Another Paint-Out

Adams Farm, Oil on Linen, 11x14

Last Saturday I participated in the Adams Farm Paint Out in Walpole, MA,  for which 26 other artists were involved.  The painting on the left indicates the typically beautiful scenery available at the site.  As usual in setting up the landscape on canvas, one has to simplify.  The meadow between the barn and myself was rich in its wildflower display, requiring some generalization of color areas in the middle plane.  There was a small pond in the foreground and, happily, the shadows cast by nearby trees.  After a lunch break I began a second canvas.

Path by the Milkweed, Oil on Canvas, 11x14

The scene before me, dappled shadow on a trail, with milkweed, and an old tree by a bend in the path off to the left, suggested a looser treatment for its development.  there were distant figures (barely discernible)  which I added to the painting appearing beyond the bend, but the painting was rich in texture, showing much use of my trusty palette knife.
After completing this painting, I framed it to display in the barn for judging by the eminent painter Robert Douglas Hunter.  No prize for this one, but it was certainly fun to paint and to hone one's skills in plein air.

Off  Beavertail, Oil on Canvas, 11x14

 This painting (left) enabled me to get back to my favorite subject, the sea.  I had to exercise simplification even here.  There were many more rocks than shown here, but I retained the most noticeable boulders.  (In fact, I hope those students who painted with me at this spot last month will recognize the large rock formation on the left!)

At Save the Bay, Oil on Canvas, 8x10

This small pochade was done as I sat along a trail on the upper Narragansett Bay in 35-mph gusts.  With pochade box on my lap I reorded the scene before me.  No one would guess that this is Providence territory!