moss creek basin

     The temperature had dropped to 30 degrees Friday morning, October 16th. I arose, dressed warm, loaded supplies in the truck and drove out to see if I could paint in the cold. I had on insulated overalls, layers and layers of shirts, and my bright orange vest. My confidence level had risen. The Lord had strengthened me to TRY this in faith. And I did.

    On the corner of Highway 10 and County Road # 211 I could see across the length of Moss Creek. After having practiced the routine of starting fresh this large in my own yard, it was a thrill to do it at my favorite location. See next photo.

    From the back of my pickup I pulled a factory-sealed canvas measuring 30 by 40 inches. After opening and disposing the wrapping I edged the sides with blue painter's tape. Though the view was wide and horizontal I chose a vertical format.

The foliage from either side of the basin dipped down in a great U-shape at my feet and was completely in shadow when I first got there. I wanted to keep that in the painting. My focal point was the silhouette of a lone bush in the lower center of the U-shape.

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Twenty minutes. Double click on image to see enlarged.

     With lots of sunshine, the temp climbed to 46 degrees. Soon I worked on the sky and the light orange above the horizon. I pushed the west and southern banks back into the distance. I wanted a large body of water with the hint of trees. Lord willing, this piece would draw me back to the area.

   At 9:30 am, roughly half way through the painting, a combine driver stepped out of his cab and told me to park my truck off the road on the grass. That would give grain trucks more space to make their turn onto Highway 10. We checked and found a level spot. I parked the truck out of the way. Carroll County, in which Moss Creek was located, was in the middle of the fall harvest.

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Forty minutes.

    There was traffic on the rural highway, the sound of passing trains, and a number of pickups kicked up dust, coming and going on the gravel road. One pulled along side and two men walked over to view the activity. Was the back-lit shadow on the canvas a distraction for me? No, I replied. I paid no attention to it. What about the dead limbs in the water and the tall broadcast antenna on the far shore? Was I going to include them in the painting? I wanted to keep the design simple, I explained. Something to help build my confidence. Then I showed him a pond study,next.

In which I ignored the young saplings standing in the water and did not paint them-- to see what the painting would look like that way. The surface of that pond was covered green with duckweed. I imagined it blue, then painted it blue, just to see what it would look like. And both of those decisions transformed how I saw my source material. For the better.

   Another car pulled up. Out stepped Bonnie Rodenberg of Norborne, MO. She told me stories of my father, Reinhold Marxhausen, who was her art professor while attending Concordia in Seward, NE. He was able to make every student feel like they COULD do art. No matter how insecure they felt. One day she came to class wearing a bright maroon outfit. Back then, she explained, girls were required to wear skirts to class. Bonnie said when he came by her table, he exclaimed with an exuberant "Wow." He was quite a teacher, she concluded.

     As I was trying to finish the painting, something came up. I had altered my palette to a slightly different green, when I switched from Viridian Hue Mixture to Viridian Hue. It screwed up the way the paint looked, next to what I had already painted. It made me nervous. Aargh! What to do? I made it right (but I don't remember how I did that. Ha.) When I finally stopped it was 12:30 and 59 degrees. I signed my name. Whew!

Moss Creek Basin,

acrylic on canvas,

2015

It was the FIRST 30 by 40 canvas I had EVER done in ONE sitting on ONE DAY!!!! Yea!!!!!!!!! A confidence builder to do more. YES.

This showed me I could bundle up and paint outside in colder weather.

           +++++++++++++++

POSTSCRIPT: I have since learned that I need to take more breaks to stand up and walk around for my leg circulation. I am working on that. Because, after the wonderful stint of that day my ankle hurt much more that evening. I had to take more pain medication as a result. So -- hurrah, but, moving forward, I need to pace myself and take more breaks.

pond painting

 

      Our property has a natural waterway along the southern edge. Many tall trees, some with vines, and with some undergrowth. To the west, our lawn touches a pond that runs the length of the Colborn sub- division. As land was sold, houses have popped up around it. It has a shallow depth and in the summertime is completely covered with duckweed. People ask me how the fishing is. I have no idea. I do not fish. And it is not my pond to manage. For which the geese that frequent our property are grateful. The past three weeks a number of geese have bedded down in the shade, nibbing, and pooping, and not being disturbed by outside visitors.

     I had scouted a handful of scenes in our yard and placed a wooden stump seat by each. So when Thursday morning came I was ready to begin. Suited up, I carefully carried supplies down to the pond. As always, not knowing what would be accomplished. My main objective was to T-R-Y. As it turned out I spent two mornings on the pond piece. And after lunch and a nap, I worked on a second piece of equal size, at another location on the property. This post covers the progress I made over the mornings of Sept. 3rd and 4th.

A stump to sit on. Supplies ready. Blank canvas measured 30 by 40 inches, edged with blue tape.

The palette started out with Utrecht phthalo blue, titanium white, cadmium orange, and crimson alizarin red. From this I mixed the colors I needed. Later I added Hansa Yellow Pale.

Unpacking tripod and EasyL paint kit and paints.

Video is three minutes.

At 10 am the sun began to peek over the tree tops. That was an element I wanted to keep. (detail)

There were trunks standing in the water. (detail)
A lovely reddish dirt bank curving toward me on the left side.

And a swarm of small yellow pond flowers with orange stems and green leaves at my feet. A simple blue wash for that. (detail)

At 12:30 Thursday midday I stopped as the light had changed significantly.

    The next morning (Friday) I got up earlier and began at 7:00 am. I wanted to work on areas in the shade. The surface on the pond was questionable. I liked an sunlight on the left side of the middle trees near the bank, but I did not want scattered sunlight to the right. It was as you see in the above detail, all over the place. It would obscure the elements I wanted to showcase. See next detail. I removed the sunlight patterns my eye was seeing.

Next detail, off to the far left, the lawn grass was as green and vibrant as ever. Darker colors helped subdue their brilliance.

Where the trees meet the front yard was a problem. I wanted the eyes looking in the backyard, where my design was. So I darkened the edge. Compare next two details, before and after.

 

Above detail, I brought blues down into the flower area. Dotted yellow, orange green stem swoops, and some greens that I used elsewhere in the painting. That was one reason I got up earlier. To see what the flower patch looked like in the shade. Next detail. Double click to see enlarged.

This photo of the flowers showed its denseness. My version suggests what my eye was seeing. The color decisions are more valuable than the quantity of plants. The kind of yellow, the orange-green swoops, the strong blues, these make the flower area a part of the whole painting. The same colors need to be distributed in brush strokes throughout the painting. That is what gives the whole painting "harmony."

Nine minutes.

and then

 

 and then 

and then

The sun peeking over the tree tops was kept. White titanium sunburst. An off-white mixed-blue diffuses off to the left and the right. The way the tops of the tree clusters taper down to the sides and the way the sunburst is central at the top was intentional.

The reddish dirt bank was tricky. The colors on either side of the bank made it too blue or too purpley. It took some doing to make it reddish.
The eye goes to the sun patch and follows the bank on the left side forward to the flower patch. The secondary sun patterns also draw the eye forward to the patch.

Hoping only to work for an hour stretched into two and then three hours. Soon it was 10:00 am and the sun peeked over the tree tops. Now was the time to wrap it up. Keep the elements I wanted.

     The surface of the pond to the middle and right needed to be de-emphasized. Made uninteresting. I mixed a blue gray. It wasn't until the next day, and my wife pointed it out, that I realized what that gray shape did to the whole design. It helped create depth. It divided the pond to a far side and a near side. See next detail. It was not my intention, but I am going to keep it for now.

What I have so far, next image. Letting it breathe.

Me getting used to it. Okay with what I have.

This shows the painting on a wall in our house, next.