Shadows-On-The-Teche Plein Air 2015 (part 2)

The inaugural Plein Air Competition was organized by Shadows-On-The-Teche, a historic house and garden in downtown New Iberia, La. From April 11 to 18, the participating artists were allowed free entry to the area's historic sites, including Avery Island and Tabasco factory's Jungle Gardens, and Jefferson Island where Rip Van Winkle Gardens is located. 

Both Avery Island and Jefferson Island are salt domes, and according to the Iberia Parish's travel guide, there are five "islands" in the region. They "rise up above the grassy marshlands and prairies that surround them. From 50 to 100 feet above sea level, these areas of high ground are sitting on top of mammoth, immovable columns of salt, which hold them up above the surrounding countryside. These monoliths of salt are two to three miles wide and five miles or more in depth."

The judge of the competition and my teacher Phil Sandusky had told me about Rip Van Winkle Gardens and that's where I painted first, with fellow painter Peg Usner, while our husbands chatted over iced tea off camera.

Peg and I use the same palette & easel set up,
made by Art Box & Panel

Lake Peigneur
oil on canvas, 14"x18"

April 12 - Above is a view of Lake Peigneur, from one of the many structures in Rip Van Winkle Gardens. It was raining and we painted under the awning of a banquet hall. The brick chimney in the middle of the canvas belongs to a house that sunk into the lake in 1980. I didn't know about this when I painted the chimney, but there was a man-made disaster where "a Texaco oil rig accidentally drilled into the Diamond Crystal Salt Company salt mine under the lake." (wikipedia)

Long story short, the lake drained into the salt mine, creating a waterfall that swallowed 11 barges and a backwards flow of the salt water from the Delcambre Canal and Vermilion Bay. Amazingly, all of the salt miners and oil rig workers escaped and there were no injuries.

April 13 - I was all alone with no car. And it rained cats and dogs in the morning. So I set up inside the screened porch and painted what was there.

View From Porch I
oil on panel, 12"x16"

Luckily the rain stopped after lunch and I took a 20-minute hike to the Amtrak station in downtown New Iberia. It was extremely windy and I set up in front of a huge blue dumpster but had to hold onto my easel the whole time I was painting.

photo by Kathy Chassee

The Erath Building
oil on canvas, 14"x18"

The Erath Building has nothing to do with Amtrak, but it is right in front of the station. It was built in 1880s and the front of the building currently houses an art gallery.

April 14 - I woke up to thunder, lightning, and buckets of rain. It was porch painting time again.

View From Porch II
oil on panel, 10"x8"

In late afternoon I walked to nearby City Park to scout some locations. The flash flood warning was in effect but the rain had subsided.

April 15 - finally a while day without rain!
I set up under a little shelter in City Park. The ground was saturated and fire ants were everywhere. And off course the trash bin right next to me was full of stinky garbage... why do I always set up next to trash bins and dumpsters?

Footbridge in City Park
oil on canvas, 14"x18"

Then there was a welcome party at Shadows-on-the-Teche, with shrimp jambalaya and huge fried shrimp.

photo by Kathy Chassee

April 16 - Phil and I set up to paint the same subject which was the Minuteman Furniture Restoration on Julia Street. It rained on and off but we were under the awning of a church across the street. The whole time I was painting, I kept imagining the members of Minutemen restoring furniture, humming to their songs coming from the radio. I always have music playing in my head while painting, usually some Nick Cave songs.

Minuteman Furniture Restoration
oil on canvas, 14"x18"

April 17 - Painting submission deadline for judging. After turning in 2 paintings in the morning, I made Phil drive us to Konriko Rice Mill, the oldest operating rice mill in the US, to paint one last time.

Konriko Rice Mill
oil on panel, 12"x16"

April 18 - I took a day off from painting. We drove out to the Avery Island and walked around Jungle Gardens. At night, there was the gala and auction of submitted paintings at Clementine restaurant in downtown New Iberia. Jerome, the mastermind of this plein air event, bought one of my paintings - Thank you Jerome!

In order to participate in this event I had to miss two group show openings that I was part of. Although the house I was staying in made me feel like I was stuck in a Twilight Zone episode, it was a fun experience. It was my first plein air event, and I'm glad I did it. I felt privileged to be in the company of great artists and great organizers. A big thank-you to Jerome, Pat, Kathy, Joy, and Phil. Congratulations to Mary Monk (1st place winner), Richard Abraham (2nd place), and Hilari Baranco (3rd place)!

Number of plein air paintings made: 8
Number of lunch visits made to Bon Creole: 3
Number of shrimp eaten: dozens and dozens, large and small
Locals who gave me nothing but kind and encouraging words in passing: countless

Shadows-On-The-Teche Plein Air 2015 (part 1)

A plein air competition took place on April 11-18 in New Iberia, La, and I was lucky enough to be a part of this inaugural event. About 30 artists from south Louisiana and St. Paul, MN participated in this competition and my teacher Phil Sandusky was the judge.

Shadows-On-The-Teche visitor center

poster for the event!

artist's pass got us into historic houses and gardens for free

New Iberia is a little over 2 hours' drive west from New Orleans, and I had visited its historic downtown twice before, during my post-Katrina refugee days almost 10 years ago (we lived in nearby St. Martinville up on La 31 for 4 months). And what was different this time?

cue "Storm Warning" by Mac Rebennack

Solid dark clouds with rainstorms. Oh and some thunder and lightning, as well as a flash flood warning almost every day. The sun came out behind thick clouds for about 4 hours total in 7 days. It rained so hard for so long, the toilet stopped flushing in the low-lying area where I was staying. Naturally the water on Bayou Teche was unusually high.

the most inaccessible handicap parking

nutria! and little... ducks?

On Thursday afternoon, Phil did a painting demonstration in the rain under the Steamboat Pavilion in Bouligny Plaza right next to the bayou.

initial block-in

adding electricity

masterpiece!

I will upload some of the paintings I've done during the event on the next post. Stay tuned!

Fore!

The last time I was painting with 6 other people at Audubon Park in New Orleans, I heard a golf club hitting a ball, then "fore!" - followed by something coming through the oak tree branches above.

Luckily the ball went past me and hit the ground 15 feet away.

Audubon Park has a golf course that is always full of local and visiting golfers. I don't know how to play golf but I can tell by the number of times I heard the word "fore!" that most players there aren't going pros anytime soon.

Japanese Maple
oil on panel, 16"x12" 

Orange Street, New Orleans

Orange Street in New Orleans is only 9 blocks long, but has a long history. According to John Chase's book Frenchmen, Desire, Good Children, the street was named "because it ran through the orange grove which the Jesuit fathers planted when once this region was part of their vast plantation." The region now is part of Lower Garden District, where you see street names like Race, Annunciation, Market, St. James, St Thomas, Celeste, and Constance. Only after I read the book in 1998 I found out why that coffee shop on Race at Magazine was called Rue de la Course. (The cafe is now called Mojo.)

That whole area has seen a renaissance since Louisiana's tax incentive towards film productions brought in young people from out of town, who have jobs and enough money to eat out and buy new clothes. After we moved out of that neighborhood, at least 2 Vietnamese restaurants have opened up, as well as one super high-end coffee shop, hip clothing boutiques, salons, iPhone repair place, a pub, more clothing boutiques, more coffee shops, a bike shop, and a crap load of Air BnB hosts.  The houses are being fixed up and repainted, and it just feels a lot livelier now than when I lived there.

Orange near Constance, New Orleans
oil on canvas, 18"x24"

I have a stack of reference photos that I flip through when it's raining, or when the windchill is below 30 degrees. The painting above was done this morning when it was sooooo cold, my husband looked me in the eyes and said "you know it's like -1 degree celsius," in case I didn't understand the seriousness of the windchill in fahrenheit. So I stayed inside and painted from a photograph, probably about 3 years old. I've painted the same block, around the time that photo was taken.

Purple Wall on Orange Street
oil on canvas, 18"x24"

It must have been a trash pick-up day.

Hot Dog Stand at City Park

Once upon a time, there was a place where people gathered to play and have fun; young and old, rich and poor, people with different backgrounds. Then a hurricane named Katrina came and this magical place was filled with water. Trees died, structures sat in the mud for days, if not for weeks. After a while the residents were allowed back into the city, and they cleared the debris and overgrown weeds.

The golf courses at City Park is one of the four public courses in Orleans Parish, and there are only two courses in the East Bank. This is an abandoned hot dog stand that used to serve drinks and snacks to golfers who couldn't, or didn't want to play at any of the private courses in this region.

Hot Dog Stand, City Park, New Orleans
oil on canvas, 16"x22"

The golf complex at City Park used to have three 18-hole courses before the hurricane. They made a lot of money for the city who is notoriously underfunded, even before the hurricane. If your neighborhood is dark at night, or your street has many potholes, wouldn't you want your city to have enough funding to take care of them?

Bywater and Black Pearl

From Bywater, Black Pearl feels as if it's at the end of the world. Geographically New Orleans isn't that large but if you bicycle along the Mississippi River, it's not easy getting to one from the other. So other than having cool names, what do Bywater and Black Pearl have in common?

Dauphine and Piety, Bywater, New Orleans
oil on board, 12"x16"

Benjamin and Cherokee, Black Pearl, New Orleans
oil on board, 10"x8"

Those are the places where you get pooped on by little birds while painting.

I didn't take pictures of them. But in Bywater, I was spared while my palette was not so lucky.
In Black Pearl, my palette AND a left sleeve of my jacket fell victim to this capital offense.
It's been 7 years since I started painting on location, and it happened twice within a month of each other. If it is a sign of once-every-7-years good luck and/or rite of passage, I'll take it. Bring it on!

Negative Space

"Negative Space, in art, is the space around and between the subject(s) of an image." (wikimedia)

Wikimedia also mentions that "The use of negative space is a key element of artistic composition. The Japanese word 'ma' is sometimes used for this concept, for example in garden design."

I've never heard anyone use the Japanese word "ma" instead of "negative space" yet, but it must be some kind of a new, hip thing to say, along with "umami" and some other Japanese words that I can't think of right now. I would use the word "ma" in terms of passing of time, like a pause, mainly in a conversation or in a stand-up comedy, but not when explaining visual elements.
Anyway.
Here is something I painted recently in the Bywater.

Burgundy near Clouet, New Orleans
oil on canvas, 14"x18"

I have to thank Dominique for mentioning those magic words, "negative space" to me. That made me remember that I was Japanese after all, and I should know a thing or two about negative space. Then I went outside and found this location, that screamed NEGATIVE SPACE!!!

Thank you Dominique, for the reminder, AND adopting this painting.