This painting comes from a hike this past winter in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The vividness of the moss in winter is so striking. Much of the park was settled, logged and in threat of being clear cut before it was made a national park. I love the idea that the trees have taken back their land.
Here I am participating in Dubois County Art Guild’s Plein Air Event in May. I got third place in the quick draw-that painting is not shown because it sold and silly me forgot to take a photo first- and also third place in the Plein Air contest. I always wanted to paint the bright yellow fields in the spring before the farmers planted the them; however springs are busy, and I never got out until now.
These two paintings come from the same hike in Shenandoah National Park. It was a misty, foggy morning so we did not get a view from the top, but there were some wonderfully moody and atmospheric settings. I really liked the gnarly old trees and waist-deep ferns on this hike.
I was commissioned to draw these cute little ones for a lady to give to her sister as a Christmas present. They are the sister’s grand kids.
I set up on a windy, rainy afternoon in a shelter house at Celestine Community Club to paint this little plein air piece. Because of the wind, I was thankful for my Take It Easel; it stayed put, and after using a bungee cord wrapped around the edges of my board, my canvas didn’t budge despite the whipping wind.
I made a bit of a mistake with this composition. I really like that little sliver of grass and sky on the extreme right side. I think it adds little bit of air and space over there. However, once I slipped this board into a frame, the rabbet covered up that part of the painting, and I realized I had not accounted for that when planning the composition! Lesson learned- take into account that the edges of the painting disappear inside a frame, and this makes quite a difference on really small compositions.
I have spent the last two days nonstop painting for a plein air contest in Jasper. I set up yesterday morning at a boat ramp overlooking Patoka Lake. The sun was rising behind this grouping of trees, silhouetting them and sending a beautiful dark reflection onto the lake. I worked on a panel toned with medium grey which caused lovely little dashes of silver to poke through where the paint was thinner or absent. I also primed this panel myself using an acrylic gesso which turned out to be really absorbent and enjoyable to work on, almost a chalky feel to the surface.
I actually am lucky enough to drive past this view every morning on my way to work. It can be really magical depending on the fog rising off the lake or the colors of the sunrise. I am going to have to get back here more often to paint. You may see many more of this location.
I stayed in Gimmelwald, a small village in the Swiss Alps, last summer with my husband. We would get up early in the morning to hike up farther into the mountains on a trail that went straight up from our village. At the top of a steeply inclined field, there was a bench that overlooked the village and valley below. This became our daily breakfast spot before continuing on our hikes.
In the words of travel writer Rick Steves, “If Heaven isn’t what it’s cracked up to be, send me back to Gimmelwald.” I spent four days in this area last summer hiking and sketching; it felt like an isolated paradise floating above the rest of the world. One always had a sense of the height of the place, always a glimpse of the drop off to the valley below.
One of my favorite aspects of the visit was that we would hike miles up into the Alps and then come across a working farm that also served food and beverages to hikers. It was my own little alpine Starbucks nestled into the green hills. The little cheese farm that we had coffee at the morning I worked on this sketch is located just behind me in the photo. The day before, we hiked to Rotstockhutte, a hostel-type place that also served food to day hikers, and had some coffee, tea, and fresh pie. As we walked away, we were debating how they got their supplies, and just then we saw a helicopter flying in supplies-looked to be kegs of beer from where we were standing!
It’s wonderful when the weather turns and it’s warm enough to enjoy being outside again. I painted this small painting in a creek near my house early this spring when the redbuds were blooming and the leaves of the undergrowth were just starting to pop. There’s an interesting contrast in the woods at that time between the achromatic trees, ground and rocks and the very highly saturated new growth of the buds and blooms. The greens of the woods for those couple of weeks becomes an almost fluorescent green.
After a couple of hours painting plein air, the painting still needed some work. I spent a couple of more sessions on it in the studio bringing it a bit more up to snuff.