Under the Live Oaks

 We set up one peaceful day at Ft. Fisher State Park, near the ocean in NC and I drew the live oaks above. The next day we set up again in their shade and I painted the other direction.  It was during a heat wave, but the ocean breeze and the shade made it pleasant. I was bitten by fire ants, but my cold stainless steel water bottle eased the pain. We inadvertently chose a special event day and we became another attraction, but I can focus. What made it Extreme Plein Air Painting was the civil war cannon they fired without warning every 40 minutes or so that made me jump out of my skin every time.

Shifting Light

Shifting Light, 9" x 12" oil on linen board

Plein air painting from Explore Park (BRP in Virginia) overlook, looking south. As I finished this, my husband, also a painter, pointed out a very large dark grey cloud to my right and we high-tailed it out of there in time. The miracle is that I had just enough time to finish. Plein air painting this summer has taken on the need for sophisticated logistics to paint between storms and finding places where you can stay close to your car for when the next deluge comes.

Plein Air Pastel at Rocky Knob on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Rocky Knob is an National Recreation area in Virginia where the trails follow a bald ridge, thanks in part to grazing cattle. This means the views are spectacular, with endless possibilities for plein air paintings. I chose this angle so I could include the winding ribbon of the Blue Ridge Parkway. I painted this on Thanksgiving day, with my son, also an artist, painting beside me. Several people were getting their pre-feast hike in. They all asked me if my Thanksgiving turkey was cooking nearby. I told them my husband was cooking dinner, an hour away. My job was to do the pies, which I did the day before. So, thanks, Tim, for this beautiful pastel painting. 11" x 14" on archival sanded paper.  SOLD

The James River from the Blue Ridge Parkway

Tim and I painted from the pedestrian bridge under the Blue Ridge Parkway at the James River visitors center, milepost 64, one of the secret gems of the Parkway. This is the view facing NNW. The view in the opposite direction is just as dramatic.  One of the challenges was the overlapping of shadow and reflection, perpendicular to each other, on the water. Soft pastels on archival (museum grade Wallis) paper, 11" x 14".

Post-Przewodek Workshop

I spent a week in Eaton, Maryland at Easton Studio and School for a workshop with Camille Przewodek. Similar to Lee Boynton, she studied at the Cape Cod School of Art with Henry Henshe. I need repetition, repetition...before it really sinks in. I liked her direct style of teaching and I felt that I was getting in the flow in these two. Both are plein air, 12" x 9" oil on archival panel.

Plein Air Pastels

Sometimes I just need a break from hauling all the oil paints around. I paint plein air and that means on location, painting the light and atmosphere. This sometimes means hauling it all in a serious backpack on my back when I need to hike a distance. I also paint with pastels plein air, but they are easier to carry, even though I still need my easel and umbrella. They are also more direct. You can only mix colors on the paper itself, so you bypass the palette mixing. I use professional soft pastels (Unison, Sennelier) on archival sanded paper.

I approach pastels the same way as my paintings, as a colorist laying down large blocks of the color of light and shadow, making sure I have the values and color temperatures correct. Then I start breaking up the large blocks with the more subtle changes of color. I try to capture the "envelope" of light, which means the feeling of the atmosphere and type of light.

All three of these were done in the summer. The top was done from Rocky Knob, a bald on the Blue Ridge Parkway, which I had to hike a short distance to. Spectacular. It is kept bald by grazing cows who are part of the trail experience. This was an evening pastel painting, so the color is a warmer yellow than the one below to the left, which was hot partly cloudy summer day at a pond in the valley. The one on the lower right, also from the Blue Ridge Parkway overlooking Cahas Mountain, was an overcast day, which causes the ground to appear darker relative to the sky. We had recently endured an epic heat wave, so I escaped to this elevated site and actually needed my sweatshirt. While I painted a mother and daughter drove up, sat on the grass and read. What a peaceful place to read a book. We stayed for a couple hours until it started to rain. I hope that the painting has the feeling of "about to rain". The land becomes darker as the sky gets lighter...unless a big blue-grey thunderhead appears. I heard another plein air artist say once, "On an overcast day the sky is much lighter than the ground. If the sky appears darker than the ground, you better get the heck out of there as fast as you can." On an earlier painting outing on Rocky Knob, my husband and I hiked, set up and then heard thunder and the sky darkened on this high elevation bald. Although we tried to deny the approaching storm, once we saw the cows heading down, I told my husband, "Come on! We've got to be at least as smart as cows. Let's get outtahere."

If you are interested in purchasing pastel paintings, please keep in mind that they need special framing that involves a spacer, double mat with the inside reverse cut and glass. There are several sites on the web that explain how to do it, but one of my favorite is this site because of the cutaway drawings. They also sell the spacers on this site: http://www.frametek.com/HTML/Articles/pastel.html

All of the above are professional soft pastels (the finest pigments) on archival sanded paper, 11" x 14", except the top one, which is 10" x 14". Click on my Daily Paintworks icon on the top right to order them.

Two on a Summer Afternoon

I painted these two on a warm June afternoon, trying to capture that unique summer sunlight. Notice the thunderhead peeking up over the trees in the top one. It turned into one of those intense summer storms with hail. You know, the ones that show up as a red blob on weather.com's satellite image.

The top image is 12" x 9" and the bottom is 6" x 6", oil on archival panel. If you are interested in purchasing either, email me or go to my Daily Paintworks gallery (see icon at top of this page).

Lucky

Carvin's Cove again. I'm lucky to be living near this beautiful lake.