Sun Buckets
12x12 oil (Plein Air)
So Saturday I met with some of my group, the Wisconsin Plein Air Painters Association, to paint at the Southshore Park Farmers Market which is right on Lake Michigan. While the East cost was hunkering down for hurricane Irene here in the Mid-west we have been enjoying the stalled high that the hurricane provided. It was a stunningly beautiful day in the mid 70's and breezy.
As I walked the area which was streaming with people and vendors all I could think was "simplify, simplify, simplify! But I kept returning to this flower lady and her buckets of sunflowers with the morning light causing them to glow. I started to paint fast! In 2 hours all those flowers were gone...sold! Then I turned my effort to work on the tent which rapidly became muddy. If I brightened it to show the sun on it it pulled my eye away from the focal point. But when I cooled it down it seemed dead. I was frustrated.
After we painted we met as is our habit, to critique each others work. When it came time for mine we talked about the tent and one of my friends suggested that I change the color of the tent to blue. I liked that idea and it took me all of ten minutes to change it. You can see the painting before the change in the photo below.
Lesson: At some point in the painting process I need to be more concerned about making a painting then just copying what I see in front of me...:)
