Monday, August 22, 2011

Following the setting sun

...everything is vague, confused, and Nature grows drowsy. The fresh evening air sighs among the leaves - the birds, these voices of the flowers are saying their evening prayer. Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
Shaker Village is even more special as the sun sets and the fields grow orange-golden. Plein air painting is even more demanding when the sun sinks so quickly. So today, I knew exactly where I wanted to set up and I knew what I wanted to capture, but doing that is always more difficult in reality then in my imagination.
This is a series of sketches that I hope to use as reference for a large pastel, however the more I study the images the more I think that trying to incorporate all will be too much information and not a clear focus. It may be best to develop 2 pastels, one of the sycamore and the other of the orange field.
"Sycamore and Fence" plein air sketch
"Chasing the setting sun1" plein air sketch
"Chasing the setting sun2" plein air sketch