practice feb 17

    
No snow, supposed to warm up, I am looking around, taking the scenery in. The light on a fallen branch, the way the grass is lit up, and tears come. These moments of beauty. Drinking it in.

A silver curving tree root curls out of a dirt embankment. It is sculptural.

Walking the winding gravel, looking, mesmerized by all the elements, the pattern of stones, the vibrant blonde grass. Overwhelmed by the details. The magnitude of his handiwork, the Creator astounds.

I caught myself, wait a minute, is this where I want my foot? I am down off the road in the blonde grass, haggling with uneven footing, trying to shore up the easel legs so it is level. HELLO?!!! UNEVEN GROUND!!! The memories from a paint out in Marceline come rushing back to me. How I stood a very long time on slanted ground while doing a painting, and the outcome was that my ankle got sore even though I was wearing heavy boots. Hmmm. What am I getting myself into here? This might do some damage. Decide to scrap the idea. Moved equipment back up on the stable even road. The Lord gave you THAT ROAD to work from!!!

Sack lunch. Set up easel. 12:55 start  2:30 end

no title, 10 x 8, acrylic on cradled panel, varnished, Feb 17, 2016
 

The little board speckling patterns reminded me of cow watercolor I concocted from reference photos in 2009, next.

focus

     Three days ago I did well painting outside in the snow. Now it was Saturday night, Feb 13th, and I was driving Jan home from Kansas City. It was clear to me I had seen the last snow, right? When I got home I checked the Internet and discovered snow showers were to come from the east Sunday morning. Hmm. Driving back and forth from The City (Kansas City)  has sapped my energy. I usually gave myself a day to recuperate before doing work that required lots of thinking. Hmm. The late evening idea of painting early the next morning has me thinking about it. Soon I have had my bedtime cocoa and have asked the Lord to get me ready. Please get me up in time. The weatherman said the dusting would come at 6 am and finish by 9 am. Another request came before the Lord: What could I find that was tall enough to put the camera on and still fit in the car? Leaving my glasses on the nightstand, I rolled out of bed and wandered through the house. The upside down stool in the kitchen caught my eye. Good. Thank you, Lord. Another request for Him: And help me remember the cleaned brushes on the table, Jesus. Thank you! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

    Sunday, Feb. 14th, at five a.m. I was up, no snow on the ground. Hmm. Got ready anyway. 5:45 it was 18 degrees out and snow pellets were coming down. 6:15 loaded car along with the cleaned brushes from the table, started car heater. 6:40 headed out, full from breakfast. 7:00 arrived, checked the markers by the road.

By 8:02 the scene was set up, there was a 16 by 20 panel on the easel. And then, the thought came to me-- why not do this. Soon the 30 by 40 inch canvas was strapped to the easel. The contortionist painter reached behind the canvas and used bungee cords to lash the wooden canvas supports to the side of the easel legs. Whew.

    Used hot water from the thermos for the water bucket. And discovered that tube paint mixed on the palette with the brush became slushy crystals. Oooo. And yes, the disappointment of finding my spritz water bottle was F-R-O-Z-E-N. Ha. Yes, yes.

    The remedy was warm water on brush teased the slush crystals back to a usable state. Each time you mixed or loaded the brush with paint. It worked.

Twenty-eight minutes. Stages, next.

I was interested in snow on top of a short wide log, a leaning hollow trunk on the far side, snow on melting ice, the stream bubbling underneath, two branches at my feet, bank trunks on the other side. All this reaching, drawing with paint, hurry, focus, paint, look down, mix colors -- uh oh -- the snow is evaporating before my eyes, hurry hurry, focus, paint.

A log, next.

Lean hollow trunk on far side

Melting snow on ice, and two branches at my feet

At 10:30 AM I set canvas carefully in the trunk to set flat. Hope it can dry in the trunk. Went to look at two scenes. 11:00 painting is not drying. Carefully set painting flat inside car with heater on, for paint to set up and dry. Eat half of sandwich, heat up my boots in car. 11:21 lifted painting out of car. Set up on easel. Secure bungee cords.

The snow was evaporating on the creek bed. Mutter, mutter. 12:21 pm end. 12:38 load car, head home. 1:00 pm home. Download photos and videos. Painting hung on living room wall.

Bluff Creek No.4 Snow

30 x 40 inches

wraparound canvas

Feb 14, 2016

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.