Thursday, May 15, 2014

Harrisburg, PA, The Camp Hill Plein Air Competition

It was a little overcast but his was fun to paint, in a lovely neighborhood park. So many people had suggested I visit this pristine groomed park that I headed there with my paints. When I began the painting the air and water were still, fortunately I had recorded the reflections on the calm water to start. The small evergreens in every corner of this park are trimmed into perfect boxes, later in the week visitors to the art show recognized the location seeing these distinctive bushes. Now that the painting is in my studio I may choose to paint them out as I prefer a softer look and this isn't familiar to anyone but residents of Harrisburg. I may change the title to something like Azalea Reflectons as well, it was the bright contrast that attracted me to choose the scene between two trees.

Unfortunately, it was 'cut the grass' day in the neighborhood, commercial lawn maintenance in the park, as well as at the homes directly behind me shot cinders, grass, bugs and plain old dirt onto my wet paint, all unintentionally. I can say that the workers made an effort to avoid blowing anything in my direction, imagine if they had not! Dirt in the paint is a true sign of a plein air painting, some collectors even look for this evidence; most is removable after the sticky paint hardens a little
close up of grit on my canvas


 'Reflections of Italian Lake' 12x16 oil.

No comments:

Post a Comment