Carnival Field

11 x 11 inches, oil on board, 2014. Beautiful fall colors and sky-dancing flowers in the rain.

$300 total (frame, shipping, and all taxes included).

Available Please click here for purchase information.

Blushing Tree

11 x 11 inches, oil on board, 2014. Painted with my students on the rainy last day of class -- beautiful colors at Oregon Ridge Park!

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Patapsco, Long View

9 x 14 inches, oil on board, 2014. Struggled to find a place to paint today—looking for depth in a wall of trees. Finally stumbled on this balletic arrangement of trees against a bright clearing.

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Patapsco, Edge of Woods

9 x 14 inches, oil on board, 2014. Struggled to find a place to paint today—looking for depth in a wall of trees. Finally stumbled on this balletic arrangement of trees against a bright clearing.

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Patapsco, View of Ridge

11 x 11 inches, oil on board, 2014. Hot day. Trees lit up brilliantly against the cool colors of the ridge across the valley. Trains going by (incongruously) below. 

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Pond's Edge, Greenery

11 x 11 inches, oil on board, 2013. From last year, at the end of fall -- I finally like it!

$300 total (frame, shipping, and all taxes included).

Available Please click here for purchase information.

Many Dancers in a Wall of Plant

I've been painting the early-growing milkweed in the field. Lots of color and movement, and fantastic forms (the milkweed plants), which I need to try harder to capture.

I start out focusing on form and then end up abandoning that approach in order to create some kind of all-over cohesion through movement and color. But it might be a good thing to go back and re-emphasize form (the shapes of the plants) near the end. It's hard to relinquish an attention to form when the forms are that beautiful.

At first, I didn't think it would work at all to attempt a "wall" of flora/plant like that, but it seems that as long as a background is hinted at (here, a line of trees on the horizon), and you manage to get the reflected sky-tones in the lower half of the image, it can work. And using a vertical rectangle or a square format seems to help too. Maybe, though, it has less to do with adhering to certain dimensions than making sure you include the "feet" of the image, and don't crop it off at the knees—that is, show the very bottoms of the stems and the dark tones in the depths of the grass. The overall effect is like a big party/carnival with many dancers.

 

Bright Tree and Blue

11 x 11 inches, oil on board, 2014. I painted this while making a demo video for the first time (see my previous post here, or at my website here). It was a beautiful day for it, with brilliant colors and red-winged blackbirds and bullfrogs chorusing in the background.

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Plein Air Painting Demo Video - How to Tone & Sketch in Oil

Got up the nerve to make a demonstration video, filled with suburban painting sounds: red-winged blackbirds, mourning doves, and bullfrogs chorusing along with the beeps from a backing-up pickup truck :-)

 

Spring Blooms

11 x 17 inches, oil on board, 2014. I love the few days when this tree is in bloom. As I painted, the bees buzzed above me in the branches and the sweet scent of the blossoms wafted down.

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Umbrella Stand for Painting in the Rain and Sun

It's high time I posted about The Original Umbrella Stand. Used with a beach umbrella, it creates a portable, sturdy, lightweight shelter for plein air painting. I've been using mine for about two years now, and it has become one of the best tools in my plein air toolkit.

I use a faded beach umbrella in the stand, and (short of the occasional biblical downpour) it keeps the sun, rain, and snow off both me and my oil painting, and off of some of my materials as well. I haven't yet been able to find a suitable white beach umbrella, but the colors in my umbrella are faded, so they don't pollute the colors of my paint.

I've had trouble with umbrellas that attach to easels -- the wind can catch them and capsize the entire easel, or alternately shake the easel so much that it makes it difficult to paint. Also, they can be hard to attach to my easel and to position relative to myself and my painting. Often, they shade only the easel, not me (and it can get ruthlessly hot in Maryland in the summer).

Last summer, the ground became so dry that I couldn't insert the stand in some areas. But most of the time, it goes in easily, with just a push of the foot.

I've replaced the original screws with some longer screws to accomodate the thin pole of my small beach umbrella. I can screw them in very tight, and if the stand is a good way into the ground, the umbrella stays stable even in a lot of wind. The diagonal chute is useful to point the umbrella in the direction of the wind so that it's less likely to flip the umbrella inside out.

The umbrella stand has expanded my options as a plein air painter. I never go out without it, particularly because I love the colors of a landscape in rain.

Easel Adapter

Had to share this great plein air painting tool...Hope you enjoy it!

 

How to Gesso Hardboard for Plein Air Painting

Hope you enjoy this how-to video for creating a versatile plein air surface!

 

Edge of Ice, Briers

10 x 12 inches, oil on board, 2013. Very cold day! I was out on a Sunday so as not to miss the snow. Beautiful tangle of briers by the water, with a last few colorful leaves. The sun was fitfully out, suffusing the ice and a thin edge of water with a golden glow.

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