I ran into a telephone pole, got stuck in a jam & attacked by flies. (a good day painting!)

82  F  hot and sunny.

Brownell Crossing Rd., Day 2.

I started this yesterday, but forgot my camera, around 1 or 1:30, so I went back today, only to get attacked by flies, so I just picked up, went to Rite Aid for Deet, and got stuck in road construction, but it was all OK, because I had a good start yesterday.

This is where I started. I had been here earlier in the year, and had a hard time getting the tree to fit into the composition, so I've been wanting to do a bigger one ever since. the first one was 11x14, this one is 14x16.

Yesterday the sky had clouds, and I liked them.  I also liked the shadow on the far hill,  giving me a real dark area to work with, but today the sun was out, and the whole scene had changed, so I decided to go ahead and get that rabbit!

I lightened up the far hill, and tried to go  over the sky, (I hadn't fully developed the clouds anyway)

It was really bright today, and hot in the sun, that brought out those nasty little bee-like flies, that seem to come out of nowhere, Yeah Deet!

The road was really dry and reflected all that light back up at me, and really vie's for attention with all the other elements, like the tree.

This is me.

This is where I ended up today, and is at the same place as the one at the top, as you can see I put in one telephone pole, and one stop sign, I usually ignore these things, but I thought what the hell.




I think I'll go back, maybe tomorrow.

The Beaver pond, 5 X's this season! all's quiet on the eastern front.

70+  F Beautiful!

This was painted on Sunday morning 8-25-13. There was nobody there, shooting rifles or not.  I'm at the base of Ned's rock looking south east.

I had to eliminate the tree branches on the right and "look around" them. This photo was taken at the beginning, of my session, and there was a fair amount of change toward the finish.

Here I am, a nice shady spot!  Maybe the last time for the season, maybe I'll get to return in the fall, we'll see.

The Back Bay, afternoon (de)light, more lessons

Clear sunny 75  F

Saturday afternoon, 8-24-13 I had gotten back from 7th Lake and had time before our "booze cruise" that evening, there were a bunch of people shooting up the beaver pond and Alane thought it best if I didn't go back there, besides I found the light in the back bay.

 The contrasts were striking!  I've done a few paintings back here, I'm literally on the Cabin lot, which is not that big, so I can walk back to re-fill my coffee cup. It's also a challenge, Once I start to look, colors and values seem to shift at random.

I would have sworn that  there were more browns than greens!

Still an awesome spot!  The light changed quickly, and even though I'm not pleased with the product,  I did learn something.  I don't know what  it was that I learned, but it has something to do with attacking an elusive light.

Lessons close to The Cabin (Don't forget the bug spray)

Perfect sunny & mild.

We went up to the Cabin for the weekend, this is Saturday, 8-24-13. I took the princess over to 7th Lake, and landed at Arnold's Rock.  I proceeded to hike East on the path, looking for a spot, I past the place I had painted a few weeks ago, and continued past, beyond the 2nd lean-to, to find this spot.

Something about this birch tree, and how it's leaves picked up the sunlight, with the lake and hills in the background. (sorry about the photo) It's like there were two paintings going on, the lake, mountain and sky were one, and the tree was another, and I wanted to make it work. I started with the big picture, and worked the tree into it, but really don't know if that was a good idea or not.

Here was the place, It got buggy and I forgot my bug spray, so yeah they got bad, I found some natural repellent at the Cabin, that I used for later paintings over the weekend, but really missed the deet, and the smell of toxins in the wilderness.

There were other lessons here. I don't know if I learned from any of them, but the challenge remains, and a bad painting is better than a good anything else.

  I did two more paintings this weekend, I'll blog about them later.....

Duel Hollow day 2: A Snowy Egret visits.

85  F  Hot and hazy.

I want back to this spot yesterday, but it was around 3 and the sun was too far over, and there was no reflection in the water, I had also forgot my pallet, so I just went home. Today I got there just before 12 noon, and the added haze was perfect,  It gave me some extra depth to work with and I needed all that.

When you sit somewhere and are really quiet, wildlife will come by to visit, what a handsome creature!

You can see the added sense of depth with the hazy sky. I swear that some of the greens had moved into some more ochre-y color, but ...

This is where it ended up today, I didn't touch the water or a lot of things, but I think I moved it along, I may take it back up for more, we'll see.

It's so hard to distinguish one green from the next, that I thought I had over exaggerated the subtle color changes, and maybe that's what it takes,

Hudson River Falls @ Hudson Crossing Park, Schuylerville, NY

74  F  cloudy

I drove Hope to a birthday party this afternoon and drove back by Hudson Crossing Park, off Rt. 4, just north of Schulyerville, I've wanted to paint there for a while, there is lock #5, and a whole bunch of old railroad ruins that go through the river, a totally cool place.  At the end of the path, at the north tip of the island is this waterfall, and the sound is enough to lull the savage painter.

This is a vast part of the river and I thought I could make it work, it was difficult. After about 45 minutes I realized that this just wasn't my thing, but I pushed on.  It's not often that I have almost unlimited amount of time, and with the cloudy sky, there was hardly any change over time.

Here is well over an hour into it, I ended up spending  tons of time on the falls, and although I think it came out OK, it has a primitive aspect that I just don't like. I put the landscape in almost last, and didn't know if I could pull off the bridge (way in the background)  But I liked how it came out.

This is where the painting ended up after almost 3 1/2 hours! I worked out some water issues that I think worked out, but did I learn anything? This composition was tough from the start, and like last Sunday's painting with the railroad bridge over the Hudson, this man/nature subject presents challenges that purely natural scenes do not.

Truly a dramatic spot, it also had convenient blocks for sitting and working!

This is the gate that Leif Johnson made, This is a gem of a park, made from an industrial age ruin,  complete with a great playground and sculpture.

Duel Hollow Rd, today

80 F sunny,  some haze.

This was the same scene as the Holy Grail of last month, but less water, more haze and way less time, so I tried to work a sketch and focus on foliage, Ha!

I got a bit of shimmer off the stream and a bit of shadow from the bank and I thought that It would be a challenge to work the greens. It made a mess!

Here's Duel Hollow Rd. looking S.E.

Here is just before I had to stop, not finished, but did I learn anything?  Should I take it back and work it some more? I wanted to try and see the light without having any sky (except in the reflection), but I didn't get it, maybe next time.

Back on the farm, August greens on Rouse Rd.

73  F  clear with some clouds, beautiful!

I found this location last August, and thought it was the quintessential grazing hill in the deep part of the summer. I love the light over the hill and the demeanor of the overgrowth. It's also a quiet farm road with very little traffic.

Here's my start.

This is at the 1 1/2 hr. mark. I changed my pallet to include burnt sienna, instead of cadmium red, and  I mixed it with ultramarine blue.  I kept Prussian blue off the pallet until I decided I couldn't go without.  I started with that dark mix, and then mixed the field a cadmium lemon and cobalt blue, which is way too bright, I then covered most of that bright up with a grayer reality.

Another 1/2 hr. or so later here is where I got it to. The contrasts on this hill seems to be always weird, It seems I can never get the darks dark enough, and the middle tones don't know where to go.

The whitish flowering vine, was quite impressive and I've never seen this before, they were all over the place and picked up the light like nobody's business.The cows came arount too but It was too late to add them in.Another thing to work on, cow.

This painting is actually from September, and not the exact scene.I think my wok has improved dramatically since then.  Look back on my blog from 2-14-13 and You can see the winter view of the same place, fun!

Hudson River @ Rodgers Island, Ft. Edward, NY

75  F  crisp and clear.

Here I am at the shore of the Hudson!

I've seen this R.R. bridge many times, and wanted to come here and paint, but it's a bit of a trek from my house, so I used the opportunity of driving by on my way to deliver some paintings and seeing the Georgia O'keefe show at the Hyde.

Here it is about 1/2 hr. into it. As it was I spent some time trying to find my way down to this spot, and at this point, it was looking rather bleak.

 This is the highway bridge, Route 196,  I think, I don't think you could see me from the highway, but I definitely could hear the traffic.

This is where I left off today, although I think I'll touch it up a bit later.

A welcome sign.

I bushwhacked through this area from the visitor's center at Rodgers Island.   Normally I'll park, then hike around a bit before I drag my stuff, today I spent about 1/2 hr. to find this spot.

Home sweet home

Look at Nature, work independently and solve your own problems -Winslow Homer


72 F  clear skies, low humidity

This is Waits Hill Rd. looking southwest just before sunset.  It's the first painting since I got back from the Adirondacks, and It felt great to get out and paint!  This spot is a favorite and this view I did last year.

This is about 1/2 hr. into it.  I got it going pretty quick (it's only 9x12) of coures I started at 615 or so.

What's not to love?

The sun was going down, and the shadows longer, and besides that I was liking the spontaneity of this, so I stopped myself before I ruined it.  I thought I had the green closer to it that this photo shows, but the sun was in my eye...