Owlkill Creek Day 1 ?

62  F  Sunny!

This  is Owlkill Creek, @ Owlkill Rd.  I've painted here a number of times before,  so it's a favorite spot, The day was perfect so I stole off to get this painted. It's 11 x 14.

This is the scene when I started @  12:30 or so.  The light is still high, and everything seems to be reflecting back, off the leaves and water almost equally, there are still some nice contrasts, and the place seems to compose itself.

This is about 1/2 hr. into it, I have the wash of alizerine crimson as a tone  (why I did that....)  I put in the  darks, made mostly with transparent red iron oxide & ultramarine blue, and scraped it off with my pallet knife.  I teh put in the sky also with the pallet knife, and that is the first time I did that and I liked it, it was quick easy and effective.

This is about an 1hr. into it.  Part of the drama of this site is the way the afternoon light so abruptly changes the entire look and feeling of the place.

This is after another 1/2 hour or so, one thing about working the painting while the scene is changing, there seems to be an optimal time, probably about now when life feels sustainable, soon it won't be.

Here is the scene by 2:30 or so  The reflected light off the creek has gotten real dramatic, But I choked on it, too much of the rest  of the painting had been established and all that would have had to change so I could get the water as it is now.

At minimum I can adjust the general shape of the reflection off the water,  I probably should have just scraped the whole creek off and worked from that....

Here is my location, as you can see I'm right against the road, between the bridge and the RR tracks, I couldn't get near the creek edge it was so overgrown,  Last march I was able to set up maybe 30 ft off the road.