Two new paintings in, 6 out the door, great show, time to crash!

55  F  clouds moving in.
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I'm on the bank of the Battenkill in Shushan, NY  it's about 8:30 A.M. The sun hasn't risen high enough to illuminate the river, but I figure it's on it's way. I've only painted here once before, last year, It's under the covered bridge museum in Shushan.

Here is my start, it's 9 x 12. I wasn't sure how fast the clouds were going to come in today, so I figured I'd start small, besides I'm tired and it's early.

There's a path to this spot, it's steep, but not too bad.

I used thinned out alizerine crimson for the tone, which is just so bright, but I'm no longer frantic about covering it. Here it's almost covered, and I'm sure if you look closely you can see it peek through the finished painting.

The scene has some great contrasts, even without the bridge and it's reflection in it. As the sun came up the darkness of the large bank of trees, moderated into partly lit areas,

Most everything is now in play.

I'm standing on two rocks, where I balance is where my view point is, is this good?

The subject tree, on a small island in the river is now catching light just as I'd hoped.

Here is where it ended up after about 1 1/2 hours or so.  I's still attracted to places with little on no man-made things,  When your tired it's best to go with what you know.

Here is my "camp-site"














It was still early, and even though some clouds moved in, they were thin and it was bright nonetheless, so I went to another spot that I've done may times before:

Juniper Swamp rd. also in Shushan, NY.

I put in this dark, knowing full well that it was way more dark than what was there.  Last year I did all these grey paintings because I had so many grey days, and I wanted to push it in another direction ( how one pushes a day's light in another direction, well just ask Zeus)

Here it is mostly covered.

Here is where I ended up,  I finished with the brightest yellows and whites and I think they popped a bit, we'll see how they look back home.

Here is my little spot in Larry's  Barn, I sold 6 paintings total this weekend and got tons of positive re-enforcement, but all that socializing was exhausting and I'll need to de-compress.  I made a lot of new friends and contacts, so I'll be looking forward to all that.

Day 2 carbon copy of yesterday.

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64  F  Mostly sunny!

Here is where I ended up today after about another 1 1/2 hrs.  I got there at about 1:30, even though I had wanted to start at noon, when the sun would be brighter on the barn roof.

I was able to put in the cupola, telephone poles, wires and cows, I was proud of getting the wires in by "drawing" them with my pallet knife.

Here is where I started today, I struggled with the barn, silo and sky, not getting the proper shade on the barn roof. The slate of the roof reflects the light in a complex way, and a chunk of grey just doesn't do it. What does? I have no idea! In this picture you can see the general brightness of the roof, by 2:30 or so it's completely different.

Maybe I should have gone with the roof in shadow, maybe that's another painting.

Big shadow, big barn, Oak Hill Rd, Cambridge, NY Day 1

61  F  Sunny!

Here is the quintessential farm: barn, silo, road, even cows!

I started at about noon, so there were great contrasts, the sun was bright on the roof of the barn.

First color,  the darkest would end up getting into the next colors, maybe I should have scraped it off.

I'm working 16 x 20, my largest size, so I'm throwing the paint on, mixing then applying with the pallet knife.

Here most of the canvas is covered.

Now I have the basics,  I wasn't sure if I wanted to put in the cupola or not, but now I think I'll put it in tomorrow, as well as the telephone poles, and the cows.

Here is where I ended up at 2:30 today.  I figured I'd need more time on this, the light had started to change at least a few things and of course the bus was coming. This is a working farm and the farmers were in and around getting food and water for the cows, and of course there were tractors coming and going, but I didn't put them in either.

Past Peak, down the other side, Rouse Rd. Cambridge, NY.

60  F  Cloudy, windy.

Here is where I ended up today.  I left the house feeling lucky because it wasn't raining, I wanted a barn or some other piece of architecture, (so I thought), I drove by one of my favorite spots on Rouse Rd. to drive around and come back to it,  I did, however look in this direction to get the silos.  It also lacks any sky, so I liked that challenge.

Some times it doesn't look too far off from nature,  I knew the light would be hard to capture, and I was relying on the reflection off the silos and the barn roofs for the light.

I started with green because it was the biggest and the most different part of the picture, especially considering the tone I'm starting with.  This is advice from Robert D. Hunter, and I try to keep it in mind, such a basic principle, like breathing, but if you forgot what would happen?

I try to "sight size" the landscape, often I forget where I need to stand, so today I used the water jug to step behind, I then "line-up" an element in the landscape to the edge of the panel, today it was the edge of the third silo. Everything can be measured from there as long as I stand in the same spot with the same posture.  Squinting helps as does using the brush handle to "measure" the scene to the panel.

So this is redundant.

This is about 1/2 way into it, maybe about an hour or so,  The hardest part it seemed was the opposite hill,  there were a lot of both value changes and color changes, but all of those values and hues need to know their place, often they fight with their brothers in the fore ground or otherwise cause trouble and with no sky....

I'm being redundant again, just indulge me.

Closer, closer.....













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Return trip day 2 get it or don't @ Jodie Rd. and Owlkill Rd. White Creek, NY.

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69  F  not as cloudy as yesterday, Beautiful!

Here is where I ended up with the painting today after about another hour or so.   I had a bit more contrasts, so I thought I'sd sneak them in, since yesterday I just couldn't get the darks dark enough, but the sky doesn't really go with the rest of the landscape, oh well I couldn't change everything!

This is my set up not fancy but it works!

Here is where I was, intersections like this provide nice large areas to pull off of the road,  Down in the bend of the road, is where I painted a number of the "Owlkill Creek" paintings.

When you look at it like this you can see just what is completely different. I may or may not matter.

Even more painting in my shop

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Jodie Rd. @ Owlkill Rd. White Creek, NY (Day 1)

73  F  A bit cloudy.

Here is where I ended up today

We had a reasonable contrast today but the shadows were lame, it was warm and there was moisture in the air.

Here's the start, I had forgotten to take an earlier pic.

Here it is after about an hour or so,  I had a hard time trying to get the dark areas to stay looking dark, and I'm not sure if it was me of the clouds flirting between hazy-bright and hazy-dark. 

Here is where it stopped today, I'd like to work on the foreground/field area, it needs some more sharper definition, I also have some mid-range issues I'd like to develop, so I guess I'll go back for a short fix.