Some outdoor painting

I guess I am a fair weather plein air painter. The minus and one digit temperatures we have been having have kept me from outdoor painting. Not that I haven't been busy. I completed several pieces this past month. But today I was reminded how much I love to be outdoors with my gear. First thing this morning I headed out into the woods. This is not far away, just the backyard. When I started it was cloudy, but then the sun came out. Glorious!

It's funny how you notice things change when you are in the same spot for a few hours. Beside the light changing from cloudy to sunny, the water changed from a dark blueish tint to more brown as it got warmer and snow melted. My composition started when it was cloudy, otherwise I might have done it different and included sky. As I was painting, a couple of deer came by, cool. It was nice to be out next to the water with the sun warming my back!

 I decided to take full advantage of the nice day and do another painting. This spot is right next to our house.  I liked the contrast of the snow and the spots where it has melted. I tried painting on a canvas sheet. I found it a bit rough, too hard to cover all the white.

Maybe these two paintings will find their way into a larger and more finished piece.

Adirondacks and Paint Off

We had a couple of short trips to the Adirondacks, and I was able to do some plein air painting. It always feels so good to be out there painting. However challenging, there is nothing better than painting from real life! 

This next one was a few weeks later, as you can see by the colors of the trees. It has been many years since we were in the Adirondacks in peak leaf season, and it was so beautiful! It was cloudy the whole time, but every once in a while the sun peaked out for a second and it looked like the trees were on fire. 

Then there was this painting challenge: the Ithaca Festival held a Paint Off as a fundraiser last evening. Every artist created a painting in 90 minutes (the paintings will be auctioned off at a later date). I had never done anything like this, and I heard from several other artists that they had not either. I thought it would be a good challenge. I decided to do a large version of one of the 50 small sky paintings I did last year. As soon as the signal was given it was game on! Initially I felt nervous about doing this, thinking what if it sucks? But soon after starting I got into the zone, not even noticing much going on around me. People were walking by and stopping to look at artists painting. I usually get very self-conscious, but I was able to ignore that. I am just not good at talking when I am painting. 

This was the result when the 90 minutes was up!

Two paintings

We spent some time in the Adirondacks this week. Even though it was a family visit, I got some painting time in. Plein air is hard! I feel like I am hardly ever happy with the final product, but when I have a look at it the next day I usually am at peace with it. And on occasion tweak it a bit. What better way to learn than being out there!

 This spot is so beautiful! I am not sure that I did the mountains in the distance justice (the big one is Whiteface). A couple was getting their wedding pictures taken, so I decided to put them in the painting too. I left the parked cars out. It was a nice couple of hours spent in a beautiful spot!

 The next morning I got up at 6 AM to get my painting kick. The light changes so quickly! One moment there is mist, and the next moment the mist clears and you can see the mountains in the distance.

I love the unexpected sights you might see while painting and being in 1 spot for a few hours. This time it was the river otters! A lot of splashing and 2 heads popped up. I was told it may have been musk rats or beaver, but I'm sticking with river otters!
One or both of these paintings may lead to a bigger studio piece (these are both 9x12" oil on board).

Back to plein air!

Getting ready for the Summer Mosaic took a lot of time the past months. It does feel good to focus on one thing. It was good to have a goal and a deadline. That helps keep me on track. Plus doing a series of paintings like that helps to really push your limit. Now that that is done, the question is "now what." I've been wanting to get back to plein air painting, so I have done a little bit of that. Plus painting birds led to a commission to paint some turkeys. I finished that one. And I just remembered that I promised to do some dog sketches for my sister in law... working on that.  

So for now my next goal is to do as much plein air as I can while the weather is good (I guess I am a fair weather plein air painter only!). I want to make a lot of outdoor sketches so turning them into paintings can keep me busy painting through the winter. I think that is a good goal for the next few months!

Plein air on a nice summer evening. 

It felt good to get back to this! There is nothing better that being outdoors, being in the actual moment, and try to capture what drew you to the scene in the first place.

Winter plein air

A couple of days ago I did my first winter plein air. It was 30F and sunny. I was kind of stuck what to paint next, and I should learn from previous experience that taking a walk will inspire me. When I was walking the dog in the woods I stood by this creek for a while. The sun was on my face and it occurred to me that it would actually be a nice spot to paint. I've been a bit of a fair weather plein air painter, not the hardy type that paints in -20F. This day seemed doable. So I went back home to grab my stuff and went back to this spot. I learned some lessons, like how thick the paint is in cold weather. I also accidentally packed ptalo blue instead of the cobalt or ultramarine which I usually use. That made for a different color than my usual paintings, but I like it. After 2 hours my fingers were frozen, but you get so much "in the zone" that you don't realize. I did enjoy being out there and doing this painting, so this encourages me to do this again. And maybe you will see this one in a larger size!