Enshrouding Fog, 12x9"

Enshrouding Fog, pastel on board by Adriana Meiss

This is one of the paintings included in the A Dialogue with Nature exhibit, and this post is about how it came to be.

The original painting (below), was started on location during the third day of the Adirondack Plein Air Festival in July.  The painting was progressing well until the cloud blanket broke up into puffs that kept on changing the sunlit and shaded areas. My struggle with the changing conditions became so bad that midway I just quit. I saved the painting simply because I knew I could finish it at home.

Original painting done en plein air

 Once home, I saw things differently. The composition bothered me mainly because there were two equal masses of trees on both sides. So I started brushing off trees and  the idea of a foggy scene germinated.

Playing with the painting...

 During that trip to the Adirondacks I saw so many foggy bogs and marshes that I really wanted to paint, but couldn't because of  a bad location (too close to a main road) but also because how fast those conditions change. So I took the opportunity to develop this idea. In the stage below, you might be able to see the ghost of a dead tree I was considering placing on the left,

Getting a better idea of where I'm going with it...

I'm happy I was able to save the painting, and also happy for having taken pictures at different stages of the process, because I still see some good things from the original composition that might be worth developing some other time.

Rainy Day. 9x12

Rainy Day, pastel on paper by Adriana Meiss

   This pastel was started a long while ago, then became part of my pile of unfinished work. A few days ago, wanting to participate in a juried show, I thought that perhaps I could finish something instead of starting something  new. This spring scene from the Adirondacks, spoke to me; perhaps that was because I'm so eager to see bright spring green on grass and branches! The good thing is that this time around I deviated a lot from the photograph. Trees were removed, others created, and the white blooming tree that was in the foreground half hidden by the conifers, found a better place in the distance along with a new companion, becoming a point of interest.

   My new goal for studio paintings is to study at least two possibilities a scene has to offer before jumping to paint it.

Sunset in Mauve, 8x6" - Sold

Sunset in Mauve, pastel on paper by Adriana Meiss

     At the end of April the guild I'm in (OAG) will have it's annual spring sale. In my effort to avoid framing like crazy at the last minute, I have been working steadily for the last month, mostly producing small paintings. Some are already framed after having passed the test of seating on a shelf for weeks without any little thing screaming to have it fixed.
    The reference photo for this painting was an irrigation channel from a nearby town, but by changing the vegetation I turned it into a scene that could have been from the Adirondacks.

Adirondack Stream, 7x5--sold

Adirondack Stream, pastel on Ampersand Pastelboard by Adriana Meiss

I survived the weekend!  On Sat. I went to bed in the early hours of the morning, framing the painting above, that I had included in promoting the festival to everyone on my mailing list.  Why was it then the last one left to be framed?  I cannot answer that myself. Too many things were going on and it's obvious that I was not thinking clearly...

That same morning, on my way to the fest I had the feeling that it was going to be one of the worst events simply because I had not heard it advertised on the radio station of the previous year--instead, another similar event was being advertised for the same day.  Well, it turned out to be one of the best! I'm happy so say that nine paintings were sold, among them one that I had shown many times before at other events, and I still had faith in finding a home for.  I saw old friends, met new people, and got the chance to talk to some about the wonderful pastel medium.

The Moose River in Winter, 5x7"

The migrating flocks of geese are telling us that winter is almost over.  While the thought of warmer weather is more than welcome, I feel a little bit upset for having wasted the opportunity to paint winter scenes during the season. The sole exception  was the one above. Maybe I'll be painting more winter scenes this spring...