My Lowville Plein Air

[Moosehead]

As you know-I was out with Jim yesterday.

I faced another way. Here's mine.

The sun kept shining, then disappearing behind clouds. The photo is during a cloud over.

The red/orange on the left foreground tree was really quite bright and light in value. I didn't want to use too much white, as it would have reduced the chroma and turned it pinkish-too much yelloe would have made it less red tha I saw, so I tried a bit of optical mixing. I don't usually do that, and I'm not sure it worked. so

1-painting
2-photo
3-set up

[James or Jimmy Jim]

Jon, there was interesting light yesterday - sun, no sun, sun, no sun. I'm amazed that you were able to finish the painting.

I've been noticing that every time you go out, your drawing skills keep getting better!

I wish I had my camera near me when that guy was laughing with you, saying that your painting just looked like me. Or when the dog peed beside you.

[Moosehead]

Thanks Jim!

[Wyn Easton]

Hi Jon, I like what you did with the color in the trees. You did manage to get the red to look lighter without going to pink. The yellow tree also looks great. What I'm having a problem with is the value/color of the large grassy area and the water. The grass kind of reads like water to me. In the picture, the water seems darker than the grass.

[Moosehead]

Thanks Wyn-and you're right.

[James or Jimmy Jim]

I don't know if I fully agree. We always say that a photo doesn't capture colour or value correctly, so the photo isn't necessarily a good reference. Jon has two eyes and the camera has only one (c).

Jon's water is darker than the grass, just not as much as in the photo. Also, I saw the actual painting and it's not as washed out as it appears here. Pretty good if you ask me (which you didn't, but that's okay).

Wyn means well, but these jpegs don't really do the paintings justice.

[Carrie]

I think I agree with Jim on the jpeg issue. I know we only get about aa quarter of the actual strength of the image here as the file size has to be kept so small. The stronger the value shift in your painting, the better it shows up here. I know when I walk into a gallery with a few small Plein Airs on the back wall, I'm drawn to them for the light dark pattern, their believable color shifts. Maybe there is something to be learned from that, about really pushing value?
Carrie

[glo_anne]

Very, Very nice painting. I especially like the way you did the middle tree in the background! Great! ~ Glo