Loud Saturday/Gray Sunday

Last weekend Saturday I spent several hours driving around Cherokee County looking for a good place to paint. I really don't like wasting good daylight driving around and this was one of those days. Arnold Mill Rd. runs east-west about 2 miles north of my house and I drove back and forth twice before finding a good spot combined with an adequate place to park. The results below look peaceful enough but don't tell the story. After about twenty minutes into this I realized I had set up near a shooting range. For most of the three hours I was there people were firing off high power rifles, hand guns, even sub machine guns! Then, all of the sudden a plane takes off from a field right across the street. I know how to pick 'em.
Sunday I watched the first half of the Falcons game, and when I grew frustrated with the score I decided to march down the hill and set up near the creek. It's was a colorless, light less afternoon and cold. That's never stopped me. It is a good excuse for this painting though. I actually like the color but with no help from the sun I had some problems with the depth. It was also devilishly complicated with twisting roots, rotting leaves, rocks and of course water—No excuses. I marched back up the hill to find the Falcons had come back from 23 down to win the game. Typical.

Studio/Plein Air

I know—no such thing but both of these painting have had some studio retouch work after Plein Air starts, I've been reading too much Stapleton Kerns. It comes from just missing that certain thing that makes them into art. Most of the times it's focus but sometimes it's result of the paint getting to thick and the fact that you can't do much with it till it dries. The top painting is called Nouveau Woods because of the Art Nouveau like vines hanging from the trees. It takes a lot of simplification when your painting in the woods—you can't possibly paint every tree and fallen leaf. In the end this one works, with the deep shadow breaking out to the sun lit poplars and the orange reflection in the stream.
The bottom painting was from about a month ago at Mountain Park and has a lot going on for a small painting. The light and color is a bit stronger than most of the work I do. I had to repaint that tree several times and in the end I think this painting is about the tree—I was trying to get the couple on the bench to be primary focus but the far left placement worked against the whole painting and in the end they lost out.

Tis the Season

For some reason much of the work for last few weeks has ended up creeping into the studio realm with retouches and outright repaints. I don't like doing repaints on such small canvases—it's just too tight and the paintings lose the freshness that is the key to good Plein Air. That said, I was working on a few ideas for Christmas cards so I can be excused—at least on these two. The top was done outside the house after I put up the Christmas lights—the night I painted it rained and I stood under an umbrella for several hours working on this. I then worked for several more sessions in the studio trying to get this in shape to use.
The bottom painting is of Barrington Hall in Roswell I set up on Sunday a few weeks ago and captured this decorated window along the column lined porch. In the end I decide that neither would work for the yearly card.

The Red Canoe

I was reading back through the blog tonight and realized that i had missed posting this one from about two months back. It was just at the end of Summer and was painted over at a small lake that I jog around. A few people have canoes and small docks. I like the color in this and the way the bushes and trees hold the canoe in. This one's a keeper.