Plein Air 2012 – Page 6 – Marianne Thompson

Plein Air Painting 2012

February 25th, 2012

February 25th, 2012
Cox Reservation, Essex MA
Oil on Canvas, 16 x 20 in

The day I worked on this we were having 50mph winds, which had resulted, by the time I got working, in two fully prepared palettes landing face down in the grass and countless other disasters. The blue in the foreground is a puddle. I was freezing, by the time I’d got to the foreground I had all the right colours mixed but was too cold to focus on using them carefully. However, I like the way it looks and I am leaving it this way.

February 20th & 21st, 2012

February 20th & 21st, 2012
Marsh, looking towards Crane’s Beach
Cox Reservation, Essex, MA
Oil on Canvas, 16 x 22 in

This is a picture I took with my cellphone, so not great quality – but the painting is one I like. Again, trying to navigate the dynamics of very subtle tone / key changes. I feel like I am learning a lot, getting somewhere.

February 18th, 2012

February 18th, 2012
Mild Day
Essex Greenbelt, Essex MA
Oil on Canvas, 12 x 16 in

This one, though I see a few things yet to tweak, was a nice relief after a series of duds (see below.) There’s a stand of trees left of the rocks in the foreground, which is the source of those blue shadows. It was a lovely day.

February 6th, 2012

February 6th, 2012
Near Exit 12 off 128, Gloucester MA

February 4th, 2012

February 4th, 2012
Revisited February 7th, 2012
Oil on Canvasboard, 18 x 24 in

I was trying to understand and how to navigate the difference between shade and light on a partly cloudy day, and how the colours change from warm to cool. As an objet d’art this hasn’t much to offer, but as an exercise, or object lesson for me it was valuable.

Colours are a little off in both this shot and the previous one. I was trying to understand and how to navigate the difference between shade and light on a partly cloudy day, and how the colours change from warm to cool. As an objet d’art this hasn’t much to offer, but as an exercise, or object lesson for me it was valuable.

January 26th, 28th, February 1st, 2nd, etc.

January 26th, 28th, February 1st, 2nd, etc.
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in

This one is headed to the “Disasters” page shortly. In the endless effort to get the effect of light that was so beautiful, I was ultimately thwarted by my eyes being able to comprehend something that my brain couldn’t quite decode. My error was in allowing my (“reasoning”) brain into it at all. That and spending three days struggling with it. Lessons learned.

January 24th, 2012

January 24th, 2012
High Tide
Cox Reservation, Essex, MA
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in

Cloud Cover Clearing

Cloud Cover Clearing
January 10th, 2012
Cox Reservation, Essex, MA
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in

I started painting when the sky was all a blanket of steely cloud, and tried to keep up as the cloud cover began to split and give way to a crystalline blue.

January 6th & 7th, 2012

A Patch of Winter
January 6th & 7th, 2012
Cox Reservation, Essex, MA
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in

As it says, this little patch of ice and snow was all that could be found on the marsh that I felt was suitably wintery. The flattish area between the reeds fills with water when the tide is up, and this patch of ice managed to form at some point between tides.

January 1st & 2nd, 2012

Prairie Snow, Saskatchewan
January 1st & 2nd, 2012
Oil on Canvas, 18 x 24 in

(I worked from a photo on this one, and am not too thrilled with how it came out. It looks to me like a collage of pastel mini-marhsmallows. I don’t like working from pictures anymore, even though experience and memory can break through the two-dimensional summary that is a photograph, in this case, I don’t think I pulled it off. I’ve been missing snow this winter, there hasn’t been any – which is why I wanted to try this.)