Fishing and painting week in upstate Pa.

We had a wonderful week of fishing on this trip, the weather was fantastic with the temps starting in the high 30's in the mornings and getting in the mid 60's in the afternoon.
I did some painting early in the morning before we left for the streams and again at dusk when we got back.

When we arrived on Monday afternoon we noticed the maple was still green with a touch of red leaves at the top.

After we got settled in I set up my cigar box easel to do a sketch of the mountain and pine trees at sunset.

I liked the way the tip of the mountain and clouds were lit up with the last rays of sunlight.
This is a 5x7 on canvas board. All paintings were done in acrylics this year.

The streams were a little low this year so we had to take a stealthy approach so we didn't spook the fish before we could cast.

Sometimes long casts were necessary if we couldn't get close.

I did a sketch of a tree and fall leaves as the sun came up one morning.

And when we got back from fishing I did a sketch of a pine tree catching the last rays of the sun.

Each night we had a sky filled with stars and the moon, Tues night we watched the meteor shower.

It was a great trip, I have some material to work with this winter.

And the maple tree in the yard that was green when we got there had turned completely red, now we can go home.

Plein Air Day

My brother Chris and I got out for a little painting on Monday and headed to Tyler State Park down by the covered bridge. Its been a while since I was out painting and I felt a little rusty.
 I tried to  capture the atmosphere of the sunny morning. I have enough information in the sketch to do a bigger painting.

8x10 oil

When we got home we got a little more practice in and painted one of Maria's flower pots.
I put the finishing touches on it in the studio.

8x10 oil


My wife Maria has been doing some rock painting for her flower plots, we will go out and spend a hour or two hunting for rocks along river banks and come home with a bag full of rock canvases.

These are Maria's creations,

Plein Air sketches, oh deer what a morning.

I got an early start Saturday morning, when I pulled into the park I was greeted with thick fog from the lake. I slowly drove around looking for deer and when I saw the first sign of color in the sky I went to the small parking spot over looking the lake.

I like this time of morning when you can just barely start making out the colors in the landscape and the sky goes thru its quickly changing light show. I did this sketch as the intense color started, by the time I finished the sky had changed completely.
As I was putting things away to move to the next spot I turned around and saw a herd of deer had gathered in the field  behind me. That explains the dog barking earlier.

I moved around to the back of the park where last week I saw this field starting to get a nice yellow color to it.

As I was setting up these two does decided to investigate why this person was in the corner of their field.

This is the 5x7 field sketch done that morning.

11x14 studio painting done with acrylics

My interest was the field in the middle distance so I darkened the foreground shapes and added more of a golden color to the field to help make a more dramatic picture.