Brandywine Plein Air

Today I officially broke the tape on my summer of Plein Air painting with my trip down to the Brandywine, one of my favorite places to go (the museum) and a favorite places to paint. I was bursting at the seams to get back out to do some plein air painting as soon as the weather turned nice---and it did and it also turned really HOT really quick --something that seems to happen in Philly every year--0-90 degrees!

 

One of the things about the Brandywine is that there is an endless amount of beautiful spots to paint in the area, along the creek, the nature walk off of Route 1---and I am still exploring. Being early in the spring yet the bugs were not to bad and everything was really lush.

Since we got started later than I hoped I hunted quickly, chose a spot and got started. I decided to set up out of the blazing sun directly under Route 1 and paint these awesome gnarled rooty trees. Lexi set out for the nature walk but also soon joined me under the bridge as she was just too hot. She even took a dip in the river along with a host of families who showed up and canoers, tubbers, rafters who make the Brandywine a popular spot on hot days like today.

 You can see where I set up to paint and my view. The endless traffic rushed by overhead the whole time as lookie-lous and the usual curious public stopped to peek at the artists work our palette skillz.

 This what Lexi got done on her second attempt before she packed it in. Below you can see my painting about halfway--all the masses blocked in. I did use liquin fine detail to speed the drying.

 Here is the final piece which tacked up really quick in the heat on the way home. Great to get out and paint. I never feel more alive than when I am doing this!