OK, my Belfast workshop students: do you recognize the place? Yes, it’s the mouth of the Ducktrap River, where we spent a delightful day painting and Hal dove in to rescue an escaping umbrella. Meanwhile a rising tide absconded with his shoes.
It was very different painting with a small cohort of PAPME painters on the first truly warm day of spring. The sun felt good, but there was definitely no swimming for us. There’s still only a tiny haze of color in the trees, but suddenly it was warm enough to be comfortable without making superhuman efforts in that direction.
The transition from the industrial boatyard back to the ocean’s edge took me by surprise, and I cast around for a while looking for a subject. The point was in deep shadow in the morning so I painted two trees on the far shore.
Peter Yesis and I had a conversation about reworking plein air pieces in the studio. I used to do it; I don’t much anymore. Lately, it seems like it either works in the field or it doesn’t. However, I’m finding I can’t use my umbrella in the steady spring onshore breeze, so my work is coming inside darker than I want. I now have a stack of five paintings I need to revisit to amp up the lighting a bit, and two studio paintings that are almost finished.
The problem is, we’ve been blessed with day after day of blue skies. It’s tough to work inside in these circumstances, especially when there’s a boatyard just down the road that’s calling my name. So I will continue to collect impressions outside and then paint in the studio when it rains next—which, if the weatherman is right, might be this afternoon. Meanwhile, I’m off to see the Mercantile raised up out of the water.
By the way, I still have one-week openings in my August workshop, which will run from August 7-12. See here for more details, but the two-week option is closed. I will write more on this next week.