Last Of April's Plein Air

 Early Greens

10x8 oil on linen

"April Evening At The Boom Site"

6x8 oil on linen

April has come and gone and now it's May!  It's been a busy month with finishing up my semester of teaching four different weekly classes.  In between teaching I tried to get out on location and paint as much as possible.  These are two pieces I did the last week of April 'en plein air'.  The top piece was done at my family farm.  I was attracted to the wispy-ness of the early spring greens and focused on my edges in this piece to achieve the sense of early spring.  I love how the edges of these trees meld into the sky!

The second piece was painted along the banks of the St Croix one evening.  The light effect was quite fleeting so I kept the piece small to get it covered and capture the light at hand.  I loved the luminous quality of the light on the water.  It's the subtle temperature shifts in the water that help to capture this effect.  Warm really has a hard time existing without a cool next to it.  

I'll be leaving for Italy in a week where I'll be spending 2 weeks traveling through Rome and Florence with my daughter Paige. I'll end up in Tuscany for 8 days where I'll be teaching a plein air workshop.  My plan is to blog during the trip, so stay tuned!  Until then, happy creating!