Great Falls, VA -- another day

Along this stream above Great Falls, yellow leaves were everywhere.  In my quest to break out of some patterns I'd gotten too comfortable with, I painted on a vertical canvas and put the emphasis on the color yellow.  I have more work -- maybe a lot of work -- to go on this and I'm hoping to get back into it later this week.

Great Falls, Va -- Above the falls

The reflection of the log in the water first caught my eye -- the colors on this very chilly fall morning were what rooted me to this spot.  Several ducks floated in and out of this little channel above Great Falls and I added a few to the scene.

My goal, based on looking at my recent work, was to paint without a horizon line.  No vistas. Look at something close to me.  I was only partly successful -- I ended up putting the water's edge not so far from where I've been placing my horizon line.

Kayak at Swain's Lock, reason for an art blog

It was a really cold morning to paint!

One great reason to blog art is painfully evident by the work I've been doing at Swain's Lock.  It's a place with the Potomac river, the C&O Canal, woods, long vistas..... and apparently, one very static horizon line.  This is not something I'd been thinking about, but here it is, right in front of me -- a horizon set 2/3 of the way up the rectangle.  

Time for a fresh approach.

Swain's Lock, Again

Returning to Swain's Lock, I finished the painting started on Monday, adding red and trying to emphasize the distance in the painting.  It was a brighter day and I worked in more pure color to make the painting less gray.    I also had an old canvas of a painting I'd worked on near the spot where we were painting today, so I did a quick painting of the river with just a pair of  trees in the foreground.

Swain's Lock, Missing Red

I had about an hour and fifteen minutes to paint today and no time to adjust the colors on my palette.  So when I was asked "what color is missing?" I immediately answered "red."  I need to go back later this week and see where the red fits in.

This painting started with a black and white underpainting, which I slapped onto the board in about 20 minutes.  The morning was very gray,  a bit misty, even.  On the moments when the sun broke through, I had a completely different take on the scene.  

Bethesda in Black & White.. and Color

Yesterday I added color to the Black & White painting from 2 weeks ago and started another black & white painting.  I found the addition of color to the first one forced me to keep deep grays that I usually wouldn't have in my work.  I liked the result, which is why I started on the second painting in black & white.  The woman squatting with her dog was there for all of 2 minutes; her friend, seated on the planter edge next to her probably sat down for less than a minute.  I waited, painted other quick sketches of others on the trail, but no one sat down to give me a chance to refine the posture of the person seated on the ledge.  I'll be going back -- maybe bring my own model! -- to see if I can finish the underpainting and then put some color in another day.

In progress -- another day at the Women's Farm Market

Having decided that this work was going exactly nowhere, I painted over it... it's now underneath the 11/9 painting of the Waters House.