Plein Air, Druid Hill Creek

"Streambed," oil on panel, 8x8

The summer is progressing from hot to inferno and from swampy to desert-like, but outdoor painting continues. Although oils continue to be my main outdoor paintings, I've had a chance to do a couple of casein pictures outside, too. My oil painting outfit for outside is a French easel, which is heavy and clumsy to set up, so much of my outdoor work has been just outside the studio doors. Happily, there is a painting at every turn out there, looking across, upstream and downstream on Druid Hill Creek. A small oil--6x8 or 8x10 takes only an hour or two, which is fine since the light changes almost that quickly anyway.

"The Garden, Early Morning," oil on panel, 9x12

My technique with spending a great deal of time looking at my subject, trying to learn it from the standpoint of value, color, and possible compositions. (An old mentor used to say that you should spend more time looking and less time painting. Good advice.) To begin painting I block in the image using raw umber thinned copiously with turpentine, washing in thinly. Next come the darks, which in outdoor work are warm and painted thinly. From there, working all over the painting I block in big color masses--a lot of greens outdoors, and blue sometimes. Those steps are with big brushes--8 or 10 flats. Then with smaller brushes and brighter values I paint details. It's easy to be overzealous with detail instead of giving the viewer's imagination a chance, so I try hard not to do too much and then call it finished.

"Blue Spruce," oil on panel, 9x12

This particular landscape is the view across Druid Hill Creek from my studio. The land slopes up from the creek bank and becomes dense woods perhaps thirty yards farther. There is a pale blue spruce at the edge of those woods. I painted the two companions too, the larger a mulberry and the thinner a black walnut. This is late morning.


As the season matures a lot of my time will be outdoors, especially when my new plein air setup arrives.
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