Expanding My Territory

We are finally getting settled into our new digs in Deland, FL. Moving is such an ordeal and this one seemed fraught with extra complications. Most of that is behind us now and I'm expecting delivery of my new studio/shed sometime next week. I'll do a whole post on that when it arrives.

We are located about a half of a mile from the St. John's River. So with most of our unpacking and organizing done I've managed to head out to Ed Stone Park a couple of times to paint the river.

This is the first one I did a week ago. I focused on this mossy tree with it's branches stretching down into the river. It's an 8" x 10" gallery wrapped canvas in oil.

I went out again today and chose a different view.  Here are a few pictures of my progress as well as the view.

I love the light hitting that small clearing

I toned the canvas and put in my basic plan starting with the darkest darks

"The Clearing" - oil - 8" x 10"

The Casements

This week I decided to do a quickie. It was threatening rain and I just had a little bit of time so I pulled out a 5"x 7" wrapped canvas that I had applied super heavy gesso to weeks ago. There is a wonderful old house on the Halifax River in Ormond Beach that used to be the home of John Rockefeller. Many Ormond Beach events are held there and it is one of my favorite places to paint.

                                                                                                                            

My canvas was so small that I really needed to be choosy about what I included. So I zeroed in on the right side of the giant oak tree.

Those rays of sunshine are deceptive. It did end up raining on me briefly, but not enough to send me packing.

I didn't take enough in progress pictures to warrant a minute video but here are a couple of stills with the final product.

toned the canvas and blocked in the tree

more on the tree and foreground and added some awnings

                        

I stopped taking pictures because of the rain so we jump ahead here to the end

The Casements - oil - 5"x 7" - $87.50 - Leah Wiedemer

Thanks for joining me on my plein air adventures! Please leave a comment. I'd love to hear your thoughts.