What attracts a painter to view? Is it the challenge, reflections, or color - summer dormant reds and oranges jumping into my hand, or is it the subtle shapes just far away enough to escape real definition?
When I set up to paint near water it is almost always the water that taunts me. I feel lucky when I get reflections, because it allows me to work on seeing the stretched underside of the trees. Water reflections are a couple of shades more intense than what it is reflecting, a trait that the only tell is when picking up a piece that is not hanging - which side is up? If one is looking at reflections upside down there should be a faint sense of vertigo, falling into the "sky", that signals your viewpoint needs adjusting.
Finding that view is elusive in plein air. Elements can change quickly, the lovely branches with sky peeking through melding into tannic shoreline can vanish with a shift in sunlight and the jet stream dissolving those great reflection into ripples, leaving the painter guessing and frustrated. But one could return the next day yes? Maybe, but not likely in the Adirondacks. That wind heralds other weather. The sun may not be available for an appearance. In the fall it can mean the last day for that particular set up for color.
Plein air is a slow motion way of capturing what the Iphone gets in a nano second. One can say "got it" and rush on. The plein air painter sets up to catch a long piece of time in a two dimensional format and hopes to place the elements that first attracted her before – the sun moves, the clouds gather, the wind picks up, the temperature drops.
Autumn Reflections is #5 in the 7 for 7 challenge to post. Painted at Camp Sagamore, it is ready to hang - right-side up - a window into fall to enjoy all year round.
Here is day 3. Day two and four will come later.
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| "Trajectory", the night of a super moon rising over the fields in Gabriels. |
Stay tuned.
Artliveslong,
Diane
