My experience with plein air painting began in the 1970s with Bob Shepherd, an outstanding artist who taught Watercolors at Oakton Community College in Skokie, Illinois. Bob’s idea of learning to paint with watercolors was to paint outdoors, on location, whatever the weather. Every Saturday morning, rain or shine, his students would gather for breakfast and then journey to some nearby locale and paint (in cars if it was cold or raining, or sometimes from inside a building looking out of the window). We finished our paintings during the week and brought them back the following week for evaluation. It was a wonderful experience--I learned more from painting landscapes en plein air than I had from years of classes and workshops.

   Bob’s students went on to form the Illinois Watercolor Society Many became well-known artists. Others, like myself, were content to enjoy the camaraderie of painting with a group of artists and to reap the benefits of the evaluations.

   If you are interested in painting on location on Saturday mornings, along with a group of artists from around the Madison, Wisconsin area, click here and you will reach the Newsletter with information.

Most of these paintings are $300-350;

To see another page of Wisconsin landscapes, click HERE. To see other categories, click on the icons below. Click on the KEY to return to the home page.

Rock Creek, Winter - I pass by this scene every day, and am always pleased by the wonderful, differing color combinations.

Monarchs and Milkweed - This was easy to paint on location--it is right next to my driveway.Milkweeds are pretty plants--a shame to call them weeds, but I understand it is toxic to cattle.

Rock Lake, East Shore - Photo was taken at the boat launch and a magnifying glass was used to paint the details of the cottages and boat houses along the lake shore.

Misty Birches - This scene was painted from a slide I took many years ago in Door County (which won 2nd place in a photography competition). I had always wanted to do a watercolor of the misty scene, and now it is easy to transfer slide images to my computer..

Below Zero - I caught this view on my way home from somewhere and snapped a picture. Too cold to paint in the car, so I came back later to fill in the details not in the photo.

Aztalan, Winter - A group of us painted this in the summer (see above), but I went back one winter morning and painted a more dramatic viewpoint through my car windshield.

Crawfish River, Spring - The Crawfish is a pretty river, favored by fishermen, canoeists and water birds. SOLD

Dogwood Blooming - I was sitting on a log in the Cumberland National Forest as I painted this pretty scene, but the ants attacked, so I finished at home.  SOLD

Misty Birches II - A friend commissioned me to paint another watercolor of Misty Birches, but without the deer. This was the result. SOLD.

Old Grist Mill - This mill was painted from a picture I found in the library archives of a grist mill which once stood where the American Legion hall is now. It was donated to raise money for a fence which symbolized the grist mill’s turning wheel. SOLD

Mill Pond, Summer - A group of us painted here, listening to the bullfrogs croak. Music to paint by.