A Day In The Loft Discovering this undisturbed loft in an abandoned barn in South Jersey set me to remembering my childhood days playing with my friends in just such an environment. The intense heat mixed with the buzzing of bees and the smell of honeysuckle made this particular sketching day unforgettable.
Beth's Old House Ever fascinated by the forgotten dreams of man, I approached this once lovely old house with confidence, and sketched it to completion on a dry, sunny summer day. A teaching colleague happened by in her car, amazed to find me studying the old house about which she had long been curious. Her name was Beth, so I named the artwork after her. The textured pastel paper in dark terra cotta color can be seen shimmering through the pastel chalk, commenting on the heat of the day. The hole in the roof beckoned me to return the very next day to pursue "A Day In The Attic", which produced another piece of fine art, and an absolutely terrific sketching experience.
Glad Gathering I passed this field dedicated to gladiolus production on my way to work for a number of years, and its annual harvest inspired me to plan a future day of plein air sketching that would be called "Glad Gathering". Once I finally chose a 1991 summer day to commit to the work, I was delighted to learn that the field worker gathering glads into the truck was named Chris too.
Love Denied During a particularly difficult stretch of time, my title "Love Denied" first emerged as a poem. I set the poem to music and created a song, orchestrating it in Apple's Logic Pro. When this pastel by the same name emerged, I prepared the sunset sky first in the studio, and then brought it outside to the setting where farm gate, field and distant woods were completed on site in a single afternoon.
Red Window Usually barns are painted red, but not this one. Located on a country lane not far from my house in South Jersey, the apple green barn was outfitted with one red window frame which spoke volumes of the painterly touch of the farmer. It appealed to me too as my summer of sketching days drew to a close.
Vermont Creek
In retrospect, carrying my art supplies up a steep mountain creek seems like an impossibility now, but in my glory days as a plein air artist I most certainly made half a dozen trips to this mountainous area of northern Vermont on the Canadian border. Being alone in the wild is an intoxicating experience, and bringing home a completed sketch even more so.
To make the transition between studio artwork and plein air sketching, I remember limiting the size of my outdoor sketch board to 11" x 15". The single most important requirement was to finish the work in a given 3 to 5 hour sketching episode, never re-touching it even once in the studio.
This "Vermont Creek" pastel measures a grand 17" x 25", and was completed in one outdoor session in 1995. It is a testament to the skill I developed as a plein air artist in a decade's time.
Christopher Andrew Maier 