Capturing Some Late Fall Color

I had some time to kill in the morning so I grabbed my plein air bag and headed out to one of the nearby parks to see if I could catch some leftover color still on the trees.

After driving around a bit I settled on a stand of trees with a good light and shadow pattern to help add some depth to the scene. I spent an hour capturing the light before it changed.

Late Fall Color,  8x10 oil on canvas panel.

Sketch at Dawn

Dawn Core Creek Park  8x10 oil

On the drive to work each day I have been watching the landscape start to wake up from darkness to just being able to see the objects out there.
We have been in a warm spell this year so there has been a lot of hazy mornings with blue greys in the distance creating nice atmospheric conditions. On the way to work I'm on a highway so I don't have time to stop and take pictures so I have to try to remember what I see for later use.

This morning I went to Core Creek Park which is only 8-10 minutes away to try to capture the subtleties of dawn. I set up at a favorite spot and did my best to capture what was in front of me, unfortunately I was out of practice and made a mess of everything, so when I got home I adjusted the painting to what I remembered from the morning while it was still fresh in my mind.
The lake and the far shoreline values blended together creating one solid mass, there was a slight mist on the lake making the water ever so slightly lighter. I liked the thin reflection of the sky at the edge of the water separating land from water.

As I was cleaning up this morning an older couple pulled in next to me and the husband asked me where they could see a nice sunset. I told them the spot I use for painting sunsets which is at another park about 7 minutes away. He smiled and said, I told my wife a painter probably knows where good sunset viewing spots are.

Experimenting with different reference materials, winter landscape,11x14

Winter landscape  11x14  oil on wood panel



I did this plein air sketch (below) about 7 years ago late in the afternoon on the way home from work. It is very basic but captured the warm lighting that afternoon. A small patch of snow was left hidden behind a sloping bank and I wanted to capture the sun light on the snow and the shadows.
I always liked this sketch and wanted to use it or parts of it in a painting.

Seeing the snow we had recently inspired me want to try a snow scene, so I looked thru my sketchbook for ideas and came across a sketch I did last year at a local park, it was a footbridge crossing over a small brook.

I want to try combining the lighting from the plein air sketch and the composition from the pencil sketch to see what I could arrive at.

Landscape painting,autumn cornfield, Core Creek Park

Autumn Cornfield  8x10 oil

Another overcast sky from this fall. I did like the contrast the tan colored cornfield provided against the stormy looking sky.

Gathering the last bit of autumn color

I went to Core Creek Park  at dawn last Saturday to try to catch the last bit of autumn color before its gone. I didn't take my paints only the camera because I wanted to record as much as I could during the first hour after sunrise. The moon was setting during this time slot so for me that was a added incentive .
I am looking for ideas, possibilities, inspiration, and I love the light at that time of morning.

The first rays of sunlight lighting up the trees. A lot of times I paint from the spot I'm parked at, I have a view looking down to the lake which is in back of me here. We will be back to this field in an hour.

I liked the shadowed area at the bottom of the brush and the shadow going across the grass.

An explosion of color.

My first thought was to put a deer in the field highlighted with sunlight.

The picture doesn't show the rich colors in the tree, I like the highlighted edges.

The same tree looking from the side.

I was getting ready to leave when I spotted these deer. This is the same field I started at (first picture) an hour ago. This is prime mating season, I guess they wanted a little privacy so they headed into the woods.

A nice 8 point buck.  Wait for me dear.

20 minutes of practice

I was at  Core Creek Park for the last 20 minutes of sunlight today.  This is what it looked like when I got there. I took this picture before I set up knowing I was going to lose the sun shortly.

By the time I was halfway through the painting the sunlight was gone completely, I painted the sunlit trees first before the effect was gone.
I try to keep the major shapes of the painting simple, it helps me cover the canvas when time is limited.

When I got home I cleaned it up a little.

5x7 oil on canvas

Plein air practice

My brother Chris and I got out for a couple hours early Saturday morning for a little plein air painting practice. We only had a 2-3 hour time frame before we had to be home to take care of the days commitments.
A ten minute drive put us at Core Creek park right before sunrise. On the drive over  I saw mist hanging over an open field and mentioned that the lake will have a good blanket of fog over it.
I had started my painting before the sun cleared the tree line and stayed with that lighting even though the sun was blasting us in the eyes when I finished.

I didn't or I should say I couldn't take any on location pictures because I broke my rule of making sure I have charged batteries for my camera before I go out. When I went to use the camera it was flashing low batteries. Chris had his camera so he was the photographer for the day.

This is my sketch of the scene, 8x10 oil

                                                                                                   

Chris captured the scene with the sun up over the tree line and got a different effect.

I liked the shadows under the background trees and the fog lit up by the sun.

5x7 oil

We went to another part of the park to scout another spot and as we were setting up I noticed the sun starting to fade so I quickly put down a quick sketch of a patch of light and some trees.

When we looked up thru the trees it had completely clouded over.

I did get one picture of Chris with his sketch on the easel before my camera quit.

Core Creek Park, landscape oil painting, 12x16

Core Creek Park  12x16 oil painting

This park is only ten minutes away so it is a convenient place to paint. It provides me with subjects to paint all year round as long as I keep my eyes and mind open to the possibilities.
It helps to have a place close by where you don't have to do too much traveling to paint.

Moonlit Nocturne, Core Creek Park, 11x14 oil painting

                                       
Moon Over the Lake 11x14 oil

This was painted from one of the sketches I did on Sept 20 at Core Creek Park during the Harvest Moon.

  When attempting to paint at night a lot of my time  on location is spent just looking at and memorizing what is in front of me. After I lay out my paint and have brushes and everything ready I turn the light out on my easel and let my eyes adjust to the dark.  When my eyes have adjusted I start comparing the values of each object in the scene to see what is darker, lighter or the same value. I'm actually painting the scene in my mind before I pick up a brush, so when I start to paint I have the confidence to paint what I already know.

Night Painting the Harvest Moon, Core Creek Park

I went out to the park right before sunset to wait for the harvest moon to rise. I used two  8x10  reused (gessoed over) panels.

In the first sketch I still had a little bit of light left in the landscape where you could just make out colors. My concern though was capturing the values of the scene the best I could.

                                                                                          

                                                                                             

For the second sketch I went around to a different part of the park that would give me a view of  some water and the moons reflection.

As you can see in the picture I had my Mighty Bright light clamped on to my easel giving me enough light to see with.

Now I have some reference material to use for studio paintings that I have confidence in. I had taken photos too but they were useless, they just don't capture what the eyes really see.

Tree of Love

6"x6" oil

I saw this tree while Maria and I were fishing Saturday morning. I can't tell you how many times I passed this tree and never noticed or wondered anything before but Sat. morning seeing the light reflecting off the grass and hitting the trunk made me take notice and suddenly I was aware of the multitude of initials carved into the trunk over the years.
I painted this from photos I shot, I was careful to get the right exposure for the shadowed area showing the reflected light and the carved initials.

Evening Clouds over Core Creek Park

Evening Clouds Core Creek Park  11x14  oil

I painted this using last weeks plein air sketch as a reference.
When I was en route to the park last week I remember looking at the sky and seeing all the giant cumulus clouds and quickly decided what I was going to paint.

The park is only 10 minutes away so theres not a lot of travel time, which makes it convenient to be able to run there to sketch for an hour or two.

Sunday plein air sketches

Went out this morning to Core Creek park to do some sketching.

A view looking across the lake as the sun was pushing through the thin clouds.

Went back up after dinner and found a spot affording me a view of the sky and the clouds overlooking the corn field.

I had to stop at this point because the light was changing dramatically, when I turned around this is what I saw. The winds kicked up pretty bad and the sky got dark quickly, time to leave.

Moon painting

Moon Reflections  8x10  acrylic

I wanted to experiment a little more with the moon and its reflections trying to capture a quiet mood.
 By keeping the shapes big and most of the values close together I was able to accomplish a feeling of peacefulness in the painting.
I used the plein air sketch from the last post as reference and adjusted things from there.

(SOLD)

Autumn Landscape Core Creek Park 12x16 acrylic

I finished this painting this weekend that was sitting around for about a year unfinished.
As you can see in the entry in my sketch book I stopped off at the park after work in November 2010.
The light was just right but all I had was my sketch book because I had not planned on going to the park. On afternoons when the light is right sometimes I'll make a small detour to the park to look around.
I'm getting better at attending to unfinished paintings. The painting from the last post was one too.

Core Creek Park at Dusk

                                 Dusk at Core Creek Park  12x16 oil


This painting is about the quiet mood at dusk. This night Maria and I were here fishing when she made mention of the pink tinged clouds. I kept the lake surface calm echoing the quiet feeling of the night.

Summer Landscape Core Creek Park 11x14

Core Creek Park Summer Landscape  11x14 oil


This painting was done from a plein air study I did a couple weeks ago  (a post on July 1st) when I was out painting with my brother Chris at Core Creek Park.  A few things interested me about this scene, first was the strip of bright grass separating the background from the middle distance trees.
The other was seeing into the shadows on the group of trees on the left next to the walking path. I wanted to maintain the contrast of shadow and sunlight but still being able to see in the shadow areas.
I added a jogger on the path to lead you into the scene and had the shadows of the trees mimic the shape of the walking path.

I am rediscovering this local county park the more I go there. Even though we have fished there when we were younger and I have painted there over the years I think the more I learn about painting the more things I see that I didn't before. Its like seeing the park with fresh eyes.
Core Creek Park is only 6 to 8 minutes away so its an easy trip when your time is limited.
 I'm going to try to do a series of paintings within this park over the course of a year to see where my interests lie.

Afternoon Plein air

I stopped off at Core Creek Park on the way home from work today, I had my cigar box setup with me and painted this sitting on the back of the truck. This is painted on a 5x7 canvas panel.
With the constant winds we had today the clouds were zipping by and the sun kept playing hide and seek so I would have to wait for the sun to reappear to paint things that were in sunlight. I liked how the row of  bushes in the foreground were top lit separating them from the stand of  trees farther back in the distance. The clouds were changing by the minute so I fixed a group in my mind and painted away.

Green is such a challenging color to paint but it forces you to look harder for things like  color intensity, values, and tests your color mixing on the spot. At least I have a whole summer to practice.

Saturday Morning Plein-air

Went to Core Creek Park Saturday at sunrise hoping to see this big whitetail buck I saw there two weeks ago. Been trying to get a picture of him but have  not been successful. On my ride thru the area I spotted these trees lit up by the sun  and decided to take advantage of the situation. I like the way the bright colors stood out against the coolness of the frost on the grass. This is a 5x7, a perfect size for capturing the fast moving light at sunrise.

                                                                                                                                                                                      

 The next painting I did is a 8x10. What interested me in this scene was the frost still laying in the shadows not touched by the sun yet. I finished up about 9:30 and  headed out.
I am going to do a larger painting of the 5x7. I like the way it portrays the winding down of the autumn season.



Morning painting session

8x10 oil            (SOLD)


Went out at dawn this morning, I had a couple of hours to burn so I went to Core Creek Park to see what the morning would bring. After looking around a little I settled on this spot. I wanted to try to capture the early morning hazy atmosphere. My brother Chris and his son Eric are going to join me at sunrise tommorrow,we are going to get an early start before Mother Nature turns up the heat.