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Here is the finished product (see prior blog)...the more I paint mountains the more I appreciate the difficulty in capturing them..but the more I enjoy it, too. With my photo on the easel, my reference notes (re atmospheric influences) and my sketches...the only thing missing is having a real Edgar Payne painting to analyze. But all I have are several books...that I refer to quite often. His brush strokes, his composition...guiding lights! (and then there are the wonderful mountains rendered by Jean Legassick....wow!)

We are really feeling the effects of the fire near Sisters, Oregon. Awoke to enough smoke to almost make the river (Deschutes) below our house disappear.
So it is definitely not a plein air day, although this is my favorite season.

Normally I can see most of the mountains in The Cascades from my studio...today even as the smoke lifted no mountains visible So I am painting from a photo. The trip to see the Edgar Payne exhibit (I went to the show at the Crocker in Oakland) really made me crave painting mountains. Somehow although many great mountains were just outside my door (I actually can't see Alaska from my porch, but can see several of the outstanding Cascade mts.) I have focused for years on the desert...the views from east of our place. Now is my time to paint mountains...it will be even better when this horrible fire is out (winter?) and I can get closer to them. This painting...in my third day of painting is about 80% done. Later it will show at Tumalo Art Co. in Bend, Oregon.

If you look at this painting an a slightly earlier post, you will see they are he same mountain. However, after a week of plein air painting, I realized that this painting (30x30) from a photo was simply too high chroma. When you are out painting the atmospheric light is so important...and photos distort that. We all know this intellectually, but it is so easy to forget when painting in the studio. So I went back to my original and looked both at the intensity and at the brushstrokes and decided to have uniform, almost pointillist brush work, and to pay more attention to how the atmosphere would mute the colors.

While much of my work is done in the studio...the plein air work really is the way to hone my craft!

Hood River is a really lovely town. The artists in this painting event were given the option of the riverfront park or choose an area that interested them more...tomorrow everyone was to be downtown. Though I am not shy, and don't mind onlookers...I decided since it was early on a holiday morning, to just go downtown and paint befoe all sorts of people were out and about.

W'East is the original Indian name for Mt. Hood. We were painting at a gorgeous farm just out of town and the scene of Mt. Hood is as good as I have ever seen. An added treat was a very curious grey cat that spent quite a bit of time by my easel and painting paraphernalia. Perfect weather, almost no wind...not too hot...not cold...no bugs...doesn't get any better than this.

While I started my last painting at 9:00 AM (and hour at least later than I wanted to), it sort of painted itself, so I had time for one more...and of course on my own I am always going to seek out those abandoned structures--motels, trailers, etc. This one was up a rather steep drive, with a Keep Out sign that was partially obscured by some nasty blackberry bushes. When I stopped I was a bit apprehensive as could hear a dog barking...not some little fluffy, but the deep base of an imagined Rottweiler! But when I turned off the car he (she?) turned off the barking, so with a little concern for life and limb I started the painting...then I got into it, so forgot the sign and the dog.

What beautiful weather...sunny, not too hot, not too cold...plein air Heaven. Our proposed site however, while beautiful was deep in a valley and in the morning had limited light. So once again, I struck off on my own. First I found a great white fruit packing plant...but after two tries, decided to move on. By then it was nine AM and I wondered how I would do...but this barn was the ticket...and also there was just a glimpse of Mt. Hood. I have painted the mountain a lot lately so did not feel that I had to do a dead on painting of Mt. Hood.

Loved the almost non-color of this barn and that wonderful back light on the hay.