by Jill Stefani Wagner

  Well, there's no getting around it. Sometimes we artists just hit a wall. The last couple of months have felt very much like that for me.   I can think of all kinds of excuses.   My favorite three seasons of the year were undeniably over. The excitement of painting outdoors, in new venues, with my cherished plein air friends, in a competitive but supportive environment ended in September. Plein air festivals flip my switch for so many reasons. As a driven athlete and business owner, they're similar to the way I've lived my whole life: quickly coming up with bold intentions and strong ideas, [...]

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 [...]

"Arbor Lane"    Plein Air Oil Landscape Painting    8 inches x 10 inches       See Pricing   I've been off my artblog grid for awhile. And to those who follow me or have been trying to figure out where I disappeared to... I apologize! Its been a crazy year and I've had a hard time keeping up. I've been at 2 plein air festivals and 2 additional painting trips since the last time I've communicated with y'all. Sometimes I am so consumed with this art journey, I don't know where I am. Or where home is.   Some of the biggest joys in my new [...]

“Into the Light” plein air oil painting   14 inches x 11 inches   See Pricing People who know me well are aware of the fact that I tend to be a bit of a pit bull. When I want to achieve something, I work endlessly toward that goal. Sometimes that can be seen as a negative trait, but I’ve always seen it as one of my strongest attributes.  What I lack in classical training, I make up for with dogged perseverance.   And in reality, I think anyone who has aspirations in ANY field has to put in the “ten thousand hours” to improve. [...]

“Waiting” Interior oil painting    12 inches x 24 inches    SOLD Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to be painting the interiors of bars and restaurants. It was simply not one of my goals… or even in my wildest dreams. But extreme frustration can drive an artist to outlandish lengths.   I’ve always loved painting landscapes. Capturing the colors, shapes and light of the beautiful land around me gave me joy. But, ironically, when I first started painting en plein air outdoors and saw what those scenes REALLY looked like, I couldn’t paint them from photographs anymore. I missed all of [...]

“Misty Morn” plein air landscape oil painting    10 inches x 10 inches      See Pricing What a lovely year 2018 was for plein air painting. Besides attending 5 national plein air festivals, I painted constantly around my own home town. There’s something about creating art on location that gives me waaaaay more information than any photo ever can. I painted this piece onsite on a foggy, wet, fall morning which allowed me to capture:   Big Shapes – I find it easier to see these fundamental building blocks of a composition when I squint my eyes outside and ignore the smaller shapes.   Atmosphere – The moisture in [...]

  I know, I know. It seems like with all these workshops and classes, there’s hardly any time to paint what we actually PINE to paint! (In my case, landscapes and interiors.) But the quick sketches and paintings of figure models that I do in class are very informative to me in almost everything I do out in the field… and I would argue that they’d be beneficial for you as well.   When I work outside, I need to decide on a view, and arrange a composition or design for my painting. I usually start on a toned background and block in the [...]

  People are often amazed that I go to so many figure and portrait classes. After all, I don’t consider myself a portrait painter and I rarely create paintings with people as the focal point. But I know of no better way to learn to really SEE than to paint the figure.   Our bodies and faces are sooooo complicated, each one totally unique. And when we glance at someone, these little differences tell us exactly which person is in front of us. An arch of an eyebrow, the size of the nose, the sparkle in the eye, the curve of a hip…these are [...]

"Mawby Horizon" Pastel Plein Air Landscape Painting  20 inches x 16 inches   See PricingPlease contact me if you are interested in this or similar artwork. Another day, another beautiful vineyard at the Paint Grand Traverse Plein Air Festival ! The painting above (one of my faves!) was painted at Mawby, a gorgeous winery on Leelanau Penisula. I decided to go big again on this one. First (always!), I did a sketch to get down my view and values. Working on a tan piece of Ampersand Pastelbord , I blocked in a dark purple pastel underpainting which I brushed down with alcohol to [...]