4 - good

(in my friend Jodi's back yard)

I've been wanting to paint shadows in the grass so today was my first attempt. Half-way through I was disheartened: felt like once again I'd taken on too much with this composition, trying to cram it all onto a tiny canvas with a big gloppy brush. But I didn't have any good excuse to quit (like rain or other time constraints...) so I kept at it and actually ended up pleased with how it came out.
• wish I'd shown leafy branches of the foreground tree instead of only it's brown trunk and branches
• the maple tree behind it (left, mid-ground) was difficult to define as it's own entity
• a little less sky and more definition to the shady wooded area in the background

Overall, it has much room for improvement - but I'm happy I stuck it out.



Towards the end of the 2.5 hours I was painting, the moving sun cast a shadow from my wide-brimmed straw hat that introduced more pretty dappled patterns to my canvas and paint palette:

3 - bad

(our back pond, behind the barn)

Lots I'm not happy with here:
• Probably over-ambitious to attempt this panorama - esp on a tiny canvas, without delicate enough brushes (must get brave and try larger canvases!)
• Needs more work - this was done in less than an hour, so it's not finished - but it suddenly started to look & feel like rain so I packed up my stuff (it never did rain)

2 - good

crabapple tree (?) in field near former Widmer's Winery in Naples, NY - for my first time back at this in months, I'm okay with how it came out

Okay, not a great show here... But as of today, I was officially accepted to participate in the First Annual Finger Lakes Plein Air Competition - hooray!!! So it's time to jump back in and really get serious about pursuing this passion -
Henceforth on this blog: the good, the bad & the ugly...

1

GVPAP pastel workshop along University Ave., Rochester NY..

demo by member Kathleen Hanney:



unfinished: wanted to "flesh out" the foreground and contents of the window display - but oh well, that's as far as I got before time was up

I need a broader range of pastels - didn't have all the colors I needed and it's not like paint where you can mix your own colors.. Hence, depicting the building color as light purple instead of the eggplant color it actually is

Goal: to paint 100 plein air paintings in one year (by July 12, 2012). Inspired by painter and instructional author Kevin MacPherson who advises this exercise