Monday - bluff creek sunrise

The month of May has been rainy in Carroll County, Missouri. I only go out to the bluff creek area when the gravel roads are dry. Right after a thunder shower, the areas I like to venture into are problematic. Too muddy for driving. Not worth my time. May 23 was dry.

He woke me up early Monday morning like I requested Sunday night. Thank you, Jesus. Out the door by 7:30 AM. Painted from 7:45 - 10 am. Ate sack sandwiches I had packed. Drove home and napped. Here is the progression of that work.

Two minutes.Light colored paint sketched across the canvas.

Way high tree key.

Nine minutes. Attention to sunrise light on sky, sunburst thru leaves. Shows the process.

Log, sandbar rocks, right shale wall, plants, patterns, lower left foreground. No prelim sketch. Work every area. Learn by doing. Evaluate later. That is plein air. Do better next time around.

Bluff Creek Sunrise

acrylic on wraparound canvas

20 x 20 inches

May 23, 2016

practice march 9

11:40 am arrive
the plans I had hoped to use are set aside. the easel is up high so I can look down at a winding passage.

Composition lines.

Long log.

Pile of logs on the shadows right below me.

Pattern of light on stream.

Trunk coming out of embankment.

Decide to stop half way. I want to build scenes. Give me time to form a plan. Give me time to get used to this scene.

2:42 pm stop for lunch break, sack lunch.
3:00 pm start smaller panel, easel set high to look down at jutting out rock.

jutting out stone

Double click to enlarge, above and next.

One minute walk up to see both paintings.

4:02 pm finished small piece
4:28 packed up
varnished Stone View when I got home, next day it looked better, next.

Stone View, 10 x 8 inch cradled panel, varnished, March 9, 2016

practice feb 19

1:57 pm drive
2:30 pm start 16 x 20  

Doing areas: the shadows on bottom of pool - light on roots on bank - foreground of blonde grass. But the piece lacks composition, lacks something. 4:28 pm end.

no title, 16 x 20 inch cradled panel, Feb.19, 2016

4:30 pm start  10 x 10

Like the reflections in the water. 5:00 pm end

practice feb 18 - stages

Elementary art teacher wife advises husband artist: "You are looking too much. You're trying to figure it out. You need to do the work, do the work, do the work, do the work, do the work."

She's right. Stop looking, set it up and do the work.

10:30 drive
11:30 start  16 x 20  windy  dressed fine. no problem. sunny then overcast. just fine.

 

 

 

 

 

 no title, 16 x 20 inch cradled panel, varnished, Feb.18, 2016

3:00 end    3:45 home 72 degrees   varnished piece

I kept at it even though the light was changing. The piece has too much information. Lots of detail was processed. The end result got dark in the mid-range. I'm trying to guess ahead.

The good news is that I did work today. And will probably get a handle on it if I keep at it.

frosting touches

    Tuesday afternoon, February 9th, I had completed 40 rounds on the indoor walking track at the fitness center. This was a new record for me. I hoped to build up strength in my right ankle, now that the wound was completely healed. Workouts leave my body sore and I move slower the next day. Tomorrow I'd go easy on myself.

    Something the weatherman said got me thinking Tuesday night. He was saying a band of snow would fall between 10 am and noon Wednesday morning. It would be an opportunity to paint outdoors with snow on the ground. Ha. Could I rouse myself and go paint IN THE SNOW? What could that be like? I had read of others doing that. I asked the Lord as I lay in bed: if I was supposed to do this, would he wake me up in time, give me the energy to get around. Closing the whispers in Jesus' name. He's done this before. Leaving it in His hands, drifting off to sleep.

    Before the alarm sounded I was up dressing, packed the hot water thermos, pajamas under jeans, t-shirt layers, two long-sleeved shirts, moving the easel from the Ford pickup to the Lumina car. I trusted the traction of the car better than the truck when it came to driving on snow, panels ready, even took the 30 by 40 canvas just in case. Packed the sandwich and carrots, ate the yogurt and drank the morning cocoa.

    The snow had begun falling earlier than expected. At this pace what started at 8 am and would end around 10 am. Hmm. It was twenty degrees out. Would this experiment even work? By 8:50 I was on the road, snow was fluffy and nothing was sticking. Good. Drove cautiously on the hilly road off 24 highway. Braking was good. When I arrived, I checked every place I had left a stick along the road, then chose a scene.

I decided to store the tube paints in a baggy-- inside my coat next to my belly -- to keep it warm.

Two minutes. Putting out acrylic tube paint and storing back in my coat.


One minute. Location I chose to paint, next.

    Imagine laying down a swath of butter. Then trying to lay a swath of another color on top of it.

    Normally tube acrylic paint dries quickly, as soon as it is brushed on the panel. At 20 degrees the paint does not dry at all. It remains moist. The portion I put down slid when I tried to add another layer with the brush. What???? My mind raced. This was not good. What could I do? I stopped. Took a breath. If it was at all possible I wanted to make this work. How??


  Six minutes. Double click on images to enlarge. I put hot water from the thermos in my water bucket. This gave me water to mix paints with. Barely dabbing was the answer.
(the flecks on the video remind me that the Lord who got me up early was with me. The experiment progressed and concluded well. I was amazed how well it looked when it was all done ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !) 

With the brush handle the signature was scratched through the wet paint. 

(Later I thought about the steps the made this composition work. My wife the elementary art teacher told me she saw depth in the work. She was right, it was there. I don't recall how it got there.)

When I was done I stepped back to look at the whole thing. Wow! I laid the wet panel flat in the car. With the car heater on the wet layers built dried.

Completed panel beside location on County Road 290, in Carroll County, Missouri. When I got home later that day I varnished the work, and that is what it looked like on Thursday, next.

 Bluff Creek No. 2 Snow, 

16 x 20 inch cradled panel, 

Feb 10, 2016

For that work I began to paint at 9:20 am and ended at 11:30 am.














    The snow shower was brief. It had stopped. I moved the equipment and easel to the second location and set out a ready panel, next.

The scene had snow laying on the top of logs.

Six minutes. Painting second scene.

 

Bluff Creek No.3 Snow,

11.75 by 11.75 inch cradled panel 

Feb 10, 2016

That second work began at 12:15 pm and ended at 1:40 pm.

By the time I left the temperature had climbed, there was melted snow on highway, and residual snow on the gravel road. I thanked the Lord for his kindness.

That was on February 10th, 2016.