Blue Trees

The other day in the depth of the cedar forest, the light shining in turned a section of the cedar trees blue. It was the oddest thing. I photographed it, and the trees are blue. But it was the hardest thing to get a composition out of it. Finally I just painted.

Sunflowers: Speedster

This one is in a hurry - going warp speed while the others watch a bit puzzled.

Cedar Forest

A strong sunspot along the trail in the cedar forest caught my attention. It seemed like a fleeting moment in time.
I primed the canvas with a light coat of alizarin crimson and focused on the large shapes of shadows, light and strong light. I found it dynamic.

The Frog Pond in Spring

Here is the entire little pond. My mother had it dug many years ago because she loves to hear the frogs sing in the spring, and enjoys the wildlife that comes to visit.
Today it was time to paint a bit bigger, so my usual 6 x 8 has doubled to a 12 x 16 canvas. I wanted the trees in spring mode - tender new leaves yet a certain fullness, and not all a lime green.

Muskrat River

Today our painting group went to paint at Pansy Patch Park in Pembroke. I wiped out my first try. The young spring greens are so light valued that I was getting lost "in the bushes".
May 15 - adjusted the lights and darks - much better.

Warm ups

Continuing the theme of softer edges, I am working on loosening up with more flow. Am going to paint out in the country today, so this is my warmup.

Pansies

Good critique from a friend - lacking midtones! And then the contrast between light and dark is quite sharp. So now the light background has been brought down in value. Did the same to one of the other attempts - just to see the effect.

Spring pansies looked so pretty on the table. That lead to a quick study, which lead to a series of paintings, looking for what was not working. I finally concluded that there are too many hard edges. So I painted looser, with lots of soft edges. It was okay but not worth posting. It has been one of those days.

Sunflowers: Greetings

This one is giving us a nod, or looking for dropped keys.....
Although they look simple to paint, I feel they are such a challenge and learning process.....and actual rather satisfying!

The Driveway in Spring

This series has been a delight to paint, and I couldn't wait to paint spring. Even though the trees are still just a shimmer, the trilliums are blooming. I plan to paint it again when the leaves are out. The canvas had been primed with a peachy ground, and that is giving it a very pastoral evening feel - not so evident in the photograph.

Spring Pond

The idea tonight was to paint the whole pond, but this angle held my interest. It was against the light of the setting sun. The trees are still just a shimmer. One thing with evening light - you cannot be there early enough to set up, sketch and plan the design, because it soon becomes a race with the rapidly changing light.