22 June 2014

and again!

I have been doing other things besides plein air painting these last few weeks, but not documenting that work yet, so here we go: another plein air blog post.

Today we went out past Okotoks, sorta near the junction of hwy 549 and rr 338, just above the Sheep River valley.  Beautiful spot, filled with the type of Alberta prairie stuff I love - lots of long wild grasses and flowers of all sorts, very meadow-y and beautiful, a bit damp yet, but much to our surprise no mosquitoes!  After all that rain!  Lucky us.


steel sky woman
the view

steel sky woman
the preliminary sketch
Dirty camera lens, heh.  Still, good for field shots  :)

steel sky woman
the palette
In addition to these colours I used raw sienna and cadmium green, finding I needed to warm things up a bit mid-way through.  Around 7pm things go a bit more gold...

steel sky woman
the almost-completed work
I wound up altering this one a wee bit after we got home.

steel sky woman
before, in the field
Above, what it looked like when we packed up to go.  
Below, what it looks like now: 

steel sky woman
after, on the back deck
The main change I made was to the top edge of the trees at left, and a bit of the hillside beyond.  I also brightened those dabs of blue in the foreground - a slough with just a bit of water showing through the long, darker grasses.

It's not often I change a painting after leaving the field, and I can only really do it with any degree of authenticity immediately we arrive home, while my memory of the place is very fresh.








That last one I quite like.  Sometimes the old camera gets the focus bang-on.

No comments: