Celebrate Three

Hello from Florida,

I know, this doesn't look like a painting of Florida does it?  You would be right!  I painted this in Northern Wisconsin on a painting trip in late October.  I was with two great outdoor painting buddies, Lynn Rix and Lori Beringer.  It was cool and breezy but the day was warmed by our friendship and love of painting.  So today I am celebrating painting the beauty of autumn with dear friends.

Ornamental Gourds

Being able to paint on a farmers property is really a privilege and I try to keep my easel out of their way, as they go about their very busy day completing their many chores.  Barb had just picked these ornamental gourds from the field and placed them by the outbuilding, when I asked her if I could paint them right where they were.  I set to work; but painting the gourds was a lot easier then planting, weeding, watering and picking that Barb had done before putting the gourds in the baskets.  

The Fruit of the Vine

Autumn in Wisconsin is our most colorful month.  When I had the opportunity to paint this pumpkin field, I took it!  Painting the orange of the pumpkins was quite a challenge and I learned, early on in the painting, that using cadmium orange straight from the tube was not going to work.  I had to wipe that color off (thank goodness it was oil paint) and come up with another color game plan.
That is what I love about painting, you have to solve different problems in each and every painting you create.  The problem I tackled in this painting was how to paint orange pumpkins without using orange paint.  Exciting!