100 plein air paintings in 100 days - #35/#36

#35 - "Golf Course Greens"
Original Oil 8x6"

10/05/22 (10:45am)
I'm pretty happy with this one. I was working in the car and was especially cramped, perhaps because Lily was in the front seat with me. I was getting funky glare off the windshield and weird side light coming in and hitting my panel. Despite the visual distractions (and my desire to have them gone),  I managed to keep my focus on the painting. For this study it was primarily on capturing the aerial perspective necessary to push the mountain way back where it belonged (it's probably about 10 kms. away from this vantage), and on getting the greens right.

#36 - "Storm in the Bow Valley"
Original Oil 6x8"

10/05/22 (12:45pm)
So far one of the very most valuable things I have learned on this project is this:

When you're looking for something to paint, squint down and see if you can reduce your subject to 5 or 6 large abstract shapes. If you can't, choose another subject. If you can, block them in, and then work on modeling those shapes further and adding the accents and highlights to finish. If you can keep it that simple, plein air becomes so much more manageable.
My intention with this piece was to block it in and then build up a lot of thick paint, but at this stage, I re-evaluated. Everything important was there, for a field study there really was no need to keep going.