelted by dirt, sand, and the dried grass chaff that was all airborne and getting in my eyes was making me think about calling it a painting day. From Crex Meadow I drove back south down to William O'Brien State Park in Marine on St Croix, MN. That's too much driving, but when looking to find a spot to make the best of the time you have outside, sometimes too much driving is the result. We've all been there. It became dark and neutral by the time I set up to paint. So I played with that contrast between the spotty bright light of the spaces inbetween the clouds and the tree masses along the river.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

A Painting and Yoga Holiday in Normandy, France - August 2012!!!

Painting & Yoga in Normandy, France August 19-26, 2012

Picture This- the Ideal Painting Holiday

Start the day with yoga to awaken the senses, enjoy fresh baked croissants, baguettes and jam and a bowl of coffee before setting out for the day to explore the Norman countryside. Take time each day to paint what you see, what you feel, what you sense on a painting holiday with artist Marc Hanson.

We'll be touring and traveling the French country side with Chris Coleman who is a very experienced French guide. For the painting part of the trip we are hoping that the participants, experienced or not, will bring along a small scale painting supply bag. Possibly gouache, watercolor or acrylic paints and a small pad or pads of paper to paint on. The painting and the yoga is open to you whether you've never practiced either before or are an old hand at both. Instruction will be limited but as we are both teachers of our respective professions and loves, you can be sure that there will be plenty of helpful advice. If you are new to painting, or to plein air painting, don't worry, I'll be there to help you along the way to learn a new and fascinating way to record your travels. More info on the specific supplies will be available as we get closer to trip time.

Chris Coleman, an experienced yoga instructor and owner of Yoga Hus - Scandia, MN, will instruct yoga classes for people of all abilities both indoors and out (weather permitting). Chris is a seasoned (14 years) tour guide in France with Rick Steves and will guide you through her second home - la Belle France! Chris will teach you key French phrases, offer wine tasting classes, and help you avoid cultural faux pas. We will want to make your painting holiday in France a memorable one! Please join us!

Painting & Yoga Holiday in Normandy, France
A Fully Customized Tour

August 19-26, 2012
Itinerary in detail

Day 1 Sun. Aug 19 PARIS Welcome to Paris!
We will meet at the hotel at 5:00pm for a short orientation meeting over wine and snacks. We will then take a short walking through the neighborhood on our way to dinner together. Overnight in centrally located 3* hotel.

Day 2 Mon. Aug 20 HONFLEUR Monet’s house and gardens at Giverny, Honfleur
Depart Paris on private bus. Visit Giverny, Monet’s home and gardens en route to Honfleur. Painting in the afternoon. Evening yoga practice. Overnight at the Hotel Antares 3* or similar. Approximate 3 hours driving. Chris will offer a wine tasting before dinner.

Day 3 Tue Aug 21 HONFLEUR Explore and paint the countryside
Morning yoga practice. Painting time. Explore the coastal area, including the famous rock formation Etretat, and Le Havre. Overnight at the Hotel Antares 3* or similar.

Day 4 Wed Aug 22 PORT EN BESSIN Explore and paint the countryside
Morning yoga practice. Explore and paint the countryside en route to Port en Bessin. Overnight at the Mercure Omaha Beach 3* or similar

Day 5 Thu Aug 23 PORT EN BESSIN Full day touring and painting the beaches and D-Day sights
Morning yoga practice. Full day D-Day beaches tour with local guide and artist. Time for painting during the tour day. Overnight at the Mercure Omaha Beach 3* or similar

Day 6 Fri Aug 24 CHARTRES Morning tour of Abbey Mont St. Michel. Drive to Chartres
Painting opportunity along the coast. Drive towards Paris to overnight in a charming town en route. Overnight Hotellerie St. Yves or similar.

Day 7 Sat Aug 25 PARIS Visit the cathedral of Chartres. Return to Paris by train.
Last night farewell dinner together followed by painting exposition. Overnight at the Hotel Minerve 3* or similar

Day 8 Sun Aug 26 FLY B Tour over. Bon Voyage!

Small Group Pricing (up to 18 travelers Maximum)

Land Price based on 2 people in shared accommodation
$2650 PP
$550 single room supplement
$100 off price if pay by check or wire transfer
Price based on a small group size of up to 18 travelers. If the group size is limited, the tour cost may be affected.

Included Services
* Special customization and pre-departure services of Adventures Abroad
* Art guidance (not instruction) from professional artist Marc Hanson
* Minimum of five guided outdoor painting sessions
* Minimum of four yoga classes(offered outdoors weather permitting, otherwise indoors)
* Fully escorted by experienced France tour guide and certified yoga instructor Chris Coleman
* 2 nights accommodation Paris Hotel Minerve 3* or similar, bed & breakfast basis
* 2 nights accommodation Honfleur Hotel Antares 3* or similar, bed & breakfast basis
* 2 nights accommodation Port en Bessin Mercure Omaha Beach 3* or similar, bed & breakfast basis
* 1 night accommodation Chartres Hotellerie St. Yves or similar, bed & breakfast basis
* Private bus with air conditioning when traveling outside of Paris, or train
* Local site guides for guided tours as listed: D-Day Beaches Full Day tour with excellent local guide
* All entrance fees to sites, as listed: Giverny Monet’s Home and Gardens, Arromanches Memorial, Caen Memorial, Abbey Mont St. Michel
* Meals as indicated [B=Breakfast, D=Dinner] All breakfasts, 2 dinners
* Services of inbound local ground operators throughout

Not Included
* International flights
* Arrival and departure airport transfers
* Departure taxes (if applicable)
* Tips, gratuities of any kind when not doing group activities or included meals
* Alcoholic beverages and bottled drinks
* Meals not indicated above
* Extra costs for optional excursions or services on own or to be paid direct
* Travel insurance
* Yoga Mat or Painters Box/Pochade - more details to come on these necessary items to bring

ADDED BONUS:

PARIS 3-DAY TOUR EXTENSION: 16-19 August, 2012

Day 1 Thu August 16 Orientation meeting in the evening and welcome to Paris. Dinner together.
Day 2 Fri August 17 Morning yoga practice. Breakfast. Walking tour of Paris. Late afternoon tour of the Louvre museum with a local guide.
Day 3 Sat August 18 Morning yoga practice. Breakfast. Tour of the Musee d’Orsay with a local guide. Winetasting.
Day 4 Sun August 19 Breakfast. Free to explore today before the Normandy portion of the tour to Normandy begins this evening!

$895 per person, Land Price based on 2 people in shared accommodation
$225 single room supplement
$40 discount if pay by check or wire transfer

Included Services
* Special customization and pre-departure services of Adventures Abroad
* Fully escorted by experienced France tour guide and certified yoga instructor Chris Coleman
* Morning yoga classes available with Chris Coleman
* 3 nights accommodation Paris Hotel Minerve 3* or similar, bed & breakfast basis
* Guided tours as listed: tour of Paris including Orsay and Louvre Museum, with English speaking guide.
* All entrance fees to sites, as listed: Orsay Museum, Louvre museum
* Metro/bus tickets
* Meals as indicated [B=Breakfast, D=Dinner] All breakfasts, 1 dinner
* Services of inbound local ground operators throughout

Not Included
* International flights
* Arrival and departure airport transfers (arrival information will be supplied prior to the tour)
* Departure taxes (if applicable)
* Tips, gratuities of any kind when not doing group activities or included meals
* Alcoholic beverages and bottled drinks, meals not indicated above
* Extra costs for optional excursions or services on own or to be paid direct
* Travel insurance
*************************************************************************
Dear Travel Friends,

Please join us for an exploration of Normandy through the eyes of a painter and the senses of a yoga practitioner. Dates of travel will be from the 19-26 August 2012 with the optional 3-day extension in Paris from 16-19 August for $895 per person. If interested in the extension please let me know at booking.

BOOKING INSTRUCTIONS
To book your tour with us, send your passport and personal details (see below) to Christine Coleman ccoleman@privatecustomtours.com and send your deposit of US$500 per traveler. Full payments are due 60 days / 2 months prior to departure. We need the following details from ALL travelers:
i) Full name - as it appears on passport
ii) Nationality of each traveler
iii) Passport number
Place of issue
Date of issue
Date of expiry
iv) Sex of each traveler
v) Date of birth of each traveler
vi) Mailing address and phone number of each traveler
vii) Email address (note all docs are sent out be email to participants, so this is important)
viii) Telephone number

Deposit Payment by Credit Card
If you intend to pay your deposit by credit card – we will need your credit card information (name, number, expiry date, 3 digit security code). NOTE: To protect your security, please do NOT send you credit card details by email. Please call me, Christine Coleman at Tel: 651-433-3893 to give me your credit card details. If sending a check, see the Adventures Abroad address information below.

Full payments
Your full payment is due 60 days / 8 weeks prior to departure – by 19 June 2012. If you are paying by check please ensure your payment is mailed in time to arrive in our office before this deadline. If you are paying by credit card, please call in your final payment by phone – Christine Coleman at Tel: 651-433-3893 (Christine Coleman Email: ccoleman@privatecustomtours.com )

Please make all checks payable to the Adventures Abroad and mail all checks to the following address:
Attention: Christine Coleman
Adventures Abroad
12727 181 St. N.
Marine on St. Croix, MN 55047
Tel: 651-433-3893

International Flights
If you need us to arrange your international flights, please list the names of all travelers, full details of US/CAN departure city, the date of your departure, US/CAN return city and dates - and any other relevant details (class of service, meal requirements, health issues etc.) that are relevant to arranging your flights. If you have arranged your flights yourselves, please send us full details of these flights so we can set up your arrival and departure transfers.

Travel Insurance
You may wish to protect your investment by obtaining personal travel insurance. As insurance is best explained by an insurance expert. You can access an insurance expert by visiting our website where the insurers website and full contact details are listed. The insurance expert will supply all the information you will need - the following link will take you directly to the page on our website that contains all insurance contacts http://www.adventures-abroad.com/rbcins.php We recommend that you purchase insurance on the same day that you place your trip deposit. However you have up to 10 business days to purchase your travel insurance before the pre-existing conditions caveat is applicable. If you purchase your insurance 10 business days or more after making your deposit, no pre-existing medical conditions will be covered. At point of deposit, you can purchase insurance to cover just your airfare and deposit, or purchase insurance to cover yourself for the full land and air cost. Whatever your purchase at the point of deposit can be upgraded at a later date.

We look forward to making travel memories with you!

Chris and Marc

Sunday, October 16, 2011

More Fall!

This week I painted outside at Arcola Mills, a beautiful location on the St Croix River inbetween Marine on St Croix and Stillwater, MN that is open to the public for the month of October. Needless to say the painters are showing up to take advantage of this. I painted Monday by myself but then painted with Tony Hilscher on Tuesday and with Kami Polzin on Wednesday.

The color along the river up here is surprisingly still green. The make up of the tree population, mostly soft maples that survive the seasonal floods, has something to do with it. I'm interested in seeing if they ever do peak out or simply succumb to the season and just drop their leaves.

Yesterday I took out a new pastel rig that I plan to use for field painting to try out. It's just a shelf that I made of 1/4" ply wood that leverages on my tripod legs to hold the pastel box (a Dakota travels size box) and a board that attaches to my quick release plate for the tripod. It worked beautifully so I plan to have the dust sticks out more often now. I'll take some shots of the easel and get it on here soon.

I hope you are all enjoying the Fall... it's been an amazing one here. I'll be heading off to Fredericksburg, TX next week to help celebrate the opening of R.S.Hanna Gallery (and the wine festival of course), and then onto Scottsdale, AZ where I'll be teaching a pastel 'Field to Studio' workshop October 31- November 4 for the Scottsdale Artists' School. By the way, I think that there are probably still openings for that one if you're interested.

'ARCOLA FADING GREENS' oil - 12x12 ©2011 Marc R. Hanson
This one has already been posted here but it's part of the past week so...
I like the square format and am going to do more of them. I have a couple of these 12x12's sitting in the studio now and a couple of 24x24's as well. This day I was dealing with the fall season that still looked like August or earlier. The greens were quite gray, a challenge.

'ARCOLA GLARE' oil - 9x12 ©2011 Marc R. Hanson
Today Tony Hilscher and I just happened to show up at the same time to paint, so we did. As soon as I walked to the river the blast of light from the rising sun said to me... Paint that! It's a challenge that I hope to conquer some day. Was a beautiful day to paint.

'SLIVER OF LIGHT' oil - 11x14 ©2011 Marc R. Hanson
I was lucky to meet Kami here today to paint. We were both talking about the lack of color in the trees, they should have been warmer than they were. There was some cloud cover in the sky on this morning so I thought that I'd back off of my view from the day before and try to capture that overall atmosphere. This is a very simple design, it's all about the sliver of light that broke through onto the surface of the water. I grabbed that right away and am glad I did because before long the entire surface of the river was once again a bright reflection.

'BLUSTERY OCTOBER DAY' pastel - 8x10 ©2011 Marc R. Hanson
Yesterday I took out the pastels. I'm going to be teaching a pastel workshop as I mentioned in a couple of weeks so I wanted to test out my new easel rig and get the groove going with the dust sticks. Good thing too... for half an hour I felt like a total newbie to pastel. I've been sloshing around oil paints with goofy brushes so much lately that it took some time to get back into the careful and controlled way of working required with the pastels. Things like not having the color you want, but remembering that I can mix colors on the surface, wipe them down, layer back over again and I may end up with something similar to what I'm looking for. My rig worked beautifully too.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Since Kansas some local Fall!

Since Kansas I've been in withdrawals but have also been out either painting or photographing our own magnificent fall color. The last couple of years I've been out of the area, San Miguel de Allende and Cape Cod, each fall during the peak of the color. I don't realize what that means until winter sets in and I'm anxious to revisit Fall in the studio and am at a loss because I didn't do my homework in either paint or pics or both! It is here and gone so fast that there's always a little conflict between painting two or three paintings or painting a taste of it and then taking several hundred photos. If I had my wish, I'd never step inside with a paintbrush again... everything would be painted outside on location. But we all know the things that step inbetween wishes and reality when it comes to outdoor painting.

Like this past week... I painted the painting below "Lake View" and it was as perfectly calm and gorgeous as you can imagine a Fall day to be. That was it, that day was the one. Good thing that I painted two paintings that day... that painting and "Oak Grove"... because the following three days came with quite a wind. Gusts up to 45 mph one of those days did a number on all of the leaves that had changed over and they're down now. The beauty is still out there to be savored, but there is something about walking into the maple forest at peak and being enveloped by the veil of golden light that cannot be photographed no matter how hard you try.

Ending this, I'm happy that I was here during the peak this year. I have enough inspiration stored within me and on my flashcard to last most of the winter. I hope that you were all able to make it out into the beautiful fall that seems to be surrounding most of the country this year too.

'Lake View' - oil - 11x14 ©2011 Marc R. Hanson
I was lucky to be invited to paint on the property of some friends who live on a lake with a beautiful woodland not far from me. Everything was perfect this day, the light, the wind, and the temps. Not to mention that the Fall leaves were at peak and still all affixed to the branches! What a treat to be able to be outside at times like this it is.

'Oak Grove' - oil - 8x10 ©2011 Marc R. Hanson
In the afternoon, following a lot of photographing in Wisconsin in the Interstate Park, I wandered back over into my neighborhood. There is an oak savannah near me that captures my eye every single time that I drive past it. It's on a corner of two intersecting roads that I turn onto every single time I leave town to drive south or west of here. This day the oaks were alive with color and I finally had to stop and try to grab it. I also want to paint this in winter, and will. The problem is that this is a large area of large oaks and some maples and putting that on an 8"x10" canvas hardly begins to make the statement about the impact that this location has on me visually. I hesitate to say how big the canvas for this location should be...

"Arcola Fading Greens" - oil - 12x12 ©2011 Marc R. Hanson
We're lucky that one of the nicest pieces of property on the St Croix River is now open to the public for one month. This is not the case normally although many of us from the area have been able to paint it some in the past. The Minnesota State Park System is manning it with rangers and volunteers until October 30th from 9am-5pm. The turn out has been enormous from what they were telling me this morning. It would be incredible if this property became open on a regular basis. It's very special and provides a different view of the river than is available elsewhere. The color is not as advanced down in the river valley as it is along the hillsides. I guess the warmth of the water keeps things slightly delayed, and many of the trees are soft maples and they don't turn to the brilliant golds and reds of their hillside cousins the sugar and red maples. It was still a very nice morning until the sun faded away, and I met some nice folks who were there for the programs that the park provide to the public. I'll be back.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Painting in the Flint Hills of Kansas!

I was lucky enough to be invited by my friend Kim Casebeer to come and paint the Flint Hills of Kansas with a group of very fine fpainters last week, September 29 - October 2, 2011. Along to paint was Cally Krallman, Phil Starke, John Potoschnick, Susan Lynn, Dick Sneary, Joseph Loganbill, Debra J. Groesser, Judith Mackey, Michael Albrechtson, Kim and yours truly. We stayed at the Flying 'W' Ranch, a working cattle and dude ranch owned and operated by Josh and Gwen Hoy. We had wonderful facilities, bunk houses and Josh is a CIA (Culinary Institute of America) trained chef so the food was amazing and welcomed each morning and evening.

We had the most unbelievably good weather, warm and no wind for the three full days we painted. Not a cloud either... we were wishing that one of those would show up to break up the pure blue sky. The color at this time of the year was rich and full of the warmer side of the palette and a treat to paint. Kansas surprised my notion of what I would find there, that being a notion that it would be flat and agricultural. There's plenty of that, but the Flint Hills contain a huge amount of woodland riparian habitat that is broken by prairie and some agriculture. It's a great combination of textures, vistas, color and elevation change for painting. There is something about the vast open landscape and a near absence of any sounds other than grasshoppers and birds that I love. I really enjoyed myself there and am going to be sure to include it as a painting location again soon.

I painted a total of 8 paintings, wiped one off. The larger piece here "Morning View of the Flint Hills", a 16x24 oil, was painted for 3 mornings for about an hour or slightly longer each session. The shadows on the hills in the distance disappeared fast as the sun rose. Being that they're about the only thing that gave definition to the landscape, I would only paint for a short period of time while they had some form shadow to them. I guess you could say that I would have painted about 11 or 12 paintings in the 3 days if I had been painting smaller each of those mornings. I'm glad that I took on this one though, and it's not that large, but painting something that is new means learning the language of the land in paint. It's an exploration and period of discovery which slows things down a little bit.

One last thing, if you go there be sure that you have good tires with a large number of plys. The non paved roads are covered in broken, crushed flint and guess what flint is really good for? Making knives and arrow or spear points. They will go through even a good new tire, we found that out with one of the painters vehicle. Driving slow on the roads is a help. For the beauty, it's worth the $13.50 that it cost our painter to have it fixed in Cottonwood Falls where the gentleman spends most of the time fixing "rock slices" in tires.

'Flying W Ranch' oil-8x10 ©2011 Marc R. Hanson
This was the first painting I did when I arrived on Thursday afternoon. Parked the truck, got out the painting gear, wandered for a few minutes and then painted this one! I love this job.

'Morning View of the Flint Hills' oil-16x24 ©2011 Marc R. Hanson
I spent 3+ mornings on this painting, about an hour or so per session, like I mentioned above.

'Flint Hills Autumn' oil-12x12 ©2011 Marc R. Hanson
We had unbroken blue skies, which are nice, but for painting it's nice to have some clouds to play with compositionally. In this painting I waited and waited for one to appear, it didn't. Finally a jet flew over at altitude leaving a contrail for me to add to the sky. I probably would have anyway, that or a crow or three. But it's good when they help you out. This was a late morning painting, the landscape becoming quite flat by the time I painted it. I was counting on the design to help hold it together.

'Sunset on the Hills' oil-9x12 ©2011 Marc R. Hanson
Josh Hoy loaded us all up in the back of The Plains Drifter, a 1956 grain truck that has had the bed converted to carry guests out into the hills on rides, and we went up to a high point to paint the end of the day. The color was astounding.

'Stock Pond' oil-11x14 ©2011 Marc R. Hanson
I painted with Michael Albrechtson and John Potoschnick one afternoon on the Magathon Farm. We found some shade around one of the stock ponds on the farm, complete with stock. As we were painting some of the milk cows decided that they liked John and got very close, a noses' distance from him. All of his "Go away cow!" commands didn't do a bit of good. They wanted to watch his magic.

'Mike's Green Day' oil-5x7 ©2011 Marc R. Hanson
This little monochromatic green painting, painted only with terre verte and white, is the result of a rather mischievous idea that I had for us all to do an 'all green' painting one morning. The reason is that Michael Albrechtson when showing us his work the night before was having a fit over his use of 'green', stemming from, according to him, his having been in the studio for a long period of time. We didn't think he was all that overtaken by green in the work, it looked quite good to us. But to help him along we pulled this little prank and that evening 7 of us laid out our green paintings all at once, much to his surprise and dismay! He got a kick out of it, good natured as he is, and we all had a laugh about it.

'Road to Bazaare, KS' oil-14x18 ©2011 Marc R. Hanson
I drove back up to the area where we had painted the sundown piece the night before and found this view to the east that was captivating in it's 'largeness'. This was an interesting painting to me. It's painted quite thin, just enough paint on it to grab the fast moving light and it's color. I used a lot of sketchy strokes, laid down fast and untouched. The effect is one that I like and am finding myself using a little bit here and there since.

'Hot and Bright' oil-8x10 ©2011 Marc R. Hanson
This was my last painting of the trip. I stayed an extra day to get one more morning's work on the larger piece above and then had lunch with some of the group before they departed. Following that I went to explore another area that sounded intriguing... Sharpe's Creek Road. It was a beautiful place. I took a lot of photos but decided to do this one last painting. It was 'hot and bright' and I was tired and ready to hit the road.

Monday, September 26, 2011

9/25/11 A day painting with friends at Crex Meadow Wildlife Area

Yesterday was a fine fall day up at Crex Meadow Wildlife Area in Grantsburg, WI. Gray skies, slight wind and the beginnings of Mother Nature's changing of her palette with which she paints our surroundings. The reds, oranges, yellows, warm greens and a variance of other warmer earth colors are all beginning to overtake the summer palette, except that the trees that border the bodies of water where the warmth of the water holds off some of the frost, are still holding onto their August green foliage.

The Painters soaking it all in before the day starts... Critical to seeing paintings.

I've mentioned that I've spent a fair amount of time up there, 30 miles north of me, painting now over the last few years. But this year I have really begun to concentrate on this jewel of a piece of earth. It's a place where a person can hike, bike, hunt, nature watch or paint without the fear of traffic or being told that "You can't paint there". You are free to wander anywhere that you please or dare, free to stop at any point on the many miles of gravel and dirt roads that spider web through the refuge and surrounding wildlife area. This is a real treat to have in the neighborhood and I plan to continue to make very good use of it.

Yesterday I contacted a several other painter friends in the area and 5 of us ended up making the trip up and spent the day painting. Mary Pettis, MaryAnn Cleary, Joni Jurek, Tony Hilscher and yours truly, all spent the entire day at our easels in front of the daunting but beautiful surroundings that Mother Nature offered up for our painting pleasure. We started the day with layers of long underwear, sweaters, coats and more but ended up shedding a lot of that by the end of he day. The ending was perfect, calm winds and balmy temps. This is one reason why we put up with the gnats and skeeters, wind, cold and other deterrents, to experience a day like we had outside from beginning to the end of the light... priceless!

'COLD SKIES' 9x12 Oil ©2011 Marc R. Hanson
Crex is primarily a sedge marsh, flat vistas without much more to break the distant horizon other than the slight rise in the ground elevation or a distant line of trees that make up the upland habitats that surround parts of the area. It's the kind of a place where you're tempted to just paint skies all day long. That's fine, but I find myself investigating the little nooks at the edges of the marshes, the islands that have scrubby growth on them, the expanses of sedge and other aquatic vegetation that all go towards interesting compositional elements for my work and what I'm trying to say in the paintings.

'A SLICE OF SUN' 8x10 Oil ©2011 Marc R. Hanson
Yeah it was chilly... and any sun that came out was welcome from both my physical and artistic sides. After painting the first one above I stayed right where I was and tried to grab this little happening across the pond. It didn't last long, a few minutes is all, but I tried to hold onto what I had seen and use the now overcast scene in front of me as the structural guide and my memory as the artistic guide. From here we took off for the north end of the park and the bathroom/picnic area for lunch.

'NORTH END FALL' 10x8 Oil ©2011 Marc R. Hanson
On our way to my next suggested location, we were driving through one of the upland habitats that was just beautiful with a mix of birch, maples, oaks and all of the assorted vegetation, well on it's way towards peak color. I couldn't help it, I had to stop. I should mention that the others all had limited or no experience up here. I've driven 95% of the roads with the park map and marked painting locations on it. I'm pretty familiar with what the lay of the land is now. So I assumed the 'tour guide' status and felt responsible for putting us in nice painting locations. When we drove through this area we were on the way to another open water spot that I thought would be good, a Ducks Unlimited project that is just beautifully designed for the benefit of the waterfowl's use. Oh... it was also the opening day for the Wisconsin Waterfowl Season. I knew that spot would be good at the end of the day, so we all agreed to stop in this little upland spot and paint.

'END OF A SEPTEMBER DAY' 12x16 Oil ©2011 Marc R. Hanson
Of course you can't count on the weather to do anything that you expected it to do. It didn't, it was a lot more overcast all day long than we thought it would be according to the official weather sources we checked. But...we had sun at the end and were excited by what that late light was doing to the landscape. So we get to the spot, the D.U project marsh and it is lit up so nice that there are 5 drooling painters all biting at the bit to go at it. No sooner did we set up than the overcast closed in and cut off most all of the sunlight. Every once in awhile there would be a slash of light off in the distance on the sedges that spread out for hundreds of acres in front of us. Being seasoned painters we knew that we'd just have to make the best of it and went to work. I grabbed ahold of the darkened foreground in cooler light against that sliver of sun off in the distance and did my best to try to capture that sensation that I had when it happened.

So it was a good day with 4 paintings being painted. Came home hungry and tired and slept like a baby. A good day.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

July, August, September...

I really can't believe that my last post was early July! But then again it's been a crazy busy summer full of traveling to paint and teach. I have a pile of work to post here so rather than get into much detail about the last few months I'd rather show some of the images from the summer and talk about the recent past with them a little bit.

First of all... We, Sargent and I, have a new housemate. Her name is Frida. We rescued her at about 12 weeks. She's an adorable little sweetheart of a kitten. Even Sarge is beginning to see it that way.

I'M VERY HAPPY TO ANNOUNCE THAT I HAVE JOINED A NEW GALLERY IN TEXAS... R.S.Hanna Gallery, Fredericksburg, TX

I was forunate to have been awarded the Bronze Medal Award at the Oil Painters Of America's (OPA) 19th Annual National Juried Exhibition in Idaho for the painting "Right Or Left?"...

"Right or Left?" 24x30 oil
Available at R.S.Hanna Gallery, Fredericksburg, TX

All of these paintings are available, unless marked 'NFS' or at specific galleries and are linked to the galleries that they're hanging in.

Here we go... The first four are just random field studies that I've painted this summer.

'CORNER LIGHT' 8x10 Oil 2011©Marc R. Hanson
Available at R.S.Hanna Gallery, Fredericksburg, TX
I discovered that I had a tube of Gamblin's 'Chromatic Black' in my paint bin. So I took it out to see if it would be of interest to me when mixing some of the deep summer greens. It works very well for that, it's in my paint box as a 'occasionally used' color now. I used it extensively as my 'blue' when mixing the greens in this painting. There's a lot of scraping and palette knife work here too, a tool that I find myself using more and more now.

'TREE ISLAND' 8X10 Oil 2011© Marc R. Hanson
This little study was just painted this past week along the river below me in the Interstate Park, Minnesota side. I was looking at a very bright backlit scene that silhouetted the tree shape nicely. That was the starting point conceptually for this one. The silvery light and strong darks attracted me too.

'TEXAS!' 11X14 Oil 2011© Marc R. Hanson NFS
This is the first and only painting that I did in Texas during a trip there in July. Now that I am joining the R.S.Hanna Gallery in Fredericksburg, Tx I hope to be there painting a lot more. There is something about that landscape that is very, very attractive to me. It reminds me a lot of the northern California Sierra Foothills near Loomis where I went to high school and where my mother and brother and his family still live. It's the dry grasses and large oaks spread across rolling hills that do it for me I guess. It was hotter than blazes there, 109º F!!! Of course they've experienced terrible fires there this month, totally devastating. But it's finally beginning to rain from what my friends there are saying... Hallelujah!!!

'THAT'S MY BOAT!' 8x10 Oil 2011© Marc R. Hanson
Available at Addison Art Gallery in Orleans, MA.
In June I went out to Cape Cod to paint with friends Shannon Runquist, Paul Schulenburg, Elizabeth Pollie, Frank Gardner, Jerome Green, Sara Jane Doberstein and Peter Kalill. There was an exhibit held at Addison Art Gallery sponsored by the Cape Cod Museum of Art celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the establishment of the Cape Cod National Seashore by President John F. Kennedy. We painted all over the National Seashore area and in the harbors. This was a small boat at the harbor in Wellfleet, Ma.

THE NEXT GROUP OF PAINTINGS ARE ALL DEMOS OR PAINTED DURING MY SUMMER MENTORSHIPS AND WORKSHOPS...

'GARAGE GARDEN' 11X14 Oil 2011© Marc R. Hanson

THE NEXT GROUP OF PAINTINGS ARE PIECES THAT I PAINTED IN JULY AT THE DOOR COUNTY PLEIN AIR FESTIVAL IN WISCONSIN...

'WHITE SOX' 9X12 Oil 2011© Marc R. Hanson

THE FINAL GROUP OF PAINTINGS ARE OF A SELECTION OF FIELD STUDIES PAINTED OF A SUBJECT THAT HAS BECOME NEAR AND DEAR TO ME THIS YEAR. THE LOCATION IS A 30,000 ACRE WILDLIFE REFUGE MADE UP OF SEDGE MARSH, UPLAND AND PRAIRIE HABITAT IN NW WISCONSIN NEAR GRANTSBURG... AND IS CALLED 'CREX MEADOW'. THIS EXPANSE OF LAND IS A HAVEN FOR CRITTERS AS VARIED AS WOLVES AND SANDHILL CRANES TO BLACK BEARS AND TRUMPETER SWANS. EAGLES, OSPREYS, ASSORTED OTHER WATERFOWL AND FUR BEARING ANIMALS ABOUND. THEY'RE ALL THERE BECAUSE OF THE SPECTACULAR NATURE OF THE ENVIRONMENT THAT HAS BEEN PROTECTED WITHIN THIS ECOSYSTEM OF CREX MEADOWS. I HOPE TO CONTINUE TO DO STUDIES, PHOTOGRAPH AND PAINT LARGER PAINTINGS ON LOCATION WHENEVER I CAN. EXCEPT FOR THE LAST TWO PAINTINGS BELOW, THESE ARE ALL FIELD STUDIES PAINTED ON LOCATION.

'UPPER PHANTOM FLOWAGE II' 3.5X4 Gouache 2011© Marc R. Hanson

I had a hard time photographing these two larger studio pieces... But you get the idea.

Painting My Way Through Life - Marc R. Hanson

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