Painting the “100-Mile View” in Virginia City

Plein Air Convention paint-out — Eric Rhoads and friends ~ many of us wore our cowboy hats and bandanas to add to the fun!

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On our second paint-out of the 12th Annual Plein Air Convention & Expo, several buses of artists wound our way up through the mountains surrounding Reno to Virginia City, a mining town established in 1859.

Because the city was so happy to have us visit and paint their town and views, they offered official city docents to ride along on our tour buses to share the history of the area on our way to and from the painting sites. “Get ready for an inspiring and educational experience,” Eric Rhoads said as we prepared for the day during Home Room.

The "100-mile view" from Virginia City — The “100-mile view” from Virginia City, Nevada

Goeff Allen painting the street scene of old town Virginia City

Instead of painting on location at this adventure, Mark Shasha stopped to help out others along the boardwalk in front of the variety shops.

And some painters took their easels inside to the Bucket of Blood Saloon to paint an interior scene. Virginia City is just about 35 minutes from Reno, and well worth the beautiful drive to get there!

Kyle Ma was part of a small group of painters that had two actors as models at an outdoor reenactment theater.

Highlights from the Plein Air Convention stages:

“Night skies are muted, and don’t need a lot of color,” Mike Hernandez advised during his Main Stage demo using acrylic and gouache to paint a nocturne. Mike told us he was using the gouache, which “wants to be opaque and transparent,” more like watercolor for this demo.

Mike Hernandez painting (left), with a detail of the initial stage (right)

Motivational speaker Farraday Williams shared an energetic and inspiring story about how he survived getting shot five times, resulting in what he now thinks of as a period of his life that was still a blank canvas.

"Watercolor is the gentlest of mediums," Joseph Zbukvic said during his demonstration. "Every painting you do, unless it's a portrait or an interior with a shallow space, needs to have the background, middle ground, and foreground." He explained that the foreground takes us into the picture, the background can be a loose indication of a building, for example, and the middle ground is there to take your eye into the painting. "It's job is to be interesting and well done," he added. — “Watercolor is the gentlest of mediums,” Joseph Zbukvic said during his demonstration. “Every painting you do, unless it’s a portrait or an interior with a shallow space, needs to have the background, middle ground, and foreground.” He explained that the foreground takes us into the picture, the background can be a loose indication of a building, for example, and the middle ground is there to take your eye into the painting. “It’s job is to be interesting and well done,” he added.

Bill Davidson - Plein Air Convention — Bill Davidson led into his “Sky High Magic” session by humbly sharing “how bad I really was [in the beginning] and what happened to me along the way so that you’ll feel comfortable with making a complete fool of yourself like I do.” He added that painting is “a tremendous joy, and you need to be able to laugh at yourself.”

Plus:

John MacDonald led a demo on painting subtractively — adjusting values and rendering forms by removing paint, allowing the white of the canvas to be revealed. It results in cleaner color and brilliant darks. John used a limited palette of translucent pigments and a variety of tools to remove the paint.

Mary Garrish gave a step-by-step demo on how to design trees, starting from thumbnails, to studies, and finally to a finished painting.

In the Plein Air Convention Expo Hall, Charlie Easton set up to paint a large-scale acrylic landscape. Here, faculty member Suzanne Gibson (an art teacher with two of her students here on scholarship), stops to say hello. — In the Expo Hall, Charlie Easton set up to paint a large-scale acrylic landscape. Here, faculty member Suzanne Gibson (an art teacher with two of her students here on scholarship), stops to say hello.

Throughout the day we also enjoyed sessions with Samantha Williams-Chapelsky, Beth Bathe, Amanda Houston, William (Bill) Schneider, Ryan Jensen, Lon Brauer, Frank Eber, Richie Vios, Pierre Guidetti, Steve Mitchell, Ben Knox, Karen Ann Hitt, Melanie Levitt, and Paul Kratter. And later in the evening, Lori McNee and Shanna Kunz led a helpful critique session. Eric Rhoads also led an informative Art Marketing Boot Camp session for those wanting advice on selling their art.

We even had a live recording of the newly launched Pastel Podcast with Harley Brown, hosted by Kari Stober and Lisa Skelly. During the interview, Harley’s counterpart, Balinofski, made his first public appearance ever!

"I've been painting my whole life, but that doesn't mean I've always known exactly what to do," said Toni Deruntz. "Some of the most interesting things I learned at this conference was about changing the colors just a little bit when you're covering a large area, just to make it a little bit more interesting. I was also looking at Cindy Baron's work, and she showed me a new technique that I've probably never seen before." Plein Air Convention — “I’ve been painting my whole life, but that doesn’t mean I’ve always known exactly what to do,” said Toni Deruntz. “Some of the most interesting things I learned at this conference was about changing the colors just a little bit when you’re covering a large area, just to make it a little bit more interesting. I was also looking at Cindy Baron’s work, and she showed me a new technique that I’ve probably never seen before.”

Each morning of the PACE starts with a complimentary breakfast, followed by “Home Room,” where we get daily schedule updates, dance (!), and spin the Prize Wheel. On Wednesday’s giveaway, Karen Gipson won a trip to Fall Color Week in Door County.

Karen Gipson entered her PACE raffle ticket and pulled the tag for a trip to Fall Color Week! Plein Air Convention — Karen Gipson entered her PACE raffle ticket and pulled the tag for a trip to Fall Color Week!

“Oh, it was so exciting,” Karen said. “I think my name was the last name to call, and I have been to Wisconsin before, but not in the fall, so I’m really looking forward to that.” This is Karen’s second time attending PACE, and she added that she plans to attend more Streamline events because they’re “absolutely the best. Last year was so fantastic. I ran, ran, ran from one demo to another and wish I could have done twice as much.”