View from Red Bud Isle

View from Red Bud Isle, 8 x 10

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This was painted all on-site last Saturday morning at our Plein Air Austin paint-out at a beautiful municipal dog park on Red Bud Isle in the middle of upper Ladybird Lake. I've been across the bridge that passes the isle hundreds of times, but had never stopped. Downtown Austin is a little over a mile downstream around this bend. This was painted relatively quickly (for me), as we got a late start due to the line of cars waiting to get in. Including set-up and packing up afterward, it took a little over two hours.

Workshop Work

Corona Del Mar State Beach, 8 x 10

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Last week I had the pleasure of attending a workshop in Newport Beach, California with Randall Sexton and a dozen or so other acolytes. Randall gave a demo each day and, among many other things, emphasized the importance of squinting down to help, not only identify value relationships, but to help with the overall composition through the abstract patterns made by the large dark masses. He also stressed the benefit of painting in "large puzzle pieces" to cover the canvas, without necessarily mapping in a line under-painting first. This can help keep the painting loose. The study above and the three following are all fairly quick plein air attempts at using these methods, without later going back to "fix" imperfections.

Lost Creek No. 3

Lost Creek No. 3, 12 x 9

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This picture was begun over a week ago at Laurel's second to last plein air class, and which I never had the chance to finish up until tonight. The sun was breaking behind the bluff, creating dramatic dappled light through the trees on top of the bluff. I found the scene quite captivating.

Finding Lost Creek

Finding Lost Creek, 8 x 6
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This morning Laurel's plein air class met at Lost Creek, in southwest Austin. It was sprinkling on and off all morning, though we were able to paint from under a bridge spanning said creek. The title, Finding Lost Creek, refers to the fact that, in contrast to the conditions a year ago, the creek is flowing strongly enough now that it can be found by following the mild roar of rushing water.

As far as painting from underneath this particular bridge, I don't recommend it on a cloudy day. It was virtually impossible to tell the different color temperatures that I had mixed on my pallet, due to lack of light, and the constant looking back and forth from the relatively bright landscape to the dimly lit pallet. Because of this, I ended up doing considerable color adjustment and general tweaking, once I got home.