A Summer Series

Although snow and winter have been on my mind lately, I've had memories of summer to melt their icy grip. One of the things that most visual artists have to do is document their work photographically and I'm no exception. The body of outdoor paintings since last spring isn't completely photographed yet, and summer paintings are a big part. The series began back in early spring, but much of it was in the summer months. Painting in series has interested me for years, mostly because of the example of Claude Monet. Anyone who has read this blog will probably remember media-specific watercolors series as well as seasonal series that have been posted earlier. 

Here are a handful of plein air oil paintings, all done at Gray's Lake, less than a mile away. The recurring subject in these four is a spot along the north shore of the lake (it's actually an old quarry) with a point of land jutting into the center of the body of water. These were all done on the spot on 9x12 panels.

Hoff, "July 2020"

July was the first time I painted the copse of trees along the point. At that time everything around the lake was green and lush, and unlike moving bodies of water the lake surface was mostly flat. This work was the result of nearly four hours spent on the shore during two sessions. The composition interested me because of how the tree trunks are silhouetted by the far reaches of the lake. 

Hoff, "August 2020"

From that first painting came a number of of others. This one was in August, but I shifted my attention to a footbridge across the lake, beyond the point. The lake is set in park land that has a number of amenities that include a circumferential  pedestrian/cycling path with a bridge along the south shore. At night there are colored lights that reflect beautifully. The bridge disappears into the trees beyond the point, so here my intent was to again show depth. There are eight or nine levels of depth, front to back, in this particular painting, so it felt like a success to me.

"Early September 2020"

In September, as summer began to wane, there were subtle changes in the foliage of the south side of the lake. The color change was quite subtle at first, a change from dark green to lighter yellow-greens along the tops of some of the trees. The undergrowth had a few touches of yellow, too. The scene is essentially the same view as in August, but modified to include a longer span of trees. The bridge shows up again; the distant building is probably a mile and a half in the distance. The lake was smooth and unruffled once again, and here I included a small stretch of the north shore beach.

"Late September, 2020"

The final painting in this summer sample of plein air work was finished near the end of September, probably ten days after the first September work. Showing essentially the same view, more tightly focused. The point still figures in the composition, mostly as a way to capture depth in the painting. There are eight levels of depth discernible here, including sky.

In November I'll mount a complete retrospective of this year's plein air work, as a virtual exhibition on my website.