What do you see? I’d like to know! And an Events Calendar

Tags

.corricks.com, abstract sensibility, art, artist in residence, Artists Round Table, California, Chroma Gallery, colorist, commissions, demonstrations, drawing, Dutton-Goldfield Winery, gallery, Graton Gallery, landscapes, Marsha Connell, Mendocino Art Center, nature, oils, open studio, painterly, paintings, Pepperwood Preserve, scientific inquiry, sketching, Sonoma county, techniques, watercolor

A visitor to my current exhibit at Dutton Goldfield Winery wrote to me, “Thank you for bringing me into your world through your art. I’m swimming in colors!” Another viewer said, “Wonderful! Your work has a lot of movement and is emotionally evocative!”

Once I was painting at a rambling old farm with multiple buildings surrounded by hills.  I was intrigued by how two barns framed the landscape behind, the shape of the space in between the structures, the abstract puzzle of it all, the color, the quality of the light. The farmer came up behind me, watching, thinking, and finally observed “I’ve lived here fifty years and I’ve never seen what you see!”

What do you see when you view my paintings? I’d like to know your experience. If putting this into words intrigues you, please drop me a line, or a poem.

Here’s some settings where you can view my art in person, a listing so far for 2016. Workshops and lectures, too. Several shows include a lot of other artists’ fine and varied works. You can also visit the virtual galleries here on this blog site. Enjoy!

January 22 –March 14, 2016  Open daily 10am to 4:30pm
Dutton-Goldfield Winery
COAST AND COUNTRYSIDE: MARSHA CONNELL’S
PLEIN AIR LANDSCAPES OF SONOMA, MARIN and
MENDOCINO
3100 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472

SMALL WORKS SHOWS 2016
1. Jan­­-Feb 28 Th-Sat 10:30-5, Sun 10:30-4
Graton Gallery

2. Feb 4-Mar 5 Th-Sat 11-4, Sun 11-2
Chroma Gallery
312 South A Street, Santa Rosa, CA

Friday, April 1, 2016. 7 pm lecture. Open house 6:30 pm, Dwight Center
Pepperwood Preserve
DISCOVER NATURE: THE SYNERGY OF ART AND SCIENCE Come with all your senses tuned for a lecture and visual tour of Pepperwood’s 3,200 acre preserve. Shawn Brumbaugh, Santa Rosa Junior College biology instructor joins artist Marsha Connell on a painting and drawing journey observing and interpreting Pepperwood’s majestic landscapes and discussing the historical importance of sketching to document scientific inquiry.

April 16–17, 2016
Mendocino Art Center online registration
LIVELY PASTELS: A COLORFUL EXPLORATION
Instructor: Marsha Connell
Pastels are one of the purest forms of artists’ colors. We’ll explore energetic, “painterly” approaches to using these beautiful pigments while learning about pastel techniques and materials.

Sunday, May 15, 2016, 9 am – 3 pm
Pepperwood Preserve   RESERVE NOW >
LANDSCAPE PAINTING WORKSHOP: OBSERVATION AND EXPRESSION
Deepen observational skills and express your responses to Pepperwood’s blossoming spring landscape. Explore plein air painting with artist in residence Marsha Connell. Beginning painters learn basics of working in the field. Experienced painters expand your repertoire with support for finding your own voice. Demonstrations in oil but you may use any media.

Wednesday March 2, 1 pm – 2:45 pm
Artists Round Table
DEMONSTRATION: PASTEL INTO OIL
Santa Rosa Veterans Building, 3850 Maple Street.

Sonoma County Art Trails Gallery at Corrick’s
Daily 10-5
FIRST FRIDAY ARTISTS’ RECEPTIONS 5-7pm
637 4th St, Santa Rosa, CA 95404. 707-546-2424

October 8, 9, 15, 16
SONOMA COUNTY ART TRAILS OPEN STUDIOS
My studio is also open year round by appointment.
Studio location: 2180 Beverly Way, Santa Rosa, 95404

*Questions, purchases, commissions, workshops:
contact sponsor or  marsha@marshaconnell.com

MARSHA CONNELL’S ART EVENTS Late 2015-2016

Tags

art, California, drawing, gallery, landscapes, nature, paintings, Pepperwood Preserve, Sonoma county

MARSHA CONNELL’S
ART EVENTS:
Exhibits, Talks, Workshops
December 2015-October 2016

Questions, purchases or commissions, workshops: contact sponsoring organization or marshaconnell.wordpress.com/contact   or   marsha@marshaconnell.com

Now through December 31, 2015
History Museum of Sonoma County  – Gift Shop
A COLLECTION OF MY PAINTINGS, PRINTS AND CARDS
425 7th St, Santa Rosa, CA 95401
Tuesday – Sunday, 11am-5pm

February 20, 2015-January 30, 2016
Sonoma West Medical Center
SONOMA LANDSCAPES: FOUR ARTISTS
501 Petaluma Avenue, Sebastopol, CA
Open 24 hours

November 20-January 16, 2016. Sonoma County Art Trails Gallery at Corrick’s and My Daughter the Framer www.corricks.com
SONOMA COUNTY ART TRAILS GROUP EXHIBIT “INSPIRED BY NATURE” co-sponsored by Pepperwood Preserve.
637 4th St, Santa Rosa, California (707) 546-2424

November 6 – January 3, 2016
The OCA Gallery at Occidental Center for the Arts occidentalcenterforthearts.org
ENERGY MATERIALIZED. Sculptures by Bruce Johnson and Riis Burwell. Abstract paintings juried by Healdsburg gallery owner Paul Mahder. (Honorable mention painting award.) Open F, Sa 11-4, Su 12:30-4:30, by appt and during events. 3850 Doris Murphy Ct., Occidental.

January 9-February 7, 2016
Sebastopol Center for the Arts http://sebarts.org
CALIFORNIA WATERMEDIA EXHIBIT
Juried By Christopher Schink (Merit award)
282 S. High Street, Sebastopol, CA 95472  707.829.4797
Hours: Tuesday – Friday 10am – 4pm / Saturday & Sunday 1 – 4pm

January 22 –March 14, 2016
Dutton-Goldfield Winery www.duttongoldfield.com
COAST AND COUNTRYSIDE: MARSHA CONNELL’S
PLEIN AIR LANDSCAPES OF SONOMA, MENDOCINO and MARIN
Artist’s reception Sunday January 24, 1 pm – 3 pm
3100 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA 95472

Friday, April 1, 2016. 7 pm lecture. Open house 6:30 pm, Dwight Center
Pepperwood Preserve www.pepperwoodpreserve.org/
DISCOVER NATURE: THE SYNERGY OF ART AND SCIENCE Come with all your senses tuned for a lecture and visual tour of Pepperwood’s 3,200 acre preserve. Shawn Brumbaugh, Santa Rosa Junior College biology instructor joins artist Marsha Connell on a painting and drawing journey observing and interpreting Pepperwood’s majestic landscapes and discussing the historical importance of sketching to document scientific inquiry.

April 16–17, 2016
Mendocino Art Center www.mendocinoartcenter.org/
LIVELY PASTELS: A COLORFUL EXPLORATION
Instructor: Marsha Connell
Pastels are one of the purest forms of artists’ colors. We’ll explore energetic, “painterly” approaches to using these beautiful pigments while learning about pastel techniques and materials.

Sunday, May 15, 2016, 9 am – 3 pm
Pepperwood Preserve www.pepperwoodpreserve.org
LANDSCAPE PAINTING WORKSHOP: OBSERVATION AND EXPRESSION
Deepen observational skills and express your responses to Pepperwood’s blossoming spring landscape. Explore plein air painting with artist in residence Marsha Connell. Beginning painters learn basics of working in the field. Experienced painters expand your repertoire with support for finding your own voice. Demonstrations in oil but you may use any media.

Wednesday October 5, 1 pm – 2:45 pm
Artists Round Table www.artsoco.org
DEMONSTRATION: PASTEL INTO OIL
Santa Rosa Veterans Building, 3850 Maple Street.

October 8, 9, 15, 16
SONOMA COUNTY ART TRAILS OPEN STUDIOS
www.sonomacountyarttrails.org
My studio is also open year round by appointment.
Studio location: 2180 Beverly Way, Santa Rosa, 95404

 

Setting up that tasty pastel palette, some technical details

Tags

art, California, cards, Coastal, demonstrate, discussing, drawing, en plein air, Mendocino Art Center, October, open studios, paintings, pastel, Santa Rosa, Sonoma county, techniques, watercolor, weekends, workshop

There will be color hors d’oeuvres and tasty demos of pastel and watercolor at noon each day of my open studio (click for catalog page), Oct 10, 11, 17, 18. Click for map.

I’ve always loved an essay by Henry Miller in “Paint as You Like and Die Happy” about hungry painters discussing the juicy names of colors like hors d’oeuvres!

Here’s the container for my tasty new pastel palette. Good enough to eat?!
I researched many pastel boxes and easels ’til settling on this Heilman backpacking box. I might like a larger box, but not a heavier one. Then I made a switch from my trusty but weighty French easel to an old camera tripod, attaching a “quick release” gadget from the photo store (Glad I brought my filled pastel box and tripod along to work it out.), inserting the Heilman metal easel into the two pre-drilled holes in the opened pastel box. This, theoretically, lightened the potential load by 6 pounds. I attach my Bestbrella to the tripod legs. I can carry all into a deep backpack.

My new plein air pastel set up is a work in progress. It was a dramatic move to peel and break off chunks from my collections of many years, stored in several kinds of boxes, mostly Unison, Rembrandt, Nupastel, Sennelier, with additional samples from Terry Ludwig, Diane Townsend, Schmincke, and more. Sometimes I’ve bought pastels in sets, when they come in their own box, sometimes by the stick. Creating and recreating order after making each painting, light to dark, warm to cool, more or less, and cleaning the pastels to let their color shine through and speak with each other, is an intellectual, meditative and time-taking experience.

  I had my misgivings about the stability of this set-up. So far it held up well painting during Mendocino Open Plein Air, which was a week of extraordinarily calm and sunny coastal weather. http://www.mendocinoartcenter.org/pleinair.

The blue flag was for viewers to find the “celebrity artists”. I was the pastel specialist, a good motivation for setting a deadline to reorganize. And two weeks before I taught a Mendocino Art Center workshop “Lively Pastels”. I’ll teach this again April 16-17, 2016.

It’s harder to detach the box than to set up. Inside, I use a table and/or a studio easel and keep carrying pastel paintings outside to knock off the extra dust between layers.

• 

  Mendocino Art Center, Mendocino Open Paint Out – September 7-12, 2015

  mendocinoartcenter.org

  You might enjoy seeing more examples of pastel set-ups and conversation among artists here: Pastel Society of America
  Adrian Frankel Giuliani
  Yesterday at 1:22pm
  that would be Oct 3, 2015
   

A Tasty Palette: Sample My New Pastels and Oils at My Open Studio

Tags

art, California, Coastal, Corrick's, drawing, gallery, landscapes, Mendocino Art Center, nature, October, oils, open studios, painterly, pastel, Sonoma county, watercolor, weekends

Come sample the dishes that are emerging from my tasty new pastel palette!

MARSHA CONNELL
OPEN STUDIO and SALE #47
October 10-11, 17-18 10am-5pm

Sonoma County Art Trails

New plein air paintings in oil, pastel and watercolor from Northern CA and the Adirondacks

Also art from my collections will be available, some at special prices for my friends and collectors, as I make space for new work, as well as reduce inventory for a potential move. . . . no, we haven’t found just the right place yet and are still looking, especially in west Sonoma County.

This pastel, “Illumination”, painted last month while I was a “celebrity artist” at the Mendocino Open Paintout, can be seen when you visit  my studio.

This pastel, “Headlands West, 3”, can be seen when you visit the Art Trails exhibit at Sebastopol Center for the Arts. Notice the warm feelings of perfect summer days on the Pacific coast, compared with the cooler Adirondack oils below.

SONOMA COUNTY ART TRAILS PREVIEW EXHIBITION

at THE ART TRAILS GALLERY AT CORRICK’S
and MY DAUGHTER THE FRAMER
637 Fourth Street, Downtown Santa Rosa
Reception: Friday, October 2, 5-7pm
Presented by Corrick’s / My Daughter the Framer / Sebastopol Center for the Arts

Enjoy a celebration of creativity with the work of over 80 artists!
Preview here, then select your favorite studios to visit during
the Art Trails weekends, October 10, 11, 17, 18.

Exhibition Dates: Friday, October 2 – Saturday, November 14, 2015

These Adirondack oils, painted this June, sometimes under umbrellas in the rain (imagine that, my drought stricken West Coast friends) at the Publisher’s Invitational Paintout at Paul Smith’s College, can be seen at the Art Trails Gallery at Corricks.

 “Clearing”

“Vivid Darkening” “Rainy River”

The Pastel Society of the West Coast, Featured Artist: Marsha Connell. E-Blast

Tags

abstract sensibility, art, brushstrokes, California, Coastal, colorist, demonstrate, drawing, en plein air, exploration, expressive, gallery, gesture, interior landscape, landscapes, Mendocino Art Center, nature, oils, painterly, paintings, scumbling, Sonoma county, techniques, watercolor, workshop

Thank you Jan Thomas for this excellent interview and introduction to members of the Pastel Society of the West Coast, which I recently joined while attending #PACE15, the Plein Air Convention in Monterey, CA. As it is only available by email, I am republishing the interview here, with Jan’s permission. I’ve added information about the Pastel Society from their website at the end .

Featured Artist: Marsha Connell.
The Pastel Society of the West Coast, E-Blast

 Featured Artist

 Marsha Connell

My paintings are about the spirit of place. Painting on location, en plein air,
 I observe the place: mood, shapes, color, and spatial relationships.
 I reflect on how the sense of place affects my own interior landscape.
 I am attentive to nuances of color and value, but do not require fidelity to local color; expressive color often feels more true. Watching, listening, trusting intuition and gesture, infuse my painterly representation with an abstract sensibility.
–Marsha Connell

When looking at one of Marsha Connell’s expressionist paintings, in both pastel and oil, one can almost see the dancer that she is moving across the surface leaving behind rhythmic nuances of gesture and color.

A plein air painter, Marsha developed a deep connection to the land as a child. Her grandfather, Samuel Riss, a farmer in upstate New York, was also an artist who influenced Marsha’s love of drawing and encouraged her to pursue her craft with diligence and courage. Today, she has shelves of sketchbooks saved from years of sketching outdoors, filled with energetic drawings of landscapes. She says these drawings are dialogs with nature, creating an attachment to the living world, and birthing paintings that portray mood and feeling. Her plein air forays always include sufficient time to roam and to do as many sketches as necessary to get a sense of connection with a place. When she begins to paint, this energy is translated directly to her surface; rarely does she start with an initial drawing. Instead, she relishes the immediacy of putting pigment to paper with a “get it before it’s gone” intensity. Her colors are “responsive to nature”, but she relies on intuition to provide what she feels the painting needs.

Marsha’s first and ongoing love in painting is pastel, for its natural connection to drawing, the immediacy of pure color, the shimmer of its layering, and the convenience of carrying into the landscape. Her natural voice in pastel comes through in her oil and watercolor paintings, especially in the soft edges, visible brush strokes like drawing, and scumbled color over color.

Marsha is a long-time Adjunct Professor of Art at Santa Rosa Junior College and also teaches workshops throughout the year. Her goals as a teacher are to offer people tools and working processes that give them comfort and confidence to explore and create with joy. She supports people in finding their own context and path and their authenticity as artists. While she is happy to demonstrate technique and supplies, she also offers a broader artistic scope, introducing students to the work of other artists, current and past, and inviting dialog that stimulates creativity and expression. She encourages students to take advantage of the workshop setting to try new things, to approach many subjects courageously, and to allow their paintings to be unfinished works in progress.

                               River Passage, 16″ x 20″ – Pastel

Artists at any level seeking to energize their work, or refine their artistic direction, or to simply learn how to use pastels, will want to checkout “Lively Pastels: A Bridge Between Drawing and Painting,” a workshop that Marsha is offering in Mendocino, California, July 31 – August 2, 2015 at the Mendocino Art Center. A charming seaside village, Mendocino offers a wealth of inspiring painting venues: quaint cottages, lush gardens, dramatic bluffs and, of course, the ocean, all within walking distance of the Art Center. Marsha has led workshops and given presentations in many California venues, and also in Mexico, New Mexico, Oregon, New York, Tennessee, Alaska, and France. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows regionally and internationally. More information about the pastel workshop can be found at www.mendocinoartcenter.org/Summer15/Connell.html

Marsha will be a celebrity artist, and give pastel painting demonstrations, for the Mendocino Art Center’s Mendocino Open Paint Out, September 7-12, 2015.

http://www.marshaconnell.com

 Submitted by Jan Thomas

Want to be a Featured Artist on the eBlast? In an effort to get to know you, PSWC will feature a member artist every month in the eBlast. If you would like to be the featured artist in the newsletter, submit your name, telephone number and a photo of your recent work to president@pwcs.ws You will be directed to the website, click on Contact.

Pastel Society of the West Coast
P.O. Box 4518 · Stockton, CA 95204-0518
www.pswc.ws

About Pastel Society of the West Coast

PSWC was organized in 1984 to promote pastel artists and the soft pastel medium.

We offer opportunities for pastel artists through “pastels only” exhibitions in

Membership, International Open Shows
Informative demonstrations by recognized pastel artists.

An emailed Newsletter for pastel artists is included with PSWC membership and all pastelists are invited to join. Pastel workshops, classes, exhibitions and pastel related editorial articles can be found in the newsletter.

PSWC members are from all around the US from New York to California.

The Pastel Society of the West Coast is incorporated as a non-profit organization. The PSWC is run completely by volunteer Board Members and others.

Pastel Society of the West Coast | 7251 Baldwin Dam Road | Folsom | CA | 95630

En plein air and in the studio: Mendocino pastel workshop and more plein air news

Tags

#PACE15, California, Coastal, en plein air, Mendocino Art Center, Monterey, pastel, weekends, workshop

I’ve just returned from 5 days in Monterey at “the Woodstock of plein air painting” with 700+ painters at #PACE15, the 4th Annual Plein Air Convention and Expo. I attended lectures, demos and critiques by many accomplished artists in oil, pastel and watercolor, and painted every afternoon on the beautiful, and windy, central coast of California. I’m refreshed and re-inspired to share the joys of the plein air painting experience with others!

My Spring Retreat at Pepperwood Preserve: Landscape Painting “En Plein Air” is filled! but happily there is still space in my summer Mendocino pastel workshop, en plein air and in the studio. LIVELY PASTELS: BRIDGE BETWEEN DRAWINGS AND PAINTING. July 31–August 2, 2015 (Friday–Sunday, 9:30am–4:30pm) SU15FA513 • For all levels. You can register online @ http://www.mendocinoartcenter.org/Summer15/Connell.html
Or call 707 937-5818, ext. 10. Toll-free 800 653-3328, ext. 10

I’ll be there again for the Mendocino Art Center’s “Mendocino Open Paint Out”, September 7-12. I’m honored to have been invited as one of eight “celebrity artists”. In addition to painting every day on location, in public view with many other painters, I’ll be demonstrating pastel painting and serving as a juror to award prizes to participants. Mendocino boasts a spectacular coastal location and a charming and walkable New England style small town. It would be lovely if you could join us! http://www.mendocinoartcenter.org/pleinair