Last Saturday

Unlike my usual Saturday sketching jaunt, last weekend the group was invited to a country place around 20 miles from the city. Although Iowa is renowned for being flat, it really isn't. Instead the land rolls and tilts, leaving small glens and ancient watercourses, especially in the southern counties. The acreage where I painted is one such piece of land. It slopes north from a gravel road, down to a small pond flanked by woods and a bright meadow. The house is a wooden geodesic dome under vast mature trees. The quiet is almost palpable, with the exception of bird song. 

"Emily's Place," oil on panel, 11x14

This time instead of watercolor, I did a plein air oil sketch, standing opposite the house on the bank of the pond. There was ample time to spend simply seeing and not necessarily slathering paint. A teacher of mine once said that you should spend considerably more time looking than actually painting. Excellent advice that I followed, since I had about 3 hours of reasonably consistent light. After the plein air session I finished details and corrected various places before adding a signature.