Cold, Fast

It was windy, I was painting all hunched up from how cold it was -- at the end of April! 45 minutes was about all I could take.

Merging Views

Last year, I painted a black and white study at the Capital Crescent Trail of a person crouching next to a dog. Not a finished painting by any stretch -- the figure on the right was disproportionally large and not sitting down. Today, a gray and rainy day, I took that work intending to paint over it, and instead, merged that view with what I was looking at.

Glen Echo Shopping Center

At the Glen Echo shopping center for a 45-minute painting this morning. The pharmacy window had wonderful reflections. I will be going back into this to work out some of the coloring of the buildings, but I think the general shape and the idea for the painting worked out pretty well.

Cooperative Llamas, Bad Water Bottles

A new addition to the reason not to have individual water bottles -- they roll over wet paintings in the back of the car. Smears aside, it was a nice enough way to spend the morning.

As for the llamas, they were much more cooperative today. The llamakeeper even offered to let me into the fenced in llama area but I was happy enough with a metal grate between me and those large spitting animals. They were sleepy this morning and more than one was lying down (or is that llying down in llama?).

Landon -- Farmhouse front (morning) & back (afternoon)

The morning painting goal was to show the white stone-lined driveway to the school, leading up to the farmhouse. I could see doing more work on that painting to address some issues with the perspective of the house.

In the afternoon, I brought back the painting from 2 days ago to finish it -- soften the parallel diagonals of the tree branches and terrain, add flowers and flowerpots, add changes of shape and color to the front lawn.

Kenwood -- a mob scene!

It was like trying to paint on the metro at rush hour. I've never seen so many people -- busloads -- in Kenwood as I encountered today. While I had this idea of capturing the people, by the end of an hour and a half, I felt like they'd captured me!

Since all the people I painted were in position just a few moments or at most minutes, I have to now find the happy medium between their fleeting image and finishing the painting.

Farmhouse at Landon

Madonna & Child

In the garden next to the farmhouse at Landon School, this terra cotta sculpture hangs over a small pool. At 11 am, there was only time for a quick study as the light was changing. Interestingly -- don't read too much into this! -- as the light flickered across the sculpture, it looked like the Madonna was caressing Jesus.

I'll be back there later today to paint the farmhouse. And tomorrow, cherry blossoms.