I got back on that horse called Plein Air Painting after a very rough start on earlier this week. To spare my sore foot (who knows what I actually did to it), I loaded everything into the golf cart and took off down the lane. At the crossing where two of my neighbors’ driveways enter the lane, I spied this up one of the driveways. It was about 10 a.m. I parked to the side of the other driveway where there was a for sale sign. It had been there for two years so I figured I was safe to set up. Low and behold, within minutes of getting ready to paint, along came a huge black pickup truck which had to back up to make the turn around me into the driveway with the for sale sign. The woman inside did not stop to talk to me although her partner came out about an hour later to see what I was doing. By then I had also talked to two other neighbors and learned the house had just been sold and we were getting new neighbors!

In any case, I kept on painting.

So, here is the painting as I decided at 1 p.m. it was time to break down and go home. It looks dark here because I took the umbrella down before I took the photo. Hubby, by the way, fixed the umbrella for me after I lost a nut to the clamp.

I put it up on the fireplace mantle and studied it while I ate my lunch then took it upstairs to the studio where I tweeked a few things. This is before I started messing with it. In my notes I wanted to soften the dead tree on the left and darken or better define the trees on the right. I needed to add more sky holes and finish the bottom which had been blocked by the little thing that holds up the panel on the field easel. I also needed to figure out what to do with the trees behind the forsythia and the bridal wreath bush. I also made a note to get some of the sky color down into the lower part of the painting to give a little balance and to warm up the shadows coming across the grass. I also made myself a note to remember to sign it.

So here is the finished painting. I honestly think it does not translate all that well in the photograph. I’m really pretty happy with this.