If a tree falls in the woods…

I did this little pastel this past Saturday during our Saturday Plein Air Painters meeting. I started in on my painting and looked up to see a doe looking back right through the light I was trying to capture. She is not quite there in the painting. Just as she seemed real, she moseyed on into a dark patch.

"Light in the Woods"  approx 7x5

Painting plein air is a recording of a place and time. The light changes. The shadows move. The sky grows cloudy. The temps go up and down. The wind blows. Critters grace the painting with their presence. It can't be replicated - that moment in time. It is a record of a couple of hours and then the world turns again, on into a different space and time. 

And that… is why I paint outdoors.

We worked at a classic Adirondack camp that has been in the same hands for 60 years. The property had suffered a bit of blow down in the most recent storms that have swept across the 'Dacks this summer. A huge white pine was down from the roots up, narrowly missing "The Studio".

For more information about Saturday Plein Air Painters contact me: deleifheit@gmail.com