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, [...]

"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, [...]

"Table for Two?"   oil   8x8   The first couple of days at the Wayne Plein Air Festival, it rained. For some reason that seems to happen more often than not. In this event we were allowed to paint indoors if the weather was bad. (Others force us outside to paint in hail storms with combat helmets.) So I headed to a beautiful floral/decorating store to paint my first piece. Then off to a bar to capture the lunch crowd. To say that patrons in these establishments were curious is a gross understatement. "What? Painting in a bar?" Much explaining ensued.   "Liquid Lunch"   oil   12x12   I [...]

"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. [...]

"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 [...]

“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 [...]

“Sanctuary” plein air waterscape oil painting   8 inches x 8 inches      See Pricing In my never ending quest to stop painting every dang detail I see, I gave myself a tough project while I was in Sanibel. Paint shapes, not things. Areas of color and value, not details. It seemed to work pretty well and I’m trying to ALWAYS work that way. But sometimes I wander back to my old comfort zone of persnickety overworking. I tell ya, it’s a struggle.   “Point Santo Reflections” plein air waterscape oil painting   8 inches x 8 inches     See Pricing ___________________________________________________________________This artwork was created on: Linen [...]

“Beach Appointment” plein air oil painting   8 inches x 8 inches      See Pricing After our week in the middle of Florida, we headed south for some time at one of my favorite places, Sanibel Island. This little isle is free of most of the touristy things that have taken over the state. There are no high-rise condos on the beach or anywhere, no fast food joints or big box stores, and over half of the island is the protected Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge. Feels like what Florida must have been like back in the day.   The first two days I couldn’t tear [...]

“Preserve Shadows” plein air oil painting   12 inches x 9 inches      See Pricing When we were down south, I headed out to a nearby nature preserve one day to paint. It was quite a thick jungle but I found a little clearing where the light was shining down on a swampy area. I didn’t realize it at the time, but looking at it now this piece is almost abstract in it’s composition.   The next day we traveled to Winter Park (a place I had a preconceived aversion to because they outlawed artists painting on their city streets, even though they host [...]

“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 [...]

“River Spikes” Oil painting    30 inches x 15 inches      See Pricing The six paintings in this series will be heading up to Tvedten Fine Art at the end of May. (But are available from my studio until then.) I’m looking forward to continuing on this new path… or waterway. ;o) ___________________________________________________________________This artwork was created on: CanvasMedium: Sennelier, Gamblin, Utrecht and Richeson Oil Paints [...]

“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. [...]

“River Isle” Oil painting    15 inches x 30 inches     See Pricing ___________________________________________________________________This artwork was created on: CanvasMedium: Sennelier, Gamblin, Utrecht and Richeson Oil Paints [...]

“River Light” Oil painting    15 inches x 30 inches        See Pricing One of the things I’m trying to work on in this series is to not over-think it. I’m really good at over-thinking. Almost as good as I am at over-detailing. Instead of looking at the big picture, I often get caught up in all kinds of unimportant minutiae. “Does this piece fit perfectly with the others in the series?” “What will be the next painting?” “Should I put in all those little flies on the surface of the water?” “What if people don’t like olive green?” You can [...]

“River Path” Oil painting    30 inches x 15 inches each      See Pricing The second piece in my new series of river views. ___________________________________________________________________This artwork was created on: CanvasMedium: Sennelier, Gamblin, Utrecht and Richeson Oil Paints [...]

“River Peace” Oil paintings    30 inches x 15 inches each     See Pricing   With the new year came new painting ideas. I wanted to start on a completely different series, something bigger in size and scope. But I wasn’t quite sure what it would be. As I often do when I am blocked, I started looking through my reference photos, thousands of them. I noticed that my most recent photographs were all of water, specifically rivers. They were obviously speaking to me in some way. So I decided to listen.   I had purchased some large canvases recently and they seemed a perfect foil [...]

“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   [...]

“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 [...]

  Another step-by-step pictorial of my oil painting process… this time in just 3 steps starting with the small value study. I always plan to stop every so often and take photos. But I get so caught up in the creating that photography is the last thing on my mind…  ;o(       Interior oil painting    20 inches x 20 inches     See Pricing ___________________________________________________________________This artwork was created on: Linen CanvasMedium: Sennelier, Gamblin, Utrecht and Richeson Oil Paints [...]

    I thought I’d show one of my oil interior paintings from idea to completion–with just pictures. A kind of work-in-progress journey… The first image is a small 8″ x 8″ black and white value study and the other images show the larger painting in color.         Interior oil painting    20 inches x 20 inches       See Pricing  ___________________________________________________________________This artwork was created on: Linen CanvasMedium: Sennelier, Gamblin, Michael Harding, 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 [...]

“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 [...]

  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 [...]

  Thank you my friends, for following my work on this artblog and sharing this wonderful journey with me!   Wishing you happy holiday times and a new year that is safe, loving and peaceful in these stressful times! Much love to all~ [...]

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 [...]