Sometimes You Have a Moment

Sometimes you make great painting plans - packing paints and canvas and camera, gathering all your things together...Thinking, "Go Me, I have it all together!" And then the storms of life come along and rain on your parade.

Oakland Twins 8x10

I recently had a trunk of art stuff and was ready to go on a lovely sunny 60s October day (rare and wonderful). Paints, canvas, medium, brushes, bfast bar and viewfinder in backpack, camera, umbrella, clothing layers, sun hat and borrowed wagon -all in the trunk and ready to go! Needless to say, I was thwarted. Noooo! Oh the heartbreak! My day was ruined.

Determined to paint, I went out the next day, near my house, just a mile away. It was warm and the sun was out, but the winds were 20 MPH (a bit gusty). My hat blew off, I barely caught it and it went into the wagon under the backpack. With winds coming from the South I had to turn my easel so that the umbrella was behind me brunting the wind (and still would have lost umbrella if it hadn't been tied down).

Finally settled against the wind, after taping my canvas to the easel and taping my Gamsol jar to the palette, I was ready to paint! First I made a simple thumbnail sketch of darks lights and mids. Then I checked the scene with my red value viewer (this really helped me to see the lightest lights). Next I washed the canvas with Gamsol and a small amt of Gamsol Gel then wiped the canvas with a paper towel. Then I painted in some loose placeholders - the edge of the pond and the darks of the trees. Finally we get to my favorite part - the color! Yes! I spent about two hours in the open - braced against the wind, painting happily.

I was bedraggled when I got home, but I really like my work!  After weeks of struggling with plein air (painting outside alone  for hours), it finally came to fruition! I had my moment!

One thought that I had was that perhaps my success was due to the fall color. Maybe the color was the breakthrough, as I have struggled with my greens...I took a ton of fall inspiration photos--maybe I can still paint "fall colors" in the studio this winter.

Sadly, I see leaves already falling from trees! No! I need to go get more pictures! Stat!