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 [...]

"Vega de Carmona Shacks"   oil   9x12   I'll admit it. Spain would not have been my very first choice for another European painting workshop. I mean, really. There's no place as wonderful as Italy, right?   But my good friend Nora Venturelli had been hired to teach in a tiny town outside of Seville, and the more I thought about it, the more it intrigued me. I'd visited Spain a couple of times, but never armed with my oil painting supplies. And heck, we were going to be housed in a lovely refurbished castle with a pool, 2 bars and a restaurant. What's not to [...]

"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. [...]

"Antiques"   oil   12x16   As usual at plein air events, I got up and out early in the morning, driving til I saw something that caught my artistic eye. I slammed on the brakes when I saw this old antique store bathed in dappled light. It was on a busy street, and it wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but I just had to paint it.   "Vineyard with a View"   oil   11x14   I returned to a favorite vineyard on the lake... and spent a whole day at a iris farm filled with flowers and old farm buildings. But I have reached the stage in [...]

"Near the Vineyard"   oil   12x16   My next painting adventure this summer took place in New York State at the Finger Lakes Plein Air Festival. I've painted in this event quite a few times and it's a favorite of mine. Our painting area included the entire area around Lake Canandaigua and some miles east and west. That's a lot of ground to cover if you don't know exactly where you want to paint! But the roads aren't crowded and the scenery is breathtaking. What's not to like?     One day the artists concentrated on the southern part of the lake to paint the many vineyards, [...]

"Golden Daze"   oil 9x12   I spent a lot of my time this spring, summer and fall "on the circuit." To tell the truth, I have for the last five years or so...and it has become a bit of an addiction.   What is "the circuit" you may ask? It is a slang term for the many plein air festivals that outdoor painters attend. Over the last 10 years, these art events have multiplied with each state offering their own versions of non-stop painting bonanzas. Each attracts different types and levels of artists, with the best festivals jurying in 35-45 top notch painters from around [...]

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 [...]

  Still a few spots open...Come paint with us! Nora and I are heading off to a two-week workshop in Spain, but you can still sign up to attend our Michigan plein air workshop when we return. Just text me at 734.604.2864. [...]

"From Lands End"    Pastel Landscape Painting    12 inches x 9 inches    See Pricing Saturday at the Plein Air Convention more wonderful presentations and demos, and then we all went out to paint at Lands End and the Legion of Honor Park. More beautiful views to capture! I walked around helping students and snuck the little pastel above at the end of the afternoon. (I think I chose this view because it the reminded me of Italy...)   Saturday night was the closing party...and what a party! The theme was based on San Francisco in the late 60s and hippies and flower children were [...]

"Tuscan View" Pastel Landscape Painting   9 inches x 12 inches     SOLD     I have been traveling the rowdy plein air road and haven't been able to blog for awhile. But I thought I'd tell you a little be bit more about the Plein Air Convention in San Francisco (PACE). After Wednesday night's opening, I had one day to enjoy the demo's of other artists, visit the huge Expo Hall filled with art suppliers and visit with friends. In the afternoon we all went out to Crissy Field to paint together. It was a beautiful location with the Bay [...]

“Pointe Santo Palms” plein air waterscape oil painting   8 inches x 10 inches    See Pricing During our last week in Florida, my bestie, Nora Venturelli, came down to Sanibel to paint with me in the warmth of sun. I think I’d finally adjusted to the tropical colors and shapes, and painting with another artist probably raised my game. We are very comfortable working en plein air together, easily finding locations that offer good views for both of us. It’s a joy to share this passion for art with each other.   The painting below is my favorite from the whole trip. Its not perfect [...]

“Seeking the Light” plein air oil painting   10 inches x 8 inches       See Pricing When I paint in a new location it often takes me a couple of days to get my sea legs. And even though I’ve visited Florida quite a few times, it’s still a shock to my system to go from the frozen white tundra of Michigan to the tropical warm hues of the south. And not only the colors change. The shapes, the atmosphere and the lay of the land are all different from my home turf.   So I start with small plein air studies to get [...]

“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. [...]

“Promenade” Pastel Cityscape Painting   9 inches x 112 inches     See Pricing When I do demonstration paintings at my workshops, I rarely finish them to the extent I would in the studio. I’m more interested in teaching my students a new concept or technique than I am in creating a perfect piece of art. And, I don’t want to take up all of their painting time finessing my work. But I do bring in my practice examples of the exact same painting to show them what a finished piece might look like.   The painting above was done with a value under painting [...]

“February Light”  pastel 12″ x 18″        See Pricing    The beginning of the year is always exciting: new projects, possibilities, and adventures lay out into the future like a landscape of rolling hills.   I enter competitions, apply to plein air festivals, promote my workshops, arrange commissions, and make travel arrangements. It’s all a little crazy-making and everything is up in the air until I start receiving the responses back from all of the organizations. But, right now I have a pretty good idea of what the year will look like. You can see my schedule below. Please stop by if you are near any [...]

“Parc Offering” plein air oil painting   6 inches x 6 inches      See Pricing We’re on our way back from a lovely couple of weeks in the warmth of Florida. Sometimes you just have to escape Michigan winters. I did a lot of plein air paintings down there and will post them when I get a chance to photograph them properly. But meanwhile, I thought I’d post a few little pieces I did last year when we were down south. I worked on small panels capturing intimate scenes… between dips in the pool, Mai Tais, and sun worshiping.  ;o)   “Parc du Soleil [...]

“Sunday Shadows” plein air oil painting   9 inches x 12 inches      See Pricing I’ve painted this farm 6 or 7 times over the years, but somehow I always come back to it with new eyes…   ___________________________________________________________________This artwork was created on: Linen PanelMedium: Sennelier, Gamblin, Utrecht and Richeson Oil Paints [...]

“The New Jersey Home” pastel painting   11 inches x 14 inches    SOLD I was lucky to have quite a few commissions during the last couple months of 2018. They came in so hot and heavy that I didn’t remember to photograph them all. I’ve posted 3 that I did shoot before they left the studio.   Commissions are interesting conundrums. When I agree to take on these assignments, I have to be aware that although the people who come to me undoubtedly like my art work, they want me to create THEIR art work.  Their subject matter, their size, their medium, their [...]

  Earlier this year I felt like I was in a real painting slump. All my ideas seemed boring for some reason, and I just couldn’t get excited about getting back into my studio. Instead of doing absolutely nothing, I decided to get busy toning canvases just in case the muses returned to me sometime in the future. And, as often happens, just the act of doing SOMETHING lead to a little excitement.   I found three 9″ x 9″ gallery-wrapped canvases that were very deep at 2.5 “. I have no idea where they came from. (Could it be the muses?) They seemed [...]

“Sun Drenched” plein air oil painting    8 inches x 10 inches    See Pricing Some of the pieces I painted in the fall after the national festivals were over, but when the colors were still beautiful outside…   “The Neighbor’s Shed” plein air oil painting   8 inches x 10 inches      See Pricing “Behind the Old Place” plein air oil painting   9 inches x 12 inches    See Pricing ___________________________________________________________________This artwork was created on: Linen PanelMedium: Sennelier, Gamblin, Utrecht and Richeson Oil Paints   [...]

Plein air landscape oil painting    12 inches x 9 inches       See Pricing   A late October piece showing some of the beautiful hues of Fall around Ann Arbor, Michigan… ___________________________________________________________________This artwork was created on: Linen PanelMedium: Sennelier, Gamblin, Michael Harding, Utrecht and Richeson Oil Paints [...]

Morning Treeline  Pastel Plein Air Landscape Painting    8 inches x 16 inches      See Pricing Last October the Great Lakes Pastel Society held its Annual Meeting at Pierce Cedar Creek Institute near Battle Creek, Michigan. My friend Linda Klenczar and I arrived a couple of hours early to paint the beautiful scenery around the lodge. It was raining pretty steadily, but we intrepid artists set up under an overhang and kept on painting!   Afterwards we had a great meeting and time to catch up with friends during lunch. Later we were honored to have Vianna Szabo discuss her pastel work and Sharon Will explain framing techniques.   If you are a pastel [...]

“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 [...]

WOW. My socks where blown off last week.   When I opened the email telling me that Plein Air Magazine’s new Plein Air Salon Awards had been chosen, I expected to be texting my a few of my artist buds to congratulate them on being chosen in the competition. But this time I got a surprise. TWO awards for MY paintings. I am soooo honored and grateful to be able to make a career and friends in the art world!   I was especially happy to be recognized for an oil plein air painting. I feel like I am still a bit of a newbie in [...]

"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 [...]

"Chantal Ridge" Pastel Plein Air Landscape Painting  8 inches x 8 inches   SOLDPlease contact me if you are interested in this or similar artwork. Two pastel paintings from the beautiful winery, Chateau Chantal on Mission Peninsula. The vineyards were perched high on a ridge and both bays were visible from their property. Drop dead gorgeous views. The top piece (painted very quickly!) won an Honorable Mention Award at the Small Works Show that night. Considering the amazing artists at this event, I was over the moon!   Two of my close friends came down from Northern Michigan to view the artists paint and [...]