100 plein air paintings in 100 days - #10/#11

#10 - "Bow River"
Original Oil 6x8"

10/04/19 (6:15 pm)
This was painted in the same spot as "The Fairholme Range" (#7), but this time I wanted to focus on the river and trees as I loved the evening light on them. This is one of my favourites so far, because I finally did something that feels painterly to me, and because it really captured the mood that was present.


Note: I've decided to start posting two paintings at a time, every other day. One, to give me a break from daily posting, and two, to give you all a break from getting an email from me every single day - I know from my own experience this can be a bit tedious. So here's #11:

#11 - "Banff Morning"
Original Oil 6x8"
For purchase info click here

10/04/20 (11am)
This painting was done shortly after having a conversation with a terrific artist from the west coast, Brent Lynch. We were discussing plein air and he reminded me of some very important ideas:

-field studies are meant to be field studies, not finished studio paintings
-design is super important, move things around to support it
-keep the relative values of foreground/middle ground/background in mind (John Carlson talks about this a lot)
-visual memory is key, especially when painting at the ends of the day when light changes quickly, or in stormy weather (boy am I working on this, one of the hardest aspects of plein air).

Thanks for the great tips Brent!