A Windy Rainy Day in May

It's been so rainy and wet lately. There isn't much field work being done around the area, with the fields being muddy at best, and washed out or under water at worst. And the last few days have also been cold. It felt more like March today, instead of May, as I went out to paint.

The dandelions are going to seed, which I always find beautiful, and I wanted to paint some of them, and there's this old favorite oak tree at the corner of a field that's not quite fully leafed out yet.

Getting things started - blocking in the shapes, and painting clouds.

It was windy, and occasionally misting, and I was damp and shivering by the time I was through painting. But there were some amazing clouds out there today, the sound of the wind blowing through the grass, dandelion seeds in the air, a blackbird's nest in the hay field, and a deer passing by as I was cleaning up.

A red-winged blackbird's nest.

I call it a pretty good day to be out.

A Windy, Rainy Day in May. 12 x 9 inch, plein air, oil on linen/hardboard.

(But I hope we get some sunshine soon.)

Maple on the Marsh Trail

Maple on the Marsh Trail, 10" x 8" plein air oil on stretched linen.

Warm and breezy day in La Crosse, Wisconsin. The Myrick Park marsh trails were busy with people enjoying the day, and the water was filled with coots, ducks and noisy geese. This is a view of the footbridge from just past a large grey maple tree.

A Certain Old Maple

 What a beautiful day to get to go out and paint. No mittens needed!

At the high points of the fields I could walk across icy mud and stubble, it smelled of spring, but as I headed downhill the snow was still deep enough in places to walk right over one of the fences, and fall through up past my knees when I least expected it. I discovered that one of my boots has a leak.

 I chose to paint this beautiful, tumbling down, old maple tree. My siblings and cousins and I used to spend a lot of time in and around this tree, climbing, reading, eating candy, making up stupid songs, roasting hotdogs over a fire underneath, dodging cow pies as we jumped out of it. Good times.

Deep snow and a dry place to sit.

The pups think painting is terribly boring.

Finished. 10x8" oil on linen.

^_^

A Few March Paintings

 March 12.

Massive dark snow clouds fill the sky. The sun breaks through every so often, only to be covered again, as more snow flies and falls to the earth.

A previous storm,with wet, sticky snow and a cold wind, left the north sides of the trees plastered in white. I stood among the birch trees down the hill to get out of the wind. Occasionally the tree tops were shaken, and I discovered what a nasty texture snow gives to wet oil paint. :-p

March 12, 2013 plein air. 5 x 7 inch oil on linen.

March 13.

Blue skies and blinding sunshine. I took a long walk around the north side of the farm, out to the orchard, where the snow had been broken and churned up by deer. The dogs went a bit crazy trying to follow all the tracks at once.

I continued around on the south side, but a cold west wind competed with the sunshine, making for a short and cold painting session.

March 13, 2013 plein air. 7 x 5 inch oil on linen.

March 14.

Close to home. A twisted old maple casts its shadow on the corn crib in the evening.

 

March 14, 2013, plein air. 6 x 8 inch oil on linen panel.

Same place, different day

July 22 plein air, copyright 2012 Hannah C. Heyer, 9 x 12" oil on linen

I can't help it, I just love that tree!

 Last night I went back to the place I painted on June 4th for another go. 

The painting is still really wet and shiny, and there's a bit of glare on the left side in the photo, but you can see how it compares with the one done in June below.

The fields and colors have changed so much: the plowed field I painted before is now a corn field, the grain has ripened and is a beautiful golden color, the hay has been cut, and the grasses and weeds in the meadow/pasture are all sorts of lovely.

 I was farther up the hillside this time, with a slightly different perspective on the curves and angles of the land. Before, I painted in the morning/early afternoon, and this time I painted late - trying to finish before the sun disappeared!

June 4 plein air, copyright 2012 Hannah C. Heyer, 9 x 12" oil on linen

Wet Paint + Bug

I went out painting last night, and posted a quick snapshot of the painting over on my facebook page.
 I brought the painting home tucked away in my easel, and left it there overnight. When I took it out today, I noticed some, shall we say, embellishments? And a dried up... slug?

Poor Mr. Slug!

Scraggly Tree Plein Air, 10 x 8" oil on linen.

The slug has been removed, but the evidence of his winding journey across the oil painting remains. It kind of works out with the branch-y stuff happening in that area, I think. Call it a collaboration?

:-P

Self-delusions and Painting Progress

I got a big fat box of new stretched canvases yesterday! I love getting new supplies in the mail. It's like it's my birthday and I'm getting a lovely gift-- that I had to pay for, but still!
Then I check my bank account balance and say to myself, "Oh Hannah! You shouldn't have! You REALLY shouldn't have!"
Having a lot of blank canvases, or paper, and fat tubes of paint lets me trick myself into thinking I have an endless supply. I can be less stingy with my usage, and don't worry so much about making every canvas or sheet of paper turn into something great.
Otherwise I can save and save, waiting to use my limited materials on only the grandest ideas, which never actually works in improving the quality of my work and only makes it more disappointing when something doesn't turn out and I've used up precious supplies. And I've missed trying a lot of ideas that might have been grand after all.

These new canvases, while still relatively small, are larger than what I've been painting most of the year. I'm really enjoying the challenge of working a little larger again, and hope to use more of my smaller canvases in some plein air painting this autumn.
But we've been stuck under cloudy, rain-spitting skies for the past several days, and I've been working indoors. Here's an update on the painting I began on the 21st:
The top of the large tree has become much more defined, the foreground has been filled in and given some grassy, weedy detail, and the sky is smoother and a bit lighter.
I can't wait to get my brushes messy again! :)