Pepperwood day

The largest of the 5 I worked on, probably the furthest along.

Oh what a great day. I signed-up for a plein air class at Pepperwood Preserve taught by Marsha Connell. It was today, such fun. I choose to work in gouache so that I could make the most of my time there.

Lunch Break

Marsha's demo in progress

It’s so spectacular a landscape it is very difficult to leave, especially since the day morning was quite socked in with fog. It only became clear as we began packing up to leave. In some ways dealing with the fog was great. The effect of atmospheric perspective was exaggerated so.

We couldn't see this mountain when we started

Looking south toward eastern Santa Rosa

I don’t think I am finished with these. I’ve been told to try an oil-based varnish. It will protect the painting and I would be able to work on top. I may even work on top of these again.

Need lighter values in the distance

Not so good

I see some areas I like in this one

Thank you Marsha and Pepperwood for a thorough day off!

 

Pepperwood, revisited

It’s always hard to remember colors and values. Photos don’t help me with color much. I think these are pretty close to that beautiful Sunday. They will help with my next work.

I need to work on-site soon.

I also want to learn to take better photos. These don’t show the details very well.

Mt. Pepperwood Push

I worked on this square composition for a couple of hours today. I chose to work on this instead of the horizontal, thinking that I could work out some value and color decisions then apply them to the larger piece. I worked from several photographs I took yesterday. I felt both paintings were missing the feeling of cold and the weather issue which was so pervasive and therefore, to me, crucial in their success.

I decided to turn the palette cool, use more ultramarine and cool yellow (cad yellow light) for the greens. (I used sap green yesterday. Maybe that’s better as a summer green?) Also, I made the distant hills more violet than yesterday’s warm grey. That seems to be a good move. It looks like a colder day and I want that.

I am struggling a bit with a balance between shortening the value shifts (the difference between dark and light) to suggest the grey atmosphere versus losing the sense of distance by flattening the values. I found it helpful to check the landscape out my window while mixing colors, because showers continue to fall today. I certainly don’t have this view, but the colors and values are related. This painting is now closer to my impressions of the day, but I want to push it further, make it look wetter.

Paint Pepperwood

I have been looking forward to a plein air class at Pepperwood Preserve for more than a month. It was today and it was pouring rain, very cold and windy. Despite the wicked weather, almost all 25 painters showed up. That’s how striking this landscape is. Our teacher, Marsha Connell was excellent and helped everyone with her cheer and knowledge.

Those of us using oils stood outside under a wide porch which was somewhat protected. There was a shift of wind though, and most of us were caught wondering how to deal with the raindrops all over our paintings and palettes. I started two paintings of the same section of hillside and plan to finish them this week.

One of the other extreme painters, Elaine, sent me this picture she took of me, just before I packed up.