A summer day plein air painting

In mid July I visited a fantastic exhibition at Casa de Colon, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. "El Paisaje" (the landscape) exhibition paintings belong to Casa de Colon. This selection of paintings about landscapes of Canary Islands and travel memoirs of Canarian artists from Galicia, Basque country, and Italy, ( from late 19th century until 70's). As I am very into outdoor paintings lately, it was great to see these landscape paintings. 

See more info at http://www.casadecolon.com/

  'San Cristóbal más hacia el sur' by Francisco Suárez León 

[Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1865-1934]

(1910. Óleo sobre lienzo)

The other day, we had picnic at the park with the family and kids. Our youngest niece Pili and I drew with oil pastels and had lots of fun. Children loves oil pastels. See her drawing below. It was very windy day, so I chose sitting on the grass and drawing with the pastels. Unfortunately all summer will be like this windy. The wind will go away in September. We have been working on a guerrilla French box for outdoor painting. I will post the result soon, come back soon and have a great week!

Drawing of my niece (5 years old)

 work in progress

"A summer day at Arinaga Park", oil pastel on paper

5,50" x 8,25" (15 x 21 cm), July 2015

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How to paint en plein air in the windy season

Last week I was very busy working at the studio and outside as well. We are in the windy season in our neighborhood, I tried to draw outside but it was almost impossible. So, I decided to work from the balcony and inside from our car. (see pics below) I used oil pastels and watercolors medium. Oil pastel technique is much more time consuming process than the watercolors. So, I had to work one hour for the first half of the drawing and next day comeback at same time to finish the other half of it. 

Work in progress first day

Work in progress second day

"Playa del Burrero from Gemma's balcony"

by Birsen Ozbilge, Oil pastel on pastel paper, 

12,5" x 9,5" (32 x 24 cm.), July 2015

In these extreme windy days, I try to work in any alternative ways in order to get the plein air experience. See pic below.

work in progress

"Faro de Arinaga" by Birsen Ozbilge, watercolor on paper, 

11" x 8,6" (28 cm. x 22,9 cm.), July 2015

I have been working on a still-life oil painting for a while. Finally I completed this piece called "Turkish coffee". All the objects are gifts from my mother except the wooden peg. A 150 years old antique pink silk shawl which was a gift to my grandmother from her father-in-law once and later on a gift to my mother from her. My mother also gave this beautiful shawl to me for my dowry in the 80's. She was very happy seeing all these things that I was using them for my painting. I filmed and edited the work in progress and shared it at my YouTube Channel (watch it below). This piece is available at my SHOP. I accept all major credit cards and ship worldwide with tracking number. Let me know if you have any questions. Have a great week!

Work in progress

Detail

"Turkish Coffee" by Birsen Ozbilge, 

Oil on canvas sheet, 42 x 29,5  cm
 Available, click on SHOP to purchase

Watch this still-life Oil painting demo clip

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New Oil Pastel Drawing "Kitchen Stories"

Last Sunday, we were invited for a dinner at one of our dear friend's summer apartment in El Burrero. As I have the confidence to my friend, I took the oil pastels with me, knowing that I will create another kitchen story artwork from our lives in this peaceful and lovely place. Since my friend is an easy going person who cooks and entertains her guests at the same time, in the mean time, I set the composition and layed the tonal degrees of the main objects with pastels and also I took several reference photos before my light got disappeared. Later on I used them for reference pics in order to complete it. When you draw from live objects, you use your personal eye perspective view in the composition. However the camera objectives distort the objects and give awkward perspectives. Same thing with the colors, it can trick your eye... The best is paint what you see first, not copy completely from a picture. 

work in progress

detail

"Kitchen Stories" by Birsen Ozbilge, June 2015

Oil pastel on pastel paper, 9,5" x 12,5" (24 x 32 cm.) SOLD

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