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!

Brandywine Wandering

 The weather was so fantastic today that I decided to pack out early to the Brandywine and just drive some back roads and wander till I came upon a spot to paint. There were so many great spots along the way, and I did stop to snap some pics for future reference and to note future painting places. When i came upon this spot with the two builds, what looks like an old pump house and a barn in the distance that was the spot for today.

I set up my gear quickly and went about placing my composition quickly. You can see my palette below. I did eventually add a cad yellow deep to work into the greens. And greens are always the biggest color on the picture plane. there are so many, millions really and we can only see so many with the eye and only make so many with paint.

 So I have cool greens and warm greens and playing them into each other ads a richness you see in nature.

Here is the mass-in, everything except the barn. From this point  end up making a lot of changes,but the basic bed is set. I know the shadows will shift so I go and lock them in first and then I feel i can always scrape off or paint over, move, etc. I did use a little Liquin fine detail. After about 3 hours I stopped as the shadows had shifted too much and we were upon Solar Noon where they will really change. The final is 16 x 20 Oil on Canvas.

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.

Brandywine Creek After The Big Rain

 

After a spell of commercial work and heavy rain for about a week, including some severe weather I finally got a chance to get back out and do some Plein Air painting, and I returned to the Brandywine which never ceases to work its spell of beauty.  This time I was accompanied by by buddy, super painter and fellow PAFAite , Aaron Thompson.

 Aaron had never been to the Brandywine before so we met up in the Museum's parking lot  and I gave him a bit of a tour of the local area as we wanted to get going and get the paint slapping down as we had just reached solar noon. As we hunted for spots in the super-soggy landscape cross the muddy grounds and fields we can upon a lot of cool spots, but searching was not without incident as I slopped around and fell and got scratched up a bit trying to get to a spot. I really need waders or army boots as it was just so slippery. I ended up getting stung by some kind of bush that puts these little fiberglass-like bards into you or stings you like a jelly fish. My arm arms were hit pretty good and in fact they are still tingling where I got scrapped. As I painted my arm got hives on it, but after a few hours they went down.  Oh well, nature it tough, so you have to be if you want to paint her!

 

 Aaron setting up his rig with his new Gamblin colors that are as they say "The Shit".

 This is Aaron's painting in progress, you can see that little dob of the new high chroma Gamblin green which is some combo of Hansa Yellow and maybe a Pthalo Green or Cad Green. It's fantastic! It really hist that high bright green you see in the photo below--I can't wait till it's out in stores.

 We had many canoers go past on this beautiful afternoon. Below is a picture of me racing the sun with tingly arms slapping down the paint.

 Every once in a while its great to get up and stand back to see how things were coming, and check for ticks!

 

Aaron putting the final touches on his paintings and then we packed up and were off to have lunch at Hanks Place right across the way from the Museum.

AAron and I inspected out work and talked about how we were really trying to keep the masses simple, repainting them over to unite them several times as we worked quickly. Corbett and Sargent make it looks so simple, but believe me, it sounds easy in theory, but its hard work. What you see, vs what you need to design, eliminate, move, compress and what the painting needs. Its an intellectual construct fuled by your emotional reaction to what you see. Gosh, that sounds soooooo simple!


Arron's swell painting as he left it, he wanted to stop before he felt he might start making decisions that would not make the painting better.

Here is my final painting, and I felt the same way, stop while it had that spark of freshness to it. there was so much debris and piles of logs, driftwood and limbs, etc I could easily get too picky! I kept squinting and painting in and taking out or merging details the entire time. I had scouted more spots deeper into the back roads so tomorrow we plan on getting back out and painting some old barns or building.

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!

Delaware Night

This is a little painting that I did at the last minute before packing up to go home after my last plein air trip---back down at the Race Street Pier. I love doing nocturnes, they are a real challenge ---your mind plays tricks with colors because of the low light. Your mind has a memory of what things look like in the daylight, and you just have to chuck that all out and sometimes really play with colors you would never combine in a daylight setting.