In Spite of Everything...

"Still Standing" an original oil painting by Bonnie Mason 8x24"

There it stands on the hill

Where it has stood for so many

Bone chilling winters, so many

Blistering hot summers,

So many gently blessed springs

and crisp autumn harvests.

And there it is...

Still Standing.

This and 9 other of my recent paintings will be on exhibit at the Jefferson Center from November 16 - January 15, 2016 for the Double Line Painters of the Blue Ridge holiday show. Please join us there for a reception on Sunday, November 29th from 2 to 4 pm as we celebrate the season and thank you our supporters, family and friends.

Fall Fireworks!

                       "Bright Autumn" won an award of merit at the Barns of Bedford show!

I love this time of year. The cool sunny days are perfect for plein air painting- unless you have a cold! Since I can't be out there I've spent some time updating my website with several new paintings. The painting above was begun as a demo on the deck at the Little Gallery. I'm always amazed when a demo turns out well because I find it difficult to concentrate on painting and talking at the same time!

"A Golden Day"

This 11x14" painting of a pathway around the lake at Fairystone State Park was a lot of fun and seemed to almost paint itself. This is a great time of year to visit the state parks here in Virginia.

"Fall Fireworks"

Our local greenway is a wonderful place to walk, visit with friends and paint! This piece is a little more loose and wild than usual for me- and I enjoyed every minute of it. Hope you do, too :)

Be sure to check out all the new paintings on my website ( http://www.bmasonart.com ) and leave a comment below if you have a favorite!

The Zorn Color Palette

Last week after experimenting with the Zorn palette of colors during a plein air session I painted this chart on a scrap piece of canvas. My husband had a good idea (because I have a habit of making these charts) that I could punch holes in the sides and keep them in a 3 ring binder - which I thought was a great idea! Its not perfectly balanced in hues or values but was a great learning tool. A nice side effect was that I ended up with good size piles of all the colors to use on some backyard plein air pieces.

"Down the Path" on 6x8" canvas panel

"Down the Path" is a 2 hour sketch of a view into the garden from my kitchen window. It was a cold drizzly day so I was glad to have something I could paint from inside. One morning a few days later I painted the garden bench from up in my studio. It was a sunny day but very windy and cold. The red oak leaf hydrangea leaves were stealing the show. Reds seem to really pop in this palette of colors so I probably should have toned it down a bit, but had fun just letting the colors fly!

"Stealing the Show" on a 6x8" canvas panel

The Zorn palette consists of Ivory Black, Cadmium Red Medium (which I didn't have so I used Grumbacher Red), Yellow Ochre and Titanium White. I've been working on a larger studio piece of a foggy autumn day using these colors and will share it next time if all goes well. Thanks for stopping in!

A First Time for Everything :)

Today was a wonderful day to be outdoors painting! It started out a bit windy and cold but the sun warmed us up pretty quickly. The Double Line Painters obtained permission to paint from the R R Donnelly parking lot area and met there at 10:20 this morning. I decided to use the Zorn palette today. I had always meant to try it out in autumn but also - I was feeling wimpy and didn't relish the thought of  lugging 20 tubes of paint along! The Zorn palette consists of Ivory Black, Cadmium Red Medium, Yellow Ochre and Titanium White. No Blue.

This was the view I painted- after rearranging a few things:)  As you can see, there is a good bit of blue in the scene-although not as much in real life as there appears to be in the photo. Amazingly, when you mix ivory black with white it is blue compared to the other colors. In my sketch below (which took about an hour and 15 minutes) you can see this first attempt at using such a limited palette.

I have a lot to learn about how to use this palette of colors and plan to make a chart this week so as to better understand its possibilities. In my next blog I'll share the chart and any further "experiments".

Hope you have a great weekend! -  Bonnie

Bonnie Mason has a blog now!!!

"By the Greenway in Autumn"

This is my first blog post and I haven't figured it all out yet so -- this is a TEST! This painting is an original oil painting size 14x11"  and is now  on display at The Little Gallery at Smith Mountain Lake in Southwest Virginia. Please go by and tell the staff you saw this on my new blog!