Philly Rooftops

 The PPAP once agani gathered to paint on the rooftop of our friend Kathrine's apartment on Pine Street in Philly. The dog days of summer, or the Pittbull days or August have been replaced by the Poodle days, at least the past few days. I have been mostly painting at home the past month due to work and the crazy weather. Often it was just too  darn hot to get out and paint. I tried it in the heat and did get along for a time, but I always ended up having to pack it in becase of the weather. They say this is the wettest summer on record in Philly. I believe it--we had a huge storm this week which was flooding the region all over the, place including an F 0 tornado in Jersey. So like a few month's back Kat invited everybody to come over and paint off of the roof of her apartment which offers awesome views of the city to paint. I decide because of the time allowed and the wind to paint on a small  12 x 12 Ampersand panel. I did finish up the painting at home, adding a few little touches and especially reworking the chimney a bit.

                                                       Here is my setup--ready to go!

 You can see the process of Alina's painting in these two photos. they were smarter than me and stayed in teh shade.

 Aaron working on his first view for the day, but after his model left he ended up changing his view.

 As people came and went David Wilson showed up to race the sun and set up next to Alina.

 I had to stop it here as for one thing without and umbrella of coverage I was totally baked by this point and my eyes were done from fighting the glare.

 Lexi sketching away in her drawing pad like Kathrine and Narcissa did. That's the cool thing about these paint-outs, people come ,go and do whatever, from watercolors to pencils sketches, ballpoint pen to oils.

 It was just a glorious day and the sunset was just amazing! We all stayed late and ordered some pizza and watched the sun go down and the moon come up, what a great day!

Laurel Hill Cemetery

 Today the boys and I ventured into the city to Laurel Hill Cemetery to paint. It was a scorcher! I think this was by far the hottest day I have been out painting so far this summer and the humidity today was clam bake! Aaron Thompson go into the city before Will Sentman and I who car pooled together. We found Aaron who had already done a painting and decided to stop as the light had changed too much. So we all drove around to find another spot to paint. Laurel Hill is just incredibly beautiful and there are probably hundreds of spots and view to paint...fantastic victorian sculptures and tombs, graves of every description from the 1800's into the 1900's. Its kind of overwhelming in that way, but search we did until we found a nice spot higher up in the cemetery. Aaron broke off and kept searching but we caught up later on.

 Will and I found a nice spot looking up the hill. I loved the cool darker shadows going back into the raking light. The sun was in and out all day but when it was out it cut great shapes through the trees and graves.

 You can see here the view Will and I had and our paintings under way.

 I worked on a 12 x 12 canvas this time as I think it's hard to mess up a composition on a square.

 But once we passed solar noon the shadows started to shift too much so i had to stop, besides I was really getting beat by the heat, even in the shade. So I stopped the painting and when i got home I added some finishes to it.

                                              Laurel Hill Cemetery, 12 x 12 OIL on canvas

 Will had a great moody almost Dickinson-like painting going. But we called it a day and went to Dick Blick and spent a LOT of money--well I did, I needed to stock up on a lot of supplies since I have been doing so much painting--which I plan to do again tomorrow!

Tuesday Afternoon in the Brandywine

 

 Today Aaron Thompson and I headed back out to the Brandywine to paint early because the weather is hot, hot, hot and the storms were forecast to roll in by the afternoon. I took Aaron back to the spot I painted at last Saturday along the top of a hill off of Creek road that gives you a great view of a barn and the valley.

 

This spot also provides a nice place to park and shade to paint in---which is important when its 92 degrees out. The air was already heavy and thick, the hazy was building fast over the sweet fields of grass. We started right away, as I set up my rig Aaron did some thinking with a few sketches.

 

 

This time I wanted to use a panel instead of canvas  for a change and really liked it.  I settled on my view and sketched it in real quick with a wash of Quinacridone Red. I figures since there was still a lot of greens the red showing through in spots would look good.

 After a while I snapped a pick of Aarons sweet mass-in, you can see mine in the background and you can see the different ways we think about approaching the same subject colorwise.

 We knew we didn't have much time as the clouds were really starting to build in the heat of the afternoon. I finished before Aaron and sat as he finished up his painting with a few last deft touches. One thing for sure, it's important to know when to STOP! You can really %$#!! up a painting quickly with a few wrong notes or over tickling one spot compared to the rest of the canvas. The great painters make everything on the picture plane in harmony--and plein air painting is very demanding in this way. To get down in a bold way the atmosphere, or the "prevailing weather conditions" as Peter Van Dyck would say. What is the color of the air? The light? You must also be a great designer to say more with less and to rearrange, conduct and construct. Technical knowledge in the harness to your emotional reaction, a horse that must be in control or it will over do it and ruin things quick. I find I have spells of thinking and not painting---then painting very fast. Greens are so hard to paint, and there are so many dancing into your eyes, you can dance with them all.

 Below you can see my painting as I left it. my biggest issue was the foreground and the mass of grass and the detail. I didn't want to get too busy, but I did want to get in some texture and the colors that wove together. I must have painted it 4-5 times and remassed it each time.

 There is Aaron's final and I love how he stated the planes and the feeling of air, of atmosphere. We were both kind beat so we headed off to hanks to have lunch and as our sandwiches were being served the sky grew dramatically dark, so we beat the rain by less than 20 minutes. On the way home it stormed like mad, but that means green grass for tomorrow's plein air adventure!

Cloudy With a Chance of Swedish Meatballs

 Yesterday the PPAP got back out to paint--this time in a cool "Hidden Philadelphia" spot about 12 minutes from my house in Upper Darby called the Lower Swedish Cabin. I've lived in Philly for almost 30 years and never heard of it! Alina found it on one of her runs, and it a great find!

 Here are a couple of cool panoramic views of the area and cabin. I love the old ruined cabin and want to paint that next time.

 This was my second day in a row  getting out to paint and it was awesome.  Aaron Thompson came back to join Will and Alina and myself as we raced the incoming rain. The radar showed the line of showers approaching from the west just before I left the house so I figured at anytime we could get a downpour but we lucked out until just the very end. Initially it was really nice and sunny, but in about 30 minutes the sun was gone and the light was the cool overcast for the remainder of the painting day.

 Will and Aaron set up down in the river to get great views for their paintings. I need to get a pair of waders!

 There were so many great spots to paint and I will come back to spots like this.

                                                         A close-up of Aaron painting

                                                     Arron really working on those rocks

Alina working away as you can see the sun going away and the light changing. The good thing about overcast days are the light does stay a lot more consistant.

 Here is Alina's final painting which reminds me very much of something by Manet in her paint application. below you can see Will's final painting, very tonalist in approach.

 Here is my block-in for the cabin, I figured using a red-ish bock-in would look good if any of the under painting showed through under the green. The main goal was to set the tonal atmosphere, the "color of the soup" and then work into that.

 Here is a shot of my blocking. I continued to adjust as the light really changed quite a bit from some sun to completely cloudy about halfway through the mass-in and that started to change values and temperatures. The sticky spot was the reflected light on the cabin which I had to darker a lot more. It was a lot of squinting going on the whole day...

 Alina took a snap of me starting me working away while hoping the rain would hold off.

 My final paint of the Swedish Cabin, 11 x 14 in Oil.

I searched around a bit for a spot for my second painting since Aaron was still down in the river working, but I could tell we didn't have much time till it started raining as it was getting darker and I could feel the temperature  dropping and the wind started picking up as the thunderstorms were approaching from the west. I was captivated by the trashcan by my jeep, there play of the rust against the greens and the old call box of some kind was just the thing---so I blasted this out in about 30-45 minutes using my biggest brush. My palette was super chunky and tacky from using the Liquin, I put the finishing touches on it as it started to rain pretty good, so Aaron packed it off to grab a few beers and eat some great Tia food at the Piggy Cafe. I plan to get back out by mid-week weather allowing.