Plein Air Weather

Phantom Bluff 11x14

Now that the weather has turned warm and sunny, it's hard to resist the temptation to drop everything and get outdoors to paint.  The most reliable subject, painted while sitting on the comfort of my dock, is Phantom Bluff.  I never tire of its special beauty, but when I look back over the various paintings I have done of it these past few years, they seem very much alike.  It's as if I have only one sort of vision and can only see what my mind allows.  Other painters have done series on the same subject, but normally they paint differences in light or in hue or something to challenge them to see more.  I guess I will have to be satisfied with the nuanced improvements I see gradually taking shape as Time goes by.

Mary S Young Trail 9x12

But after that brief preview of summer, the faintest base tan established, the gin and tonics enjoyed and dinners on the deck, the rains are back, of course.  There is always the work in the notebooks, portrait sketches to fill in the pauses of workout routines:

Doing Homework

Sometimes I remember that I should be making studies of great paintings by the masters, and pause to do a sketch like the above, a Lepage painting, I think it was of his grandfather.  These are notebook sketches, not meant for anything other than a little learning.

This above sketch is a copy of a Bougereau painting called "La Tricoteuse" or "The Knitter".  I didn't develop the face as fully as I could; I was more interested in investigating how he developed the mood of the painting by using the faded and loose depiction of the background.

And a recent small painting of the glorious spring we are enjoying.  The greens are exploding everywhere, overwhelming and enfolding us all in renewal.