Lockport Nature Trail in April

One of our early Spring paintouts was in Lockport, the trees were just budding but the forest floor had Trillium galore, ferns unrolling, critters scampering and birds singing.

Apparently, looking at these photos, Lockport Nature Trail is a truly beautiful place to walk and paint, but it is big. I heard from one painter who worked there but couldn't find the group, she said it was lovely. 

Cherry Blossom Festival, 2 Saturdays

Early May brings Spring and cherry blossoms to Western New York and plein air painters to the History Museum in Buffalo. The 2nd annual Cherry Blossom festival coincided with spectacular sunny weather. On the first Saturday the blossoms were beginning to open and a week later they were in full fashion and breezes brought the petals shimmering across the entire landscape. Painters from 'Niagara Painters' joined us on the second visit.

 Jeannette Pikturna had a lot of visitors from her spot on the path near the islands. Two of these pastel paintings are in the NACC show, through June.

 Paulette Jurek was there with the bonsai society, I caught her fishing for water for those elegant miniature trees.

 These two photos show the difference between morning and afternoon light in the same spot, with Kathy Schifano's painting in progress on her pochade.

Fellow artist and Artsphere Gallery owner Doreen showed up with her student, Margaret.

Pushing the boundary with materials

Super cold February, with an average temperature of 11 degrees didn't keep the painters in their studios. We had a 'show and tell' session of works created from Sandy Heath's hand made paper. December 2013 she brought in a set of various and textured colored papers made from recycled cotton with Linda Piper. Each artist selected one with a year to decide how to use it.
Paulette J, Jean, Linda, Sandy, Diane, Sherrill, Joan and Paulette R, photo by Kathy.

 

Our host, Sherrill treated us with a delicious and unusual cake from a recipe she learned on her recent African trip, the unfamiliar flavor of an African liquor made a delicious and interesting dessert.

THis snapshot collections shows the range os uses of the natural deckle edge rag papers, including painting, drawing, reverse views and framing.

Ready to paint out yet?

Board News

The NFPAP wishes all of you a healthy and happy new plein air painting year! We thank everyone for pitching in to make 2014 a memorable year. We have good reason to think the coming year will hold a store of rich memory making paint outs.

From the outset the focus of NFPAP has been to encourage artists to engage in active outdoor painting & sketching. Over the years organizational concerns have been kept to a minimum. The official board is small but growing. Since sponsoring art shows requires more input from members, another committee was formed this year. The NFPAP welcomes Donna Hale as our new Exhibition Chair.

NFPAP board met on January 13th to stir the pot and bring up new ideas for 2015. You will be be hearing more about these soon. Stay tuned.

Board members for 2105: Donna Hale - exhibitions, Kathy Schifano - secretary, Joan Turrell - treasurer, Sherrill Primo- vice president, Joan Shaw - president.

Lock Side Art Center & NFPAP

Lock Side Art Center is a lovely new gallery  at 21-41 Main Street, Lockport NY. Our "Plein Air Perceptions" exhibit fills the walls with work by our NFPAP painters, 2 from each artist. Three different rooms showed off the paintings of a variety of locations we painted together as well as some done on our travels.

The second photo shows Paulette Arida, Manning McCandlish and Mary Jane Luce enjoying a conversation without brushes at the reception. We always meet and get to work painting so it was a pleasure to have time to chat and catch up as well as enjoy the artwork. The show runs from October 31 to November 22.

Lock Side Art Center

This invitation says it all. We had three wonderful seasons of painting, some weeks had two or even three paintouts scheduled, but only a few images of our adventures were posted here. This new show will feature our artists' work in Lockport, at a lovely new gallery, Lock Side Art Center, also on Facebook. It just opened to great reviews in July, come join us there.

World Wide Paintout

Back to Niagara Falls for our annual Niagara Frontier Plein Air Painters World Wide Paintout. It was a briskly chilly day and we all thought summer was over, fortunately we have had two weeks of near summer warm after this.

Sponsored by the International Plein Air Painters, groups gather all over the world to paint in early September, knowing they are joined in spirit with all the others. Click the links to see how many other groups were also registered.

If you are a member of Facebook, you can see many more photos of artists from Rio De Janiero, British Columbia, Montana, Italy, Florida and lots more. Just click HERE.

Our Niagara Falls group couldn't get themselves together for a group photo, between heading to the cars for more layers and painting in different locations, this is the best we could do. Beverly McIntyre, Linda Piper, Joan Turrell and Kathy Schifano are in this photo along with setups by others who were probably drinking hot coffee, all NFPAP members, but we also had a visitor who plein air paints in Wisconsin!

 Diane Goupil

 Linda Piper with Beverly, standing

 Joan Turrell and her new fantastic pastel set up.

 Linda Piper

Linda's pastel painting in progress

September at Bond's Lake

Sometimes there is a breeze, but we always seem to have great weather at Bond's Lake and this September event was no exception. If you were chilly in the shade, step into the sunlight and if the sun was too warm, there was shade nearby. IN the distance there was a bit of color just beginning inthe trees, the greens of summer were more varied and of course, lunch was wonderful.

The single photo shows Anne Zohur who continued to paint through lunch. The group photo is Michelle Marcotte, our newest member, Joan Turrell, Kathy Schifano, Sherrill Primo and Diane Goupil.

River Lea on Grand Island

River Lea is a historic homestead on the grounds of Grand Island's Beaver Island State Park. Nestled at the southern tip of the island, it faces the Niagara River. Open for special events during the year, the historical society maintains River Lea and the grounds. Just another perfect day to paint en plein air. All the painters were amazed at the marvels of Grand Island, it's not just the road to Buffalo or Niagara Falls!

 Donna Hale

 Linda Ludwig

 Joan Turrell

 Jean MacDonald

 Paulette Jurek and furry friend