We've had about 5 inches of rain here in the past few days, which has caused the rivers to rise and edges of the road to slide away. Driving along the Toe River yesterday afternoon, I would guess it had come up at lease 4 feet from where we were seeing it just then. It reminded me of what the edges of the Intracoastal Waterway looked like after a hurricane. A major bathtub ring type look. "Stuff" everywhere. Logs, lumber, tires, plastic of all shapes. Quite a mess.
So this morning, when I headed to the other side of town to paint along the Cane River, I wasn't sure what I would find. It looked like the water there hadn't come up as high, but there was obvious damage. What had been lovely gravel paths lined underneath with landscape cloth was just a long strip of black cloth mixed with red clay and some bits of gravel. I could see that the water had come up at least a couple of feet and that where I was standing to paint had obviously been under water not too long ago.
The 30 Days of Marketing Challenge is still continuing and today's task is to post a demo of a painting. Perfect task for today, since I was already planning to paint a plein air (out of doors) study. One thing I've learned about plein air painting, is to approach the painting as a study,rather than a finished painting. Try to capture the feeling of the day. The light and the colors and the values, too, but primarily the feeling. The "perfect" painting can wait till the studio.
I started the day out with a photo of my scene....
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| A green morning on the Cane River
This is my pochade box. (It is a EasyL brand and sits on top of a tripod.) Next step is to do a thumbnail sketch. That's my little sketch pad on the left side of my box. My painting surface is a Raymar art panel that is 6" x 8". At this point, the only paint I've put out is Ultramarine Blue, which I will sketch with on the panel.
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Here is a close up of my thumbnail. Much later in the painting's progression, I realized that the right side of the river appeared to be going uphill. Looking back at my thumbnail, it appears that way there, too!
And here I've done my sketch with UltraMarine Blue thinned with Turpenoid. I was happy to have to thumbnail to refer to. It helped me keep from including "everything" I was seeing on the canvas.
I started with the darkest darks. The river looked darker than the bushes to me - the part I was looking at was under a fair bit of shade. At this point, I've got all the "land" bits in. And I can already tell it is going to be too green.
Here it is with paint over the entire surface. I like this part, the part where I can go in and make changes and corrections. This is also where I see my river going up hill! The light keeps changing. The sky has changed from bright blue with white puffy clouds to mostly all big gray clouds.
And here is where I call it "done".
My world has been getting greener every day and even more so with all the rain. I often feel like I'm breathing green. Today's painting most definitely fits my green life!
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| "Green Morning on the Cane River" a 6" x 8" study in oil on Raymar art panel |
Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you've enjoyed this demo.
susan
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