Town & Country Plein Air

A great afternoon to be outdoors, especially after a day of hurricane force rain and wind which caused a good amount of flooding. I initially had planned to paint a house a few blocks away from where I live but after driving by it on my way home I noticed that my only good angle would be directly in the sun so I opted to paint something that offered some shade. I was a little over halfway into this when a wind came and flopped the whole painting directly on top of my palette. Sometimes I hold my palette but sometimes I don't. After today I think I'll try and hold it more often! It took me a bit of patience and steady hand to scrape red, ochre, yellow and blue from it but eventually it cleaned up enough for me to get back into it.  Tricky light as I might have been set up a bit too much in the shadows but a fun outing nevertheless. "Upper Back Porch" oil on gessoed wood panel 8x10  

 This was not what I envisioned myself painting today but it is what it is which is the back of our house which I painted just a couple weeks ago. My time was limited and after taking a quick walk across the street and down an alley I suddenly realized that I had forgot my canvas so back home I went a bit frustrated and said 'screw it, I'll paint the dang house again!"  I mean, it does have a wreath on the door so what the heck. I did come to the conclusion that the colors of our house are very hard to paint, at least given the light this time of day which was between 2-3:15 the time it took me to paint this. Lots of squinting going on and I would still like to perhaps go back and hit a few places but this is an honest 75 minutes.  " Holiday Wreath" oil on canvas 8x10

 I have always wanted to paint this white house and it's surroundings which can be viewed from just outside the front studio door at ACME Art Studios which is located on North 5th Avenue in Wilmington, NC. I finally had a chance last week. It was early, 7:30-8am but close to halfway in the sun broke through these clouds and I was getting baked very quickly. A friend told me that a fellow artist who paints plein air on a regular basis gave him these words of advice..."don't be a hero", no 8x10 inch painting is worth getting sun stroke over. Maybe a 24x36.... Bottom line, I was so uncomfortable I could not concentrate and the scene had changed so drastically I heeded my friends advice and set it aside.  " The House Across the Way" oil on board 8x10.  If interested in purchasing please email me mark@weberillustration.com 

 It was overcast with some sun peaking in from time to time when I started to paint this. After thirty minutes or so the sun was gone behind clouds so I tried to capture what I could in the amount I had before it set completely.  Later that night I was playing in photoshop and added a balloon for the fun of it. I sometimes use photoshop to go back into what I have painted and play with highlights, darks etc., to see what I may have done to make it a better painting. Just another learning tool. This was done in oil on a linen canvas board 11x14.