Painting Manitoba Sunflowers

Who doesn't love sunflowers.  One of my plein-air painting friends met a farmer just the week previous who had sunflowers and was willing to have us on the property to paint. It was meant to be! We decided to do an evening session so we left Winnipeg at 6:00pm and headed out to a farm just past the perimeter highway on number six highway. This was a very large, well kept farm and the sunflowers were gorgeous and at their prime. It was hard to decide just what view to paint ... should we paint individual flowers or try to capture a portion of the field. Angela settled on doing a "portrait" of the sunflowers while I took a longer view.

I did my painting on a piece of Arches oil paper and toned the paper first with a mixture of colors on my palette leftover from a previous painting session. Angela chose to do her painting on a textured ground and used a palette knife. We worked for about an hour and a half when we started to feel a few drops of rain. We packed up and went back to thank Bruce for allowing us to paint his field. He suggested that we might want to look out back which we decided to do. By this time, the sun was a brilliant orange red ball of fire that had almost set. A very large piece of farm equipment was silloutted against the sky with the backdrop being the sunflower field. We both agreed that we had to come out again to paint these sunflowers. We both took photos but they just don't do justice to the incredible sky we had on the way home. Thankyou very much to Bruce and we hope to have the opportunity to paint again at your farm.

Sunflowers painted with oils on Arches oil paper

 

How many times can you get lost?

I'm a little slow at posting about our most recent plein-air adventure. Diane and I went out together this past holiday Monday. It was one of those really glorious days where the sun is shining but it wasn't too hot. Also, most importantly, it wasn't windy. Wind can cause real problems with tripods, easels and canvases.

The first part of my journey was to get to Diane's house. I put the address into my GPS and soon figured out somewhere off of Bishop Grandin, that I was not heading to her house. I called on my cell phone and got directions. That's "getting lost" number one. Once I arrived at Diane's house, we set out looking for a prairie crop scene. As we were heading down the highway along the Red River floodway, I noticed all these nice round bales and a piece of farm equipment. Fortunately, there was a nice access road right beside us so we turned onto it and went back towards the view we had seen. It was just a perfect painting; a beautifully shaped lone tree in a field with a nice red combine sitting on the hill. There were just a few grey wisps of clouds close to the horizon. We set up right behind the car which makes it much easier when you don't have to haul your gear too far away. After painting a few hours, my stomach was telling me that it was time for a break. I hadn't brought lunch but gratefully Diane shared her lunch with me.

We both had the whole day free so we decided to head to Pineridge Hollow. On our way we got confused about which way to go which is getting lost number two. Once we got to Pineridge, Diane requested permission to paint on their grounds. We chose to set up in front of a large white tent canopy with a nice background of flowers. We were out of the way of the main path so not too many people stopped by to see what we were doing. Following completion of our second paintings for the day, we took a well deserved break by having coffee and sharing a cinnamon bun in the restaurant. What a nice way to end a very productive and wonderful day.

Getting lost number three happened when we left Pineridge ... neither one of us could remember which direction to turn. After getting turned around and headed in the right direction, I dropped Diane off at home. Do you think I could remember how to get out of her condo complex? No, I headed the wrong direction and took a big loop around which makes it four times that I got lost in one day. I'm really pretty useless without my GPS when I'm in unknown territory.

Diane and I agreed that we must do this again so the plan is to go out another time this week.

Harvest time near Birds Hill

 

 

Wedding tent at Pineridge Hollow