painting early SPRING - NE USA

[bluochre]

we might get some vibrant sun, but with it perhaps some chill. . . .the greens of spring are not showing, the leftovers from the previous autumn pick up light, sometimes more vibrantly than at other times. such was the case the other afternoon when i painted this alla prima study.

this is a nearby scene, actually not far from the UNDERPASS/OVERPASS painting posted earlier. walkable from the house.

because of our past winter, many of the dried vegatation appears to have a quality which reflects light more than after past winters. at least, that's the way it is around here.

my best. . . . .

[Wayne Gaudon]

Astounding use of color

.. I had this morning off and the sun was out so I grabbed my junk and dashed down to get my vehicle to get over to the park and by the time I pulled out of the underground parking, the sun was lost behind clouds. Went out got a coffee and estimated that the sun wasn't due to pass through for a few hours so I headed home and worked on a study .. bah humbug ..

Guess I'll just have to settle for looing at your piece. It is a delight as always.

[bluochre]

i appreciate your words, wayne.

i am still having a touchy time REALLY allowing the colors in this work and another one i posted to appear as they do in real life. i do no enhancements, i use a powerful flat bed scanner, but still things don't appear as i'd wish. i generally have done so much better when i use a 35mm camera and appropriate lighting. this, of course, takes time.

you'll have other days to follow the sun ! but then, some folks like the overcast days. . . . .!

my best . . . . .

:cat:

[Wayne Gaudon]

.. nothing looks like a painting except a painting .. that is why more paintings hang than pictures .. we can get close with the camera and scanner but we can't capture the sunshine or suttle color changes like we can in a painting.

Later,

[LarrySeiler]

Very nice piece!!! I too like that early early spring where there are dead grasses matted down giving somewhat a silky shine...and a hint of new life sprouting beneath.

I think I'll repost perhaps one of those for the sake of discussion in a new thread. Also, I find a particular charm too in painting in the constant of a marvelous overcast day. The molecules of moisture that hangs in the air casts an illuminiscent glow that allows for the longest of alla prima sessions.

AGain...I like this piece quite well. Very cool...

Larry

[CarlyHardy]

I don't know about the rest of you...but don't you think that plein air painters find the unusual in the usual....or the wonder in the mondane. Who would have thought that this overpass scene would have made such a great painting!!

Love it,
carly

[bluochre]

i smile thinking about your statement carly ! it's true, i guess, that as a plein air painter, one can paint whatever one wishes ! but, i've never talked about that with anyone. . . .why, because i do believe that many painters or art enthusiasts look for 'pretty pictures' of pretty scenes. perhaps. for me, i paint what catches me at the moment i see it. fortunately i can walk 20 steps outside the door to discover anew a scene i've observed 20 times before. but, at this moment, the light is right....and my eyes see something special. it's about what effects the light produces on whatever i see.

yes, larry, i too love the overcast days, when something very iridescent touches the colorations in the landscape. some of the best colorations come from the overcast moments. i recently painted an evening scene, fog floating up over the lake, the waning moon providing an unusual light - glowing strands extending through fog, catching segments of nature below. i have been unable to really scan this study well enough to place it on here. maybe with a 35 mm image, all will work.

thanks for commenting, both of you. . . . i appreciate your ideas and thoughts. i paint for no other reason than to capture what i see. whether the final product appears flawed or not bothers me not. i can return to the moment with the study/painting (whatever you like to call it) ! and, upon returning, relive my humble feelings of being before the majesty of nature.

my best

:cat:

[LarrySeiler]

Originally posted by CHClements
don't you think that plein air painters find the unusual in the usual....or the wonder in the mondane.
carly

I've shared this story before, and I'm sure a few others have a story similar...but one day painting along a highway nearby of a creek/pond that passes thru a small bridge, a gentleman pulled his vehicle over and walked back to check out what I was doing. He was polite and asked if I'd mind, or if he was a bother. Of course...it never bothers me and I see it as a chance for others to be educated.

I kept painting...though talking, a friendly eye-to-eye connection from time to time...but before he left, he commented he had driven by this scene a hundred times going back and forth to work but never had noticed how tranquil and pretty the setting was before.

I know that once in awhile...that ole guy drives by...and envisions me still standing there...I know that he probably looks and thinks, "wow...pretty! This would be a good day for that guy to be here painting!"

One of our tasks, our services to humanity Carly, is as you said. It is to take the mundane; the ordinary...and invite eyes to look again for the very first time. To really "see" and recognize how we have trivialized our world. To take assessment how our thoughts have so consumed us that we are aging and flying by things in this life that as a result of missing are an impoverishment to us.

Everytime I read some opinion by some artist in another forum, espousing the merits of invention, novelty, a new art form and in the same breath puts down paintings such as realism and landscapes as though they were no longer timely and acceptable art forms...I think pitifully for a person that does not understand the potential of being a link for humanity to take a look at their world and foster a deep sense of gratitude for living. Too many artists worry about how originality might elevate and assure their place in the annals of art history, that they miss that art can be a tool to serve the community of man; can empower them. Can give them eyes to see.

Who knows in those quiet reflective moments how many dead end roads of turmoil, stress, potential life's miseries have not been given the possibility of a new lift, a release on life, another perspective that suddenly makes coping seem possible because one has possibly seen or heard a simple mechanism for appreciating life anew? I consider such a privilege, and pity the kind of egocentrism that does not understand nor appreciate such empowerment.

Larry

[bluochre]

Originally posted by lseiler


Who knows in those quiet reflective moments how many dead end roads of turmoil, stress, potential life's miseries have not been given the possibility of a new lift, a release on life, another perspective that suddenly makes coping seem possible because one has possibly seen or heard a simple mechanism for appreciating life anew? I consider such a privilege, and pity the kind of egocentrism that does not understand nor appreciate such empowerment.

Larry

:clap:

:clap:

[dnip24]

the colors looks fine you need to improve the background color!