Here's a little advice when going out to do some field painting--don't go when it's the year of the locusts and the sun is beating down. Trust me. This was a number of years ago, and Alison and I went to this piece of land and painted the better part of the day. When the sun was behind clouds, all was quiet. When the sun came out, it was like a plague of locusts--loud swarming and buzzing sounds all around us. I even had one get in my shirt while I was painting. Trust me, Alison did not enjoy that day (I can't say it was my favorite, but I got a nice painting from it). We did end up having fun dodging the flying beasts and ended up watching a rain storm move through the hills to bring a much needed relief from the heat of the day.
Again, the lighting here is what attracted me--the light filtering through the trees onto the road, the sky showing as pinpricks through the trees in the distance. Also the red fence gate was, at the time, very important to me in that it gave a wonderful splash of bright color to all the greens and browns. All in all a painting that made a nice memory of a not so nice day. Oh, and the field where we stood painting? There was a house built there shortly after our little adventure, so we were happy to have had the opportunity to paint there when we did. ~Sean
Definitely not the best conditions for painting with locusts dive bombing your every move. I actually had one land in my palette!
ReplyDeleteSean produced some wonderful art those few days. I on the other hand produced one landscape from the same area, but looking south down Sunny Ridge. I actually sold it without taking an an image of it. Sean has always been on top of photographing his work, something I need to be better about. His painting sold too. So maybe the Locusts benefited us after all.
Alison