Description
This is my “Morning Light” painting from the other day when I went plein air painting with Stapleton Kearns and Cooper Michael French. This was a great scene we found someplace on the back roads of Canton, Mississippi. We had a great time too. It’s always a great time when you can work and spend time with friends at the same time. Please click the image to see the full finished product!
As in back in the day, years ago, was while painting with my mentor, Emile Gruppe I was looking for a strong contrast pattern to base the painting on. This tree and fence dark against the light of the meadow in the background were perfect. As most of my paintings , I start with the background and move towards the foreground. I was careful to keep the background colors very cool, in contrast to the warm red clay dirt road where I was painting from. In between taking lots of water breaks , to try and stay hydrated, we had lots of great conversations about our past painting experiences. We talked The usual shop that artist talk about paints, brushes and painting surfaces etc. I was using a combination of
I was using a combination of Utrect and Gamblin paints for this particular piece , and using Grumbacher Gainsborough hog Bristle brushes, and a White primed panel that I prepared myself. Stapleton used an array of different paints from different companies, and seem to stay mostly under a size 6 hog bristle brush for the duration of his painting,and in the end he had a beautiful 18×24 painting , with colors very true to nature , and a fine piece. Cooper Michael French decided to paint “the old road home”Cooper loves to paint all these Clay roads that are scattered throughout Lauderdale County.
His painting had a beautiful embracing quality to it asking the viewer to enter , and walk down the road. After grumbling about having to break down and put all our paints and gear away, and how “that ” job is sometimes reflected in the price of the painting! We started home. These paintings were started at eight in the am, and our efforts ended at around 11. It was time to find a great lunch! Where we could exaggerate about the success of our artistic efforts. My own personal opinion is , artist that never get out of the studio and go on location to paint from nature , miss a wonderful fulfilling experience. I’ve always felt that nature is the ultimate teacher, and this experience has been very important to contribute to my learning experience as an artist.
