The way is was on Wesley Chapel Rd.

Just about a mile from my house on Wesley Chapel Rd. is one of the last vestiges of rural Cobb county in this area. Its about a 5 acre plot that actually has horses still pastured on it. A beautiful older home sits on the property and I'm sure that only the economic downturn has prevented it from being scooped up by some McMansion building developer. For now I can enjoy it, as it's along my jogging path. For years I've been running by whistling at the horses and enjoying the sunrise over this rare open space. It's fronted by black walnut trees and a muscadine grape vineyard. This first painting is true to the view but I was bit to concerned about portraying the walnut tree and my horse is too much in the middle. The second is of the muscadine vine as it stretches out along the front of the property.
Recently a group of equestrian enthusiast bought a plot across the street and put in a corral and a riding ring. They did a great job and even kept a run down farm house on the property that must date 100 years. The nice thing is that they pretty much kept it as it was. I'll be painting it's portrait soon.

Mountain Park Lake. 8/21/11

Painting #32 & 33. Both of these were done on the same day. These long sighted views are difficult to work on with such a small canvas. They both utilize the red background I've been experimenting with. I think it works on the shorter view but the greens get very brown on the other. The first view of the north side of the Lake Cherful ( that's how it's spelled on the map.) was a labor and took all of 4 hours. It's mostly lake and reflection but I fussed over the cottages. The other view took me two hours and I prefer it. It has the look of a Dutch landscape with red showing through quite a bit and the high hot weather clouds.
Today I did a closer view at a pond near bye and I think It's one of my better paintings. I'm still getting only about a 25% success rate on my work but I am beginning to get smarter about what I paint. I'll post it as soon as it dries.

#29 and 30 - landscapes with water.

I'm working my way to 100 of these 9x12" paintings and I'm enjoying every one, even though they all don't reach my expectations. Many times I do two in sequence finding that the second is better. I guess it's like warming up, I also tend to spend too much time on the first. These two were painted on a small pond near my house. They work better when the shore is no too far away ( See next week) . In general I find that the paintings with water have more appeal to them— the reflection is a nice contrast and less busy than the landscape section.

Vickery Creek in Roswell

This weekend, after seeing a short television show about the Civil war ruins at the Roswell Mill at Vickery Creek I decided to venture over Saturday to see if I could find a place to paint. I was delighted to find such a wonderful spot so close. The creek is just beautiful and I did this nice view of the vintage Civil war mechanical building from right from the shore. I also did another view up the creek, but about 45 minutes in was washed out by a sudden cloud burst. This painting, although unfinished (ed. now finished) has a nice quality to it. As a prelude to this weekend I've decide to try tinting the canvas panels before painting, some times it's a chore to cover up the white of the canvas and I found that this helped me. I tinted three panels—one each red, ocher, and a blue green. I was delighted to use the red for the brick mechanical building, and also lucked out using the blue green on the view of the creek.
The final painting was done a week later after finishing the stream painting—I did this quick one of the foot bridge as it crosses the creek.

Sight Seeing—Red Top Mountain State Park

Just about every Saturday now I'm fortunate enough to be able to spend the day painting. I've discovered that having a plan where to go and keeping it close allows me enough time to finish one and sometimes two paintings.
This Saturday I drove to Red Top Mountain State Park— Just about 30 minutes north up 75 and right on Lake Allatoona. A beautiful spot, with a wonderful bridge and views of the lake. It's been off the register hot as of late and this day was a scorcher. I set up on top of a hill overlooking the boat ramp and proceeded to paint this view of the bridge. Although it's not a bad little painting I think it was too ambitious for the 9x12" format and in the end it just did not have the drama of the actual view.