Autumn creek

Along the Creek, Late November 12x9 pastel, copyright 2012

Not surprisingly, it didn't take long before I returned to pastel landscapes.  This one wasn't really planned, but the weather was so perfect last week that I decided to wander down to the creek and see what I could see.  A couple of tree trunks that had piled up during last spring's flood served as both seat and easel.   It took about an hour to work it out and the details were finished later in the studio.  I might play with it a bit more, perhaps eliminating the grasses since they feel a bit distracting to me.  It can be difficult to filter out what's unnecessary when working plein air - there can be too much too look at sometimes, though I certainly can't complain about the view.

Reflections on a dam

Tributary with Ice 6x6 oil, copyright 2011
SOLD!

Early in February my husband, son and I went tromping through the woods along the creek.  A neighbor had told us that a very ambitious pair of beavers had tried to dam up the creek over the summer.  Because of concerns over the breaking dam potentially causing flash flooding, the beaver were trapped and moved elsewhere.  The remnants of the dam are surprisingly still in place considering that they had built it out of corn stalks of all things!

Just upstream of the dam the water was deep and quiet.  The creek usually doesn't freeze over completely, but there was quite a bit of ice in this spot.  Across the creek from us was one of the many little tributaries that are more typical of the waters that beavers prefer to dam up.  It was a sunny day, and the contrast between the ice and the reflections were what caught my eye on this one.

Unlike the previous 6x6's, I took my time on this one, even going back to it several times to touch up here and there.  It kind of felt this was my first try at applying what I had learned from the previous nine.  I just wish I had time to do more of these!

Winter Reflections

Winter Reflections 6x6 oil, copyright 2011

The next little oil, this time of Twin Creek.  Painting snow on a white background seemed a little dull, so I gave this panel an acrylic wash in purple before starting.  You can see it poking through here and there.  I kept with the impressionistic feel on this one, laying down the paint quickly and thickly.  I think the reflections turned out pretty well, though they don't really match the trees.  I'll have to pay more attention to that in the future.  And I think I need a bit more practice with trees - some look pretty good, some not so good.   I tend to get a bit bored with tree after tree, something I really should get past considering how much they dominate the landscape around here!