Today I walked the dog taking my paints along in case I was inspired at Harvard Gulch Park in South Denver. I saw some beautiful poppies in a few front yards, but other than that nothing called my name. There was no shade in which to plop the dog, so I opted to go home and paint in the studio for the morning and try painting my iris in the afternoon. I have been scoping out the best time of day for the iris over the past few days and afternoon seemed best. The iris were started on May 17; I have wanted to get back out and finish them all this weekend but the sun has not been co-operating and since we had hail yesterday (May 24) the iris themselves are a bit worse for wear. It is the foliage I am more interested in anyway, so I should get another opportunity to finish it up.
In the morning, I worked on a painting from TX. I doubt it can now be called Plein Air even though the composition and main elements were done on-site. I have been carving out the shapes and forcing the values in the studio; I understand why so many artists prefer to paint small outside and do studies for larger paintings in the studio. I am really trying to force myself to paint larger outdoors in an effort to be able to complete them faster. I figure every time I work on one of these "incomplete" paintings in the studio, I am "getting" more of what it is I need to accomplish while painting on-site. Also, my time is limited for painting, so I doubt at this point in my life I would actually do a studio painting from a study. There are always trade-offs.
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