This month our focus in oil painting class is on light and shadow. Teacher set up a still life for anyone who wanted to work on the composition. I did the initial drawing in class and then brought it home to paint. Among other things, we needed to pay attention to direct and indirect light; reflected shadow lights and cast shadows, half tones, etc. etc……. I attach my reference photo and my painting.

Note: Teacher had painted the pear white.

9” x 12” —Oil on board.

A couple of weeks ago i participated in a Plein Air workshop (oil painting) in Idaho. The original idea was that we’d be painting the Tetons. It was a 3-day workshop, and for days 1 and 2 we never saw the mountains as we were socked in with clouds and rain. So one day we went to a beautiful forested state park where we painted a fabulous waterfall. On day 3 the sun came out, we saw the mountains, and found a lovely place from which we painted. So here i attach two paintings from that adventure. In the one where you see a lake in the foreground and the back of the Tetons in the background, the painting is result of 3 or 4 hours’ work, all outside and on the same morning. (9” x 12”, oil on panel).In the other painting (the waterfall) the project was more complicated. I worked on it on site for a couple of hours and then spent a few more hours in the studio. (11” x 14”, oil on panel). It still needs some work but i decided to go ahead and post since it’s been a while.

It’s been tempting to do some work on the mountain painting. Most parts just have one layer of paint. All sections could use some careful attention. However, i wanted to post just what i did in the field that day.