Painting at Beaudry Park

We went to a different spot today; Beaudry Park which is just west of Headingley. The weather was perfect. The sky was clear and sunny. The temperatures were quite cool to begin with but gradually warmed while we were out. I picked up Angela for 8:00am and by the time we drove out there, got set up and began painting, it was probably after 9:00am. Angela chose a line of trees along the river to paint and I went for the long grasses against one tree along the riverbank. We were both working with our oil paints.

Angela's painting was quite impressionistic and reminded me of Monet's Poplar paintings. My paintings were less successful. The first one was too busy and overworked. For my second painting, I chose to do the same scene but zoomed in on what I was most interested in. I will need to be more careful about my palette. It included Winsor blue which is way too strong for an outdoor landscape. I also had a lot of trouble getting the right color for the lightest grasses.

There were some lessons from this outing:
Work larger ... my supports seem to small for these outdoor landscapes
Pick your palette carefully ... Winsor blue just doesn't seem right for the outdoor landscape
Don't paint into the sun .... It was very difficult to see the colors as they were going on to the canvas; at the end I started to turn my back on the sun just so I could see what I was putting on
Bring a snack ... We stayed until about 12:30; by that time I was starving!

Sweeping grasses along the River

Reminiscent of Monet's Poplars