Marina at Raquette Lake, 12x12

Marina at Raquette Lake, pastel by Adriana Meiss

   This piece was started several years ago, inspired on a camping trip near Raquette Lake. The intended format was vertical. At some point I started having trouble with the evergreen branches closer to the top. and after removing and adding pastel several times, I finally gave up on it.

   Recently, thinking about what to submit to the Adirondack Pastel Society show, this piece came to mind, and remembering also that I had some gold frames in a square format, I just put one in front of the painting and, voila! With the square format the area that was overworked could be removed without detracting from the focal area!  There was some more work done, mainly on the trees, but I was happy to finally say that the painting was finished.

Marina on the Salmon River, 18"x24"

This is one of the large pieces I had in the show last month.

It was a tricky piece from the very beginning because the photo reference was taken during late afternoon on a cloudy day and I wanted to experiment representing midday light and temperature.

Also, I had to get rid of foreground trees and reeds in order to create a more pleasing composition, and later on, I had to subdue the orange tree in the background because it was detracting attention from the boathouse. All in all, I think it works, but it left me with the need to learn more about the colors during midday hours.