Farm in Pompey Center, on location, 11" x 19"

This early evening scene was painted at the beginning of the fall season. I was able to work on location for an hour and a half before the light was gone, but by then I had almost finished it. Back at the studio I corrected the colors of the trees on the left, and added more detail to the stubble of cut corn.

I was hoping to have more fall scenes painted on location, but the weather is to be blamed for that, as most days had been rainy or cloudy ones. The few paintings I had attempted have not yielded good results, either because I'm not familiar to using reds or because I have not taken into account that light changes so fast at this time of year.

Flower Field, 13" x 19"

The weather has been rainy and cold, not conducive to painting outdoors... I have been busy doing some studio paintings for two upcoming shows, but deep in my heart, I cannot wait to be outdoors. I'm hoping for at least one glorious fall day while the leaves are still on the trees.

This painting was done on location, one evening in late August. My favorite part is the distant hill. I used a pale orange hard pastel, followed by pale blues and greens, and the mix set the tone for the rest of the painting. It was one of those experiments that turn out to work well. I finished the painting at home from memory, but all it needed was some adjustment in the color temperature of the shadow in the middle ground.

Contrary to what I would have done, one of my fellow painters suggested no to give much definition to the foreground sunflowers. I think the idea is to let the viewers look at the painting and spend some time figuring out what's in there. I'm still figuring out myself if that's the way I want it... I might even crop it.

230 at Salt Springs Rd, 12" x9"- on location

Last Monday I went painting with two experienced plein air artists at the home of one of them. It was a beautiful evening, and the neighborhood offered several possibilities. I was very tempted to do a street scene, but because I had recently painted one with not so good results, I decided to paint something close up this time. Since I had made up my mind that I wanted to paint under the shade of a tree, the house next door to my friend's was the best choice.

It was very interesting to see how the light changed in a period of an hour: walls that were bright with reflected light became dark an hour later. For that same reason, it was also a little bit exasperating having to change colors.

After we stopped working we proceeded to critique each other's work. Mine was basically done so their feedback was very important to me. They were very free with their suggestions and I felt I gained so much from them.

I'll let this painting sit for a while before finishing it.
This coming Monday we'll be painting in my garden.