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 [...]

"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 [...]