Recently my students wanted to participate in the Great Outdoor Art Contest at the T.C. Steele state park in Brown County Indiana. I had gone there many times and didn’t feel like painting at that place again. It is a nice place with lots of trees and flowers. It is where the home and studio of the late T.C. Steele is. He was a famous painter.
I told my students we could go there and paint, but I would just stay in the parking lot and do paintings of the cars. That’s just what I did. There were around a hundred artists there. We all painted for a few hours, then our paintings were judged. Guess what? I got third place. That’s kind of funny, considering I was being stubborn and didn’t want to paint what everybody else did. Here is the photo of me from the newspaper article as I painted:
I used the technique I always use. Instead of thinking about painting cars, I looked for shapes. I saw shapes of light blue, of dark green, of brown, etc. I drew the shapes on the canvas, then filled them in with the colors. It worked again like putting together a puzzle. Keep in mind I only worked on this for about two hours.
Maybe I was stubborn, but at least I had fun.
Comments on Great Outdoor Art Contest
Sarah @ 7:51 am
This is what I love about you as an artist, you are always looking for art in whatever you see. You are different, and different is obviously very good!
Christine @ 8:13 am
I love how cars are always a theme, even when your painting buildings, etc. After all, I just found out how much you loved cars with that big album you kept from growing up that had all the info about cars. I think it is fun that you decided to paint something different than everybody else.
Jennifer @ 9:45 am
Isn’t this what art is all about? Seeing beauty and interest in the everyday?
Susie @ 12:51 pm
If this is being stubborn, keep it up 🙂 Who would have thought that a painting of parked cars could be so full of personality and color? Obviously, the news photographer found you a more interesting subject than all of the others painting the usual landscape. You stand out from the rest. No wonder people love your paintings!
Jared @ 7:50 pm
It is great that during a paint out where landscape is such a theme, you are looking at a different type of landscape.