Labarrier Park

The sky was overcast but not so dark that you were afraid rain was imminent. Angela picked me up just shortly after 7:30am and we headed to Labarrier Park which is not too far outside of Winnipeg.  As we passed over the perimeter, we spotted a sign saying that the bridge at Labarrier Park was closed so we headed to Pembina Highway and went as far as Provincial Road 247 which was the exit we needed to take to get to the Park.

When we arrived, we were one of only two or three cars there. We headed down to the river and walked along until we came to the little foot bridge which took us back closer to the parking lot again. As we walked along the river, we spotted a small animal swimming. It looked like a young beaver. As I got closer to take a look, he took a dive down so I wasn't able to get a really close look at him. We crossed the foot bridge and took a path that led to a field that had some type of crop just coming up. Behind the field was a row of willows with one larger tree in front. The wooded area behind us provided complete shelter from the wind. We decided on this location and went back for our painting gear.

Today, I decided I was going to take more time with my painting and paint with larger brushes. I chose one of my small carton panels to begin my first painting. I chose to paint the trees way off in the distance with farm buildings. The middle ground was the field just coming up and the foreground was the edge of the field. I very quickly laid down the bands of color I could see; the overcast sky, the more distant green fields and the more near fields where you could see the crop just barely up. Details in the painting were kept to the suggestion of farm buildings and sprouting crops and debris in the foreground.

A second painting was completed in approximately 40 minutes. I looked more to my right where there was a nice row of willow trees following a road and one larger tree in front with some scrubby bushes. For this painting I decided to try and keep it very simple and not get too calligraphic with details. I was relatively pleased with both oil sketches today. Practice certainly seems to help.

I'm still uncertain what to use to haul all my equipment for painting. Today I used a smaller bag for my box but had to carry a small backpack and my tripod separately. This worked alright until I had to carry my equipment plus two small wet paintings back to the car. I will have to think about using my larger backpack again and having a lighter wet painting carrier . Unfortunately, we can't always count on being only steps away from our vehicle.

Our plans are to go out again Thursday or Friday depending on which day is better weather wise. We may also consider taking our bikes out and head to a park with our watercolor paints.

First Painting

Second Painting