In theory (and for many artists, in practice), a plein air painting is just a study for a larger, more elaborate studio painting.

One of the paintings I did in Wytheville has really grown on me and it just sort of begged to be bigger. I also wasn’t entirely happy with the angle of the view and wanted to shift it a tad and I felt the trees in the background were just a tad bright and needed to be toned down some.

So, I have gone from this: A 9X12″ on a panel…

To this: a 16X20 on oiled primed canvas —

I also put some palette knife work into it, which I kind of like. These closeups show the brushwork and palette knife work a bit better.