Spring City Wrap Up.

9" x 12" Oil on Panel

On the last day of painting for the Spring City Plein Air event, I was tired and tempted to be satisfied with the three paintings I had completed the previous few days. But there was still time to paint, and it helped my motivation that I had already paid the entry fee for a fourth painting and was loathe to waste that money. Clouds were beginning to boil up as I scouted out a place to paint just a couple miles or so from the gallery. I set up by an alfalfa field edged by some wonderful trees, and with a great view of clouds building over the San Pitch Mountains. It was necessary to lay in the impression of those clouds on the panel quickly, since I knew they weren't going to stay that way. The clouds grew and spread rapidly, overwhelming the blue of the sky and bringing scattered drizzles of rain.The initial lay in and memory allowed me to refine and finish the painting in spite of the variable weather. The picture at the top of this post shows the result of that day's painting.

11" x 14" Oil on Panel

The last post mentioned a third painting I had made for the plein air event. That painting is shown immediately above. The day it was painted was stormy and overcast. Small groups of Canada Geese and some of sandhill cranes flew by during the afternoon. As evening approached the occasional small group of passing geese turned into flocks of forty or fifty. Even though the day was grey, and blustery, and rainy, it was a good day to be out and painting. It had been, in fact, a great week for painting in Sanpete Valley!