Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Gettysburg Festival Artist's Colony

There have been a lot of great posts here about the Gettysburg Fringe Festival and I enjoy seeing them all.
I was also in Gettysburg this past week, but I was involved in the Artist's Colony which was separate from the Fringe paint out.  The colony was a juried group of just 10 painters who lived together and painted in the Gettysburg area for 5 days.  It was a wonderful, intense sharing which reminded me of my art school days.  The focus of the experience was not so much on producing paintings to sell, but rather to learn and grow as artists.  One of the highlights for me were the two days of workshop with Bill Schmidt.  Bill was an excellent instructor.  He had us paint on 16x20 canvases, which is much larger than I am used to for plein air work, and I also tried a lot of things that I was not necessarily comfortable with because I really wanted to get the most from the learning experience.  From the 5 days of painting I have 7 good pieces started that I can hopefully finish in my studio and post at a later time.  This painting I am posting is the only one which I felt was completed.  It was painted in a short hour long session and depicts the famous Lincoln Square in Gettysburg.  I have donated this painting to the Gettysburg Festival.  It will be auctioned in an event this fall to raise money to help continue this wonderful colony experience.

Lincoln Square
11x14 plein air oil

If you would like to see more of my work please visit my website www.julieriker.com

6 comments:

Dianne Lorden said...

Julie, what a lovely painting to create in an hour - amazing! The colors are surely vibrant, and yet somehow they have a nostalgic feeling to them. I love it! And it was also so nice to see you at the Railroad Station.

Claire Beadon Carnell said...

The art colony is a fantastic experience, especially bonding with your fellow artists and the sharing of knowledge and creative ideas - I am so glad you participated this year, Julie! I also think that painting every day is the best teacher there is.
This is a beautiful painting, and very generous of you to donate it to the festival.

Autumn Leaves said...

So beautiful! I love the lampposts especially.

Julie Riker said...

Thanks ladies!

Mary Beth Brath said...

Love it Julie. It looks even better in person. So happy you enjoyed the colony.

Ron Donoughe said...

Sounds like a good experience Julie.