Plein Air Painting Season

 It's officially Spring, although it's below freezing outside and yesterday we had snow. So I'll probably have to dress warm for the first few plein air events of the season. In the next few weeks, I'll be painting en plein air at events in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, in addition to teaching workshops for the Hawaii Watercolor Society and the Art Guild of Louisiana. Then in June, it's off to France for four weeks! Both of my workshops in France are full, but you can add your name to the waiting list for a chance to join me in the Sennelier invitational trip! 

Beach, 9x12 acrylic by Annie Strack

I taught an acrylic painting workshop for the Salem County Art league in New Jersey last weekend. The focus of the class was techniques, with emphasis on properties and uses of mediums and auxiliaries. Everyone did a fabulous seascape painting while learning how to use the paints and mediums that were provided. The painting (above) is my demonstration form that workshop. Everyone enjoyed it so much, we will probably do another acrylic workshop soon.

Judy's Flowers, 12x9 watercolor, Annie Strack

My dear friend Judy Saltzman sent me a lovey bouquet of flowers as a thank you for helping her Chair the National Watercolor Society exhibitions, and I could't wait to paint them! 

Daffodils, 9x12 watercolor, Annie Strack

I'm the featured artist and painting live en plein air at the Daffodil event on April 25th at Winterthur! Be get your tickets for this fun event to enjoy the wine tasting and garden stroll while the daffodils are at their peak.

Skimmer and Tern, 14x20 watercolor, Annie Strack

I'm also busy painting more shorebirds, in preparation for a major solo exhibition in August, 2023, at the Patuxent River National Refuge Gallery in Washington, DC. The theme of my show is 'Spotlight on Coastal Habitats' and will consist of about three dozen paintings of shorebirds and their related habitats. I'll have more details when we get closer to the date. 

new workshops, and new jobs!

 Spring season is off to busy start! I've been busy assisting the National Watercolor Society's juried members exhibit, and now I'm getting ready to start working on the annual NWS international show. It opens for entries in just a couple of weeks! In the meantime, I was also asked to consider the position of Web Director for the NWS. A big job, and it took me a while to think about it, but I finally decided to jump in and do it. So, I'm apprenticing for that job, too, and I'll take it over later in the year. fortunately for me, both jobs are on web platforms that I'm already adept at administering and I'm experienced using the software. I had a lot of anxiety about taking on another job, but now that I've committed to it, that's been replaced by excitement.

I added another ONLINE workshop! Painting Koi in Watercolor is a 2-day online workshop, May 18-19, 2022, hosted by the Art Guild of Louisiana. This is going to fill up fast, so be sure to bookmark this link so you can sign up as soon as registration opens. 

There's only a couple of spaces left in the online workshop for Hawai'i Watercolor Society, April 2-3, 2022. Register here! 

Next weekend I'm teaching Acrylic Painting Workshop for the Salem County Art League in New Jersey. That workshop is full up, and I'm looking forward to another great workshop with this group! I'm also giving away door prizes to artists in this workshop -- an aluminum easel, a french easel, a pochade box, and a tabletop easel. 

And then I'll be in France for a whole month this summer, leading two back-to-back workshops with Sennelier! There is still room for two more artists to join us, June 22 - July 1st. Click here for more information!