Painting The Wenatchee River

Sunrise on the Wenatchee River -- near the town of Leavenworth, Washington.

"Sunrise On The Wenatchee River"   18" x 24"   Oil

My son was in the area shooting some wedding videos and joined me one morning as I painted a watercolor of this river scene. When you vacation with your videographer son, you get a cool video like this!

James Tennison - Painting on the Wenatchee River from Tennison Visuals on Vimeo.

"The Wenatchee River"   8" x 10"   Watercolor

Botanic Garden Plein Air

A few paintings done on location at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden.

"Botanic Garden Planter"   12" x 9"  Oil

"Botanic Garden View"   9" x 12"   Oil

"Steps to the Garden"   9" x 12"   Oil

"Japanese Garden Stepping Stones"   12" x 9"   Oil

"Heron Sculpture"   12" x 9"   Oil

Plein Air Painting On TCU Campus - A Video

Video by Justin Tennison

Music: Two Bicycles "Window" & "I'm Not Afraid to Wait for You"

The University Drive Series

THE CHALLENGE

The kind folks at Texas Christian University have asked me to come up with an idea for paintings to line this hallway leading to the Chancellor's office.

THE IDEA

The beautiful drive through campus on University Drive has long been a favorite of mine.  I thought it would be fun to paint the scenes you see on the left and right as you make this drive and convey the feeling of driving down this tree-lined street as you walk down the hallway.  The paintings will have a panoramic format and will measure about three by six feet.

THE START

I recently spent an afternoon on campus to begin the study for the first painting in the series.  My son accompanied me on this outing and took these photographs and also produced a short video documenting the experience.  I'll show that soon.

To be continued...

Plein Air Planter

"Botanic Garden Planter"   12" x 9"   Oil

I painted this quick oil sketch a while ago at the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens, "a peaceful haven nestled in the heart of the Fort Worth Cultural District".  After a record-breaking 71 days of temperatures in the 100's this year, the weather has finally cooled off some - so I need to leave the comfort of my studio and get back out there and paint on location!

Botanic Gardens Heron Sculpture

Painting on location is full of challenges.  You need to paint rapidly because the light will change in just a few minutes, especially on a sunny day like this one.  You are often fighting the elements such as wind and sun and rain.  Sometimes bugs get in the way ( I think there are some imbedded in this painting).  But  it can also be very rewarding and often there is an honesty and authenticity in these small outdoor studies that can be lacking in a labored studio piece.

I painted this at the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens on two consecutive days.  Each session was probably about 2 hours long - just enough time to try to capture the essentials, but not long enough to get too bogged down with a lot of details.  On location you see so much more color, as evidenced by comparing the painting with the photo I took of the scene I painted.  And as soon as the weather gets cooler around here, I'm going back outside to paint!

Japanese Garden

"Japanese Garden"   12" x 9"   Oil

This painting was done on location at the Fort Worth Japanese Garden - a beautiful sanctuary within the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens.  Deb and I enjoy visiting often, except when the thermometer reads 100 degrees, which it has for the past 30 + days!  (Below is the front page of yesterday's paper).  

A great blue heron stopped by while I was working, but he didn't stick around long enough for me to include him in the composition.  I think this boy got a little too close for comfort!

St. Stephen Plein Air Painting

Here, as promised, is my little (9" x 12") plein air painting of St. Stephen Presbyterian Church.

Yesterday Morning

Yesterday morning I received an impromptu invitation to go paint at St. Stephen Presbyterian Church with my friend John Cook.  I had long heard about this beautiful church on a hill near the TCU campus, but had never been there before.  John and I spent a pleasant morning painting, and are about to head out again this morning to finish up what we started.  I'll show you my painting soon.

Plein Air Painting in Trinity Park

On a recent Spring-like day my friend Dennis Farris and I headed to nearby Trinity Park with our painting gear.  We decided to paint the graceful old oak tree in front of the pavilion.  Outdoor painting has it's challenges and occasional calamities, but this day's painting was fairly uneventful (no blood was shed this time).     

"Trinity Park Pavilion"   9" X 12"   Oil

Some of you may remember that years ago this pavilion was the stage for Shakespeare in the Park performances.  To promote the event, each summer a poster was printed depicting an anachronistic William Shakespeare enjoying various activities in the park.  I painted several of these, beginning in the early 1980's as a young illustrator right out of art school.  In the 90's Dennis took over painting Will, so I guess we both feel a certain fondness for this place.


Here are two of my posters from the 80's.

When our son Justin heard about my project for 2011 his first thoughts were about documenting the year.  Thus the blog, the time-lapse cameras, the videos.  I'm grateful for his enthusiasm, and for the commitment of his time and talent to document the project.

"Fort Worth Cityscape One"    12" x 16"   Oil

My first plein air painting of the city in 2011.  Looking south across a fork of the Trinity River on a beautiful winter day.