Preparing for another studio painting

Gypsy grazing, pencil sketches

    Yesterday I mentioned that the Farmhouse series had stalled.  This was partly because I had a crazy schedule before leaving town but also because by the time we came home (we spent 11 days on the Outer Banks) the farmhouse had been obscured by the huge tree out front of it. We are having a very lush spring!  I started looking at other angles to paint it from and there are a couple that would work.  However, it sort of defeats my goal of showing the same view in all four seasons and in many different weather conditions.  In the end I decided to continue with my original plan and if the farmhouse can't be seen at this time of year, well, that is how the view looks right now.  So, I hope to be uploading some new, leafy minis soon:)

      What has been on my mind is a new studio painting I am about to start.  It is 24x30 and on linen.  I have toned the canvas with a wash of cadmium orange, alizarin crimson and yellow ochre.  I am waiting for it to dry.  I have loved the sparkling, breezy, jewel like days that we have been enjoying so far this May.  There are so many beautiful colors and so much movement and flickering light.  I want to capture that in a painting of the rolling Virginia countryside that I spent so much time looking at last summer when Gypsy was in the hospital out in Leesburg.  I am using our own pastures for my studies but will add the distant Blue Ridge in my drawings.  There will be horses.  That is where Gypsy comes in.  She is being my model for grazing horses and that is Gypsy pictured in the above page out of my sketchbook.

"Painting Lavender at Willow Pond Farm", 11x14 oil on gessoboard

This little plein air painting from last June when I was in Pennyslvania painting the lavender fields has some of the feeling I want in the new painting.  It was the kind of day we have been experiencing. Clouds floating across the sky, the wind rustling the trees and grasses, the light and color intense.  It is easy to capture that when standing right there in the field.  Will I be successful in the studio?
      This painting will be on exhibit this month at Bin Gallery at the Art League Gallery.  Looking at it puts me in the mood to be in those fields again and I soon will be.  In June I am attending the same workshop given by friend Bobbi Pratte and I am looking forward to being there and having the same room at Hickory Bridge Farm:)

"Storm Clouds Over Morven Park", 24x30 oil on linen

    This is another painting I will be paying attention to in preparing for the new one.  This is the view in Leesburg I painted last summer while Gypsy was there in the hospital.  It is looking towards the neighboring property of Morven Park.  The new painting will be looking in the other direction out towards the Blue Ridge.  I did manage to keep this painting loose.  I painted with both brush and palette knife and will most likely do the same this time.  My sky will not be stormy but more like the sky in the Lavender field painting.
     I need to break here because I am heading to the Art League with two paintings to enter in this month's show as well as the above plein air piece.  I hope to get underway with the new painting tomorrow!  Oh, and I am really getting serious about updating my website:)