Painting While The Boys Fish

My husband Chuck and my son Dillon love to fish. This year my husband dicovered a quaint fishing spot at the Osage County State Fishing Lake. Not much more than a typical Kansas pasture pond but I guess it's stocked regularly. We have been out there to "fish" a few times this summer as a family. I personally can not stand fishing. Don't enjoy eating them and I certainly don't like to touch any slimmy worms... ok that is my one "girly" thing. They don't scare me, it's a texture thing. Anyway, so that we can spend some quality family time I have be accompanying them out to the lake and I have been taking my easle and paints. As I mentioned last fall, I am not much of a plein aire painter but I thought this would give me the perfect opportunity to paint with nature as an inspiration. Also, I could get a much needed piece done for the up coming Arron Douglas Art Fair.


"Sunflower at the Lake", 16"x20", acrylic on canvas.



So the first time we went out we arrived with only about 2 hours of light left. I also took my lap top. I started the background of my piece allowing myself to be inspired by the blues and greens of the serene environment. Then I turned to the photos I took of sunflowers last fall. I discovered that the dual, technology and nature gave a wonderful blend of inspiration. Also, with the time limit on the light I ended up working well into the dusk which seemed to be a struggle at the time. I dreaded to look at it in the light when I got home, so I stuck it in my studio and let it cure for a little while.

When I work at home, I regularly paint outside on our back deck, sometimes using a printed copy of my photos for reference. I have powerful spot lights available to paint by and if that isn't enough I have some tungsten work lights that I can set up.


The change in environment and working into duck made a difference. The pallet that evolved through this unlikely mix was bold yet distinctly more subtle than my previous pieces done at home.





"Where the Tiny Fish are Biting", 20"x16", acrylic on canvas.

On my second trip out, we got an early start. It was a Sunday afternoon rather than trying to capture the evening. We also came provisioned with cook out goodies. It was almost a festive event.

The guys had much better luck on this trip but the disappointment was that every fish they caught was not much bigger than a grown man's hand. Catch and release was the drill for the day. This never keeps them from continuing to hope for the next "big" one.

With more time available I decided to give actual plein air painting a whirl. It was so peaceful out there. The clouds were coming in from the south and the mood was happy.

I started off blocking off an area on the canvas and immediately decided I wanted the 1/3 bottom to be the lake and allow the sky to rule the piece. I knew by the formation of the clouds there was a promise of a beautiful sunset and some wonderful color. The water intimidated me a lot. It was a little choppy and I had never attempted painting water not to metion a bunch of little waves.


At first, I worked on the sky to get the initial fluffyness with the lower flat clouds. Then blocked it a purple line of trees and turned to tackle the water challenge. I knew if I could get that right, the rest would fall into place. I worked and worked on the water and finally allowed myself the more subtle wakes rather than the choppiness of the real deal. It captured the mood I wanted. As the evening drew nearer, I was rewarded with the promised sunset color. As the light changed and colored the clouds I was able to mimic it in the clouds I had previously blocked in. I was very fortuneate that the cloud formation changed very little in the 3 hours that I sat and was inspired by nature. I ended up working on this piece well into dusk as well. But was much more confident as the work done in poor lighting was minimal.


These painting adventures are only the first of what I hope many of my plein aire attempts.