Learning something every Plein Air Session

Today I spent my morning at the Raven Glen Forest Preserve in Antioch, IL. It was a beautiful day and I am so happy that the weather cleared up for our plein air group meeting.

I took many photos of the area for later reference and after having a difficult session out there in the cold crisp morning I realized that taking a "cheap" paper to work on was not a good idea. The water was saturating the surface and making it warp out so bad that I was having a hard time getting the painting to look like anything. Then I tried a few smaller pieces with no luck and tore them up. Lastly, I folded the cheap paper and mounted it to my board and used very little water. It worked but my painting was not what I wanted in the sense of depth and color darkness, so it was a good lesson for me today.

After going home and sorting through the 75 pictures I shot, I ended up painting this scene on some good Arches 300 lb paper 12 x 16 size. I call it "Light from the east".

I LOVE TO PLEIN AIR!!!

Today I was able to attend my plein air session at the Reed-Turner Nature Center in Long Grove, IL. What a beautiful place! There are lots of trees with their leaves turning orange, red and yellow and densely grown foliage to look at. What a treat to be able to have no rain and clouds that were spectacular all morning long to paint. Here is the painting that I did from the session. It is 7 x 10 gouache on hot press. Gouache is becoming one of my favorite paint mediums, next to pastels. With the plein air though, its easy to transport my watercolors and gouache, so I concentrate on those mediums when plein airing.

Yankee the Dog!

Well, I have been waiting to post this painting so that my friend Cindy Gross would not see this gift I was planing on giving her and her husband, Ed for having us over to their home up on Turtle Lake. And today, I was able to surprise them with the painting of their dog Yankee.

Yankee is a labordoodle (not sure how you spell that) He is so sweet and cute. I thought it would make a nice gift for their kind generosity of sharing a Friday up at their home on Turtle Lake with Debbie and I.

We really enjoyed spending the day with them. They served us lunch and let us ride on their go-kart and paddle boat. Unfortunately the weather wasn't cooperating with us, so it rained a bit on and off all day.

Then Cindy and I sat at the table on their porch, looking out at the lake and plein aired some art, while Ed found something to work on in the barn and Debbie sat back with her book. That was really fun. We enjoyed the peaceful quiet of the short but sweet Friday retreat up at the Gross' home on Turtle Lake.

Here is the painting that I did of the view from the porch, looking out onto the lake. It is watercolor and gouache with some pastel accents that I added after I returned home.

Can't wait until the next time we can return. I just loved the peace and quiet. And of course the company!!!