Painting at the Philadelphia Art Museum

For the groups third outing to paint in the city last Thursday we ended up at the Philadelphia Museum of art at the Fairmount Waterworks, located right behind the PMA. Originally we had wanted to all head down to the Race Street Pier, but a phone call from Aaron, one of our group who lives near there warned us that the pier was closed for some wedding, or event. So Lexi suggested the PMA and the waterworks so we all detoured there which was a great choice. The Museum and the Waterworks are probably two of the most beautiful and scenic areas of the city, and the Waterworks has been a spot that many, many painting classes and workshops have taken advantage of to paint the beautiful landscape where you can see how beautiful the city can be. We had great cloud formations all day as the weatherman called for the increased possibility of thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening. But the day was so beautiful it sort of cast a spell on all of us.

Alina set up not to far from where I was so I was able to sneak over and snap pics of her progress on her painting as she worked on it. Once I got hunkered down myself I didn't get so watch the others as much.

This is Alina's final painting for the day, what a great little plein air piece! It's hard to simplify and design all that building and nature.

Dave Wilson climbed up to what seemed like the top of Mount Olypmus to work on one of the two paintings he did this time. Dave had an awesome view looking west, stretching out over the Waterworks and the Schuylkill River falls.

As the day wore on it became more cloudy with patches of intense sunlight that would suddenly fade from view then in something out of a Cecil B Demille movie come bursting back.

This is the last super-quick little painting Dave did of the PMA itself just before we all packed it in.

Here is a nice shot of Dave's great painting from the the PMA of the river and the waterworks.

Here is a pic of Alina and Lexi stretching their legs along the lagoon. Every once in a while you have to get up and take a break and refresh you view of your work.

This is a shot of what I called the "God Effect" as the sun started to set amongst the rolling thunderclouds.

Kathryn perched near the lagoon and sketched.

Here is Lexi's great bold painting of Boat House Row. Great use of the palette knife!

I decided to set up under some shade that gave me a nice dynamic view. I was also not far from the car or the bathrooms, which is something that is really important when you paint outside!

Here is my final painting of the waterworks and little lagoon. I decided to go for more of a square composition this time as opposed to the typical horizontal composition. I am happy with this painting, even happier than the ones I did last week as I feel the composition is much stronger and more interesting with the perspective of the canal leading us back.

Here is Rachel Constantine's rough block-in of one of the Waterwork Gazebos.

We all would draw a crowd of curious on-lookers as we painted, here you can see a few onlookers watching Rachel painting.

Eventually the storm clouds did force our hand and the light changed too much so we all packed it in and headed home as the wind started kicking up after a very successful day of painting. A big thanks to Lexi for some of the pictures!