More Plein Air

My friend and I went to Magnusson Park in Seattle for our last plein air painting.  There is an awesome sculpture installation called, "The Fin Project".  The 'fins' are actual diving fins from decommissioned Cold War era submarines!  Each fin has a plaque on it with the name of the sub it came from, the name of an Orca from the Puget Sound pods, and the names of people in the community who donated to the project!  It was awesome and fun to paint :-D

Plein Air #5 Aug 2nd 11

My friend and I set up on the kayak launch at Washington Park Arboretum, this was the first day that we actually had blue skies peeking through the clouds!

I am really happy about the way this one turned out, but the best part was selling it to a woman who was kayaking with her friend that day, she came back alone after they had brought their kayaks home and arranged with me to buy the painting as a surprise gift for her friend who was leaving for school on the east coast!

Acrylics on canvas 8x10

Plein Air #4 July 26th 11

Well, this one did not make me very happy, the day was very dark and cloudy and I got caught up in the details, I did take a photo of the scene so I may add a few more shape definitions but I am not going to do much more than that.

I really like the idea of just finishing the painting on site :-)

Acrylic on canvas 8x10

Plein Air #3 July

This is my third attempt, it is a beautiful spot near my house called Bothell Landing. This painting was completed on site in about three hours, I did add brighter colors on the flowers in the foreground when I got home.

I do realize that maybe I am being too detail oriented and not getting that true Plein Air feeling, so I am going to try to loosen up my brushstrokes.

Acrylic on canvas 8x10

More Plein-air!

This is my second attempt, my friend knew of a park not too far from my house so we set up and started painting. The skies were very dark with rain clouds but we didn't even feel a sprinkle until we were almost done packing up!
Acrylic on canvas 8x10

Plein Air!

Here is my first Plein-Air work! I am so happy with how it turned out, I used acrylics for this one with a very limited palette. I am now very excited about getting out there and doing more..... if the wacky Northwest weather would cooperate!

Finished painting

This is the finished painting, unfortunately I cannot seem to get the colors and lighting correct in the photograph, it is not quite this dark.