by Jill Stefani Wagner

"Eden Soaring"   oil   11x14   At the end of September I snuck in one more 2019 plein event. It had been a long season but I couldn't pass up painting the area around Cincinatti with my friends in the Ohio Plein Air Society. They hold this 4-day event every year in a different region of Ohio. This year it was SWELTERING, but fun just the same. Every night, groups of artists would get together to eat, laught and talk art. My idea of heaven. In fact this comradery is every bit as important to me as the actual glorious hours of painting.   The first [...]

  For the last couple of years, I've invited everyone to come to my studio on two days during the Holiday Season. Friends, acquaintances, art patrons, students and family all stopped by to visit and see new work. We had tons of fun. But there were so many people there that I wasn't always able to talk with everyone. And one day there was a blizzard which basically wiped out any travel.   So this year I thought I'd try something a little different for my Open Studio. Instead of holding it on one specific weekend, I'm inviting everyone to come on their [...]

"Petoskey Haze"   oil   9x12   Michigan State Parks turn one hundred years old this year. Let's celebrate!   Landscape artists were invited to paint scenes from over 100 State Parks in our beautiful state. The Great Lakes Plein Air Painters Association was up for the challenge! We painted our diverse recreational areas from October 2018 through September 2019 in groups and individually.   With my crazy plein air schedule, I only managed to squeeze in visits to 3 parks in different areas of the state. In cold, foggy May, I spent a day at Petoskey State Park, capturing the grey mist as it rolled off Lake Michigan. [...]

Part of our jobs as a full-time artists is to get our work out in the world to be seen by art lovers, collectors, galleries and curators. One of the ways to do that is to enter national exhibitions. We decide which shows best suit our style of work, and then we take a chance, send our money and cross our fingers. More often than not, our work is rejected. Hundreds and sometimes thousands of painters will enter any given show and usually only a very small percentage are accepted. It's a lesson in humility and we have to grow thick [...]