Wednesday, December 17, 2008

The Stream at Leetonia, 13"x19"

No heater in my studio yet, but I got a nice soft mat to put under my easel, and today I bought thermal leggings. I'm gearing up to work in "the freezer". You'll see something new soon! In the meantime, another oldie, started last year and finished in March.

This stream flows through the property of friends of ours, who invite us and a bunch of other people to share their cabin during Memorial and Labor Day. The area is near Colton Point State Park in northern PA, where the Grand Canyon of the East is located. We've seen wild turkeys, black bears and coyotes outside the cabin's door! It's hard to believe that before the reforestation project by the Civilian Conservation Corps in 1930 the area had been completely deforested.

While most of the guest relax or listen to music--there are really good musicians in the group, for me it's a great time for birdwatching, taking photos, and painting. And just in case you are wondering, I do take the time to socialize!

For this one I had the chance to do a 1 1/2 hour study on location before the rain forced me to quit. Months later, when I was ready to do a studio painting, I had to rely on my plein air study to do the background because that information had been lost in all the photos I'd taken. This taught me the importance of doing studies on location whenever possible.

3 comments:

PastelGuy said...

Adriana,
As always, nice picture. Did you really need the background information from your study? You probably could have made a bunch of light-valued strokes and still have gotten the idea across, since the story is really the stream in the shadows. I really like your work!

Donna T said...

This is really gorgeous, Adriana. I love the feeling of being in the woods and looking out into the sunshine. I'm glad your plein air study came in handy. My goal this year is to not try to produce a finished painting on site - just get the necessary info down. Even a crude plein air is better than just a photo!

Adriana Meiss said...

Matthew, Thank you. Although you are right about being able to figure how to solve that area, when working from a picture sometimes I do get stumped when something doesn't read well and that may determine whether or not I would paint that scene. Fortunately it doesn't happen often!

Donna, Thank you! I think your approach to plein air painting is the right one. This way one it's less likely to be disappointed with the results and still end up with plenty of information.