University Chapel Tower

This morning I got up very early and set out to paint the University Chapel on the grounds of the University of Redlands. A group of us met at the administration building and set out to get ideas, sketch and paint for an upcoming event, the U of R Centennial Celebration, 100 yr. Anniversary. One of the events will be a paint out with 100 Plein Air Artists from all around, painting from Sat. through Thursday, with a gala event and exhibit competition on Friday evening and a show and sale on Saturday. This unfortunately will be my one and only time to paint on the grounds until I return from the Afghan Hound Club of America Nationals Sept. 10, 2007. So the pressure is on. There is so much to paint, so it won't be hard to figure out a beautiful subject, the hard part will be choosing when the time comes. I chose the University Chapel the other day when I was out scouting the campus. I love the setting of the large trees in the park up against the tower, and the beautiful San Bernardino mountains in the background. I knew the sun would be glistening on this hot summer morning, but I really could not believe my eyes when the sun peaked through the overcast skies this morning and lit up the tower. It was everything I had hoped for. Those gorgeous trees in the foreground and the palms along the side made for a beautiful composition. I won't be posting any new paintings on my blog until after the 10th of Sept. Meanwhile you might want to check out my updated website at www.terrydchacon.com. Check out my new Keepsakes and Plein Air pages. Some time during the Nationals, be sure to go back to my website for more new surprises on the bronze, custom order, and the giclee pages. I don't want to publish these until after people see the new additions in person at the Nationals. Enjoy. Terry

San Clemente, Ca.

On Sunday a few of us from the Plein Air Artist of Riverside group (Ada, Louise, Pat, Brian and myself), met fellow member Alan Nowell in San Clemente, Ca. for a day of painting. Alan lives in San Clemente and always drives to meet us in our area so he wanted us to come to his area to paint. Thanks Alan and we will be back! We painted at the Ole Hanson Beach Club overlooking one of the beautiful beaches on the California coast. What a lovely day, could not have asked for better weather and perfect place to set up. I actually painted right next to my SUV with the hatch back open. I know Pat took some photos, when I get one I will post it to my blog. Louise at one point decided to take a nap in the back seat with the beautiful ocean breeze blowing in from side to side. I really liked the beautiful buildings in the area and at first thought that would be my subject. When I went back to the car to get my easel, I saw the way the beautiful morning light was hitting this flower bed. I love the challange of painting palms, one thing we have a lot of in S. Ca. and the colors change minute by minute. These palms in the flower bed were just singing...... "Singing Palms" is the name of this painting. The ocean was very calm from my view and the sky was clearing by the time I finished my painting, but I did manage to keep some of the fog in the distance to try and get the feeling into the painting. After a full morning of painting we finished the day by going to get a bite to eat at Dave's Mexican Food. The fish tacos were delicious. Amazing what an hours drive from my house will bring. Until next time, Enjoy the painting. Comments are welcome. Terry

Crystal Cove/Pelican Beach 8-6-07

I know it seems like forever since I posted on my blog, but I have been so busy doing the trophies for the Afghan Hound Club of America and working on some studio commissions that I have been unable to paint any Plein Air paintings. Yesterday a group of us from the Plein Air Artist of Riverside went to Crystal Cove down by Laguna Beach, to watch a demonstration by signature plein air painter Jeffrey Horn from the Laguna Plein Air Painters group. Each of us painted a painting after the demo and Jeffrey gave us some helpful hints. This particular area of Crystal Cove is called Pelican Beach. I loved the way the sun started peaking through the clouds and making the bluff just sing. After painting for a while on the beach we made the walk back up to the car (what a walk, it didn't seem that bad going down) and went into Laguna Beach to see the Pageant of the Masters exhibit and the Art-A-Fair. We were hoping to run into our friend Helga who has an exhibit at the Art-A-Fair but unfortunately she was not there. However, we did run into Robin Hall. Some of us in the group had taken a workshop from Robin last Jan. It was fun seeing her and catching up. She has a wonderful exhibit at the Pageant of the Masters, so if you are in Laguna be sure to see her paintings. After enjoyinng all the art we had dinner at the cafe at the festival and returned home very late last night. I also would like to mention on Sat. the 4th of Aug. Luz Perez and I went to Ada Passaro's exhibit in Torrance, CA. The exhibit is from a group of 80 painters who painted at the 10th Annual Henry Fukuhara workshop at Manzanar. It was a beautiful show. Then we headed down to Laguna to see the Laguna Plein Air Painters figure show. Our friend Lisa McDill has a charcoal drawing in the exhibit, this too was a beautiful show. So see I have been very busy. After the Afghan Hound Nationals in Sept. I hope to get back to my weekly paintings to post on my blog so don't discard your link. I am hoping to go to San Clemente this Sunday to paint, if so, I will post the painting next week. Until then, Enjoy! Terry