Plein Air Last Week

The July weather in flyover land is usually hot and often dry. Last week was no exception with days over ninety degrees and a lot of sunshine. Perfect weather for the plein air painter. I spent two hours on the bank of the Racoon River at a spot where it bends from eastbound to north. The current drops a lot of sand along the southern bank.

That morning was still cool and pleasant when I set up the easel, but the sun was bright enough that I used an umbrella to shade my panel. The river was placid and lazy, the water barely rippled by its current. Upstream the pedestrian bridge leading from Waterworks Park into wilder bike trails glinted in the slanting light and the treetops caught the sun.

Hoff, "Sand Bar on the Racoon," oil on panel, 2020

My 9x12 panel was too white so I washed burnt sienna thinly in areas where the foliage would be in the finished painting, using abundant turpentine. After a few minutes time I dove in with color, massing in the darker shapes of the trees along the left (south) side of the painting and horizontally. For the greens I used a variety of mixes. My primary yellow was cad lemon mixed with cobalt green, cobalt blue, phthalo blue or ivory black, or sometimes combinations. The remainder of my palette is very standard: flake white, cad yellow, raw sienna, yellow ochre, cad red light, naphthol red, burnt sienna, and raw umber. Sometimes I use a medium but more and more often turpentine or a touch of oil is all I use when outdoors.

After massing the main shapes--sky, trees, river--blue, green, variegated--the next steps are shapes in each of the big masses, working hard to match colors and values. Facing north or northwest (as I was that morning) gives the longest time to consider and paint a subject because the light changes less quickly. Even so it changes quite a lot in two hours. The sky and distant trees were nearly finished, and the deep values of the river were roughed in before it wasn't possible to go farther. I snapped a couple of reference shots, made some more color notes, and packed it in. That afternoon, armed with my references I added the details. In particular, the surface reflections of the water went on over the darker passages.

The pandemic rages on, so more outoor painting is in the offing.

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Along the Racoon