Painting in the air, in autumn.

This fall has been long and warm, as they tend to be here - with some interesintingly foggy places here and there. Since I go out with the Quimper group, it’s often to places I’m going for the first time. 

In September we went out to Indian Island state park, to the tidal flats. It seems like every time I go out there it’s foggy and/or rainy, but it makes for some interesting challenges, both logistically and artistically.

It was foggy. it clearer. It fogged up again. It cleared up again. etc. 

A couple weeks later, I made a plan to go out to the beach near the lighthouse at Fort Warden park. Right on cue, the fog showed up. And then left. And then came back. And then left again. 

    I used a red-grounded panel for this.

Then the fog rolled back in, and brought some rain with it. 

In October, the plein air group I go out with met at Laurel Grove cemetary, after several glorious fall days. As if on cue, the fog rolled in. It’s always a challenge for me to try to mute those colors down. But at least I’m getting practice!

 

 

Finally, also in October, the hubs and I made a trip down south of Olympia to Tumwater park, where an old abandoned brewery sits on a lake. Or maybe it’s the Deschutes River. I’ve seen pictures of this scene and have wanted to go down there and see it myself and paint it on location. 

I took a few pictures

 I chose a larger panel than usual, this one being 16x20” canvasboard. I have some of these leftover from art school so I decided to start using them, even though they are larger than my usual plein air stuff. But I loved the result. I’ve come to enjoy, also, people stopping to talk to me. 

As the sun drew further up in the sky, the trees around the abandoned brewery came out of the shade and started glowing with glorious autumn colors. 

The afternoon was warm, and cool, all at once. And gorgeous. Children played behind me, ducks waddled around nearby, hubs sat in a comfortable chair and read about woodworking. All in all, a beautify day, which we wrapped up by having Indian food in Gig Harbor. 

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