Plein Air Again

I finally got some photos of my work outdoors. With luck this hot and humid weather will break tonight and my painting partner Gerry and I will get out again. This time I think we are going to try a water fall and break away from all the green.
Gerry found this sweet little hide away for us. It is a tiny rural cemetery on a little knoll over looking an elk farm, a nice meadow and lots of corn and bean fields. We could stand in the shade to paint and could find a painting with every turn of our heads. We did not try to paint the elk. But my, they are really big with huge racks on their heads. Hope the farmer makes a good living with them.

Number 1--This is a little 8x10 in oil on canvas. It is part of the pasture for the elk. They were in the shade but so far away that they didn't really show. Good excuse not to paint them -- right? The fence is at least 12 feet tall. So you can see that the trees were quite far away from me.

Number 2 -- This one is 10 x 14 oil on board. This day I concentrated on this willow clump. There was an elk in the shade again but not in the painting. Gerry and I are working on green variations. There are plenty to work with this summer. Everything is really lush from all the rain we have had. At least we get some variation in the clouds.  I think the saving grace in this painting is the little gravel road in the back ground. It breaks up the green in the foreground from the back ground fields and  trees.

Number 3 -- 11x14 oil on canvas.  I had an eye on this cross road. It was just down the way from our little cemetery. I had to stand almost in the road to get a good composition. It took about a half hour to set up my umbrella to give my canvas and palette some shade.  I liked the way the corn contrasted with the beans and the way the gravel road complemented the greens. Gerry said I had to add the stop sign. Dan says I need to put STOP on it. Not going to happen!  I did like the way the far road turned out with it's little dips.

While I was painting away my left brain kicked in and said " I like the horizon line in the middle and I love the way the poles are both leaning exactly the same. I am so good. I even fooled the right brain into thinking she got the horizon above the middle. The poles were so much fun to fool her with!"  

The right brain did touch ups at home to straighten one of the telephone poles and raise the horizon line. For a bit of wild life I put some birds on the line.

More paintings later--Blessings to all.