Two opportunities to paint this weekend, which means it was a good weekend. Both locations are in creeks in the local area. The first wide, white and grey, open creek is part of the North Sulphur River, which runs east – west across North Texas. The second is Post Oak Creek, in Sherman, which is snake-like, full of snakes, overgrown and full of flickering shadows and intense wet greens.
On Saturday, I managed just over an hour on my canvas before the skies opened and rain fell from thousands of feet, or so it seemed, to punch down on me and my canvas. I ran for the bridge and headed home with a very incomplete canvas. This one will probably not be one I complete. I prefer to finish my canvasses on location. I focused on trying to use creative brushstrokes to add feeling.
Monday lunchtime brought another opportunity to drag my art bag down steep slopes. This time, the sun blazed like a true Texas summer, dazzling me periodically when the trees and clouds swayed. On my way down the crumbling side of the creek, I paused to watch the rather large snake (rat snake, I think) slither away to shade. I thought I would give it its personal space… Even in the shade, the patches of light were hard to look at for long. My strokes were long and sinuous, like the tree roots and the shadows. I like the colors and shapes in this one. Again, this was completed quickly; I would like to make another version of this in studio, and emphasize the discrete pockets of color, to build a vibrant, squirming image. My vision for this is for there to be no blending at all. Pure impressions of light, color and dark.