Plein Air Painting in Michigan

Waterworks Rd., Early Fall 1

Plein Air painting, watercolor on archival paper, 9 x 7"

So my artist's residency reminded me how much I love painting and ignited a love for plein air painting that I'd previously not had or made the time to do.  Since I've been home, a week and a half, now, I've made about 8 paintings.  Several from photos I snapped on the way home (it's hard to plein air paint while you're driving 80 on the interstate) and 3 on site.  

Today I'm posting 2 that I made late morning and early afternoon, a few hours ago.  

The next one is shown in stages, as I progress through it.  Also shown is my set-up.

Left painting finished, right one just started

A little further along

I sometimes have a hard time adding to the pieces, because I like the unfinished stages.

Almost!

Done! Waterworks Road, Early Fall 2. This piece is on Indian Village handmade watercolor paper.  Each of the finished paintings here are on different papers and that affects the colors and the way the papers handle the paint.  I love painting on 2 different kinds of paper to keep in interesting and challenging for me.

Day 10, Artist Residency, Homestead National Monument, Nebraska

This week is bringing ramped-up heat.  Had a thunderstorm Sunday night, so the humidity is off the hook!  So I'm finding shady spots to paint from.  This piece took 3 evenings, as the light faded fast and the shadows got too long.  

painting as the light fades, photo by Homestead visitor, Dean Jacobs

Day 5, Artist Residency, Homestead National Monument, NE

I've been getting out early each morning, while the shadows are still long, and doing what I call silhouette drawings.  The prairie grasses and wildflowers are gorgeous and I can see some of the silhouettes making it into my finished work back in the studio.  The sun is strong out here and I searched out SPF 100 today!  Found some - it was even SPF 110.  I'm heading out early, trying to stay out of the sun in mid-day and heading out again late afternoon to paint in color.

The following painting is giving me a little grief in that, since it's a late afternoon scene, the sun starts to change the light too much for me to finish.  It's 2 days painting for about 1 1/2 hours so far and I'm not feeling it's resolved.

Looking south from center of restored prairie

Then there's the little painting I did looking west toward the woods.  I'm understanding the structure of the land better and dusting off the color theory that Professor Billie Theide so lovingly taught me at University of Illinois all those years ago.  http://art.illinois.edu/people/theide/

Looking west toward woods from visitor's center

Tonight as I'm writing this, we heard 3 barred owls just outside the house - saw one up a tree with the flashlight!  I'd never heard one of them before.  The payoffs of being in the middle of the country!  And don't even get me started on the stars!

Day 4, Artist Residency at Homestead National Monument

Today I got out the door early with sketching stuff so I could record shadows from the plants. Early morning and late afternoon are best for this because of the height of the sun and the way it casts shadows from the plants.  Since I only had monochromatic watercolor mixed and had left my multicolored travel set back at the house, I decided to make a little monochrome watercolor study of the tree line south of the National Monument fields.  

Took the Homestead Trail with the bike again today - this time I went a little farther.  I could see the water tower for the next town north, but realized I forgot my $$ for a snack, so I decided to turn back to Beatrice.  About a mile from the end of the trail, back in town, but in a wooded/grassy area, I came across 2 wild turkey hens with about 10- 12 young ones out for a walk.  

Had a lovely dinner at The Black Crow restaurant here in town - the bread pudding was worth going on a 14-mile bike ride every day! http://www.blackcrowrestaurant.com/ 

Headed out again for a little hike tonight and started another watercolor.  

Losing light at Homestead