We were supposed to paint at Brown’s Bridge on July 23, but the forecast record heat (101 degrees, with a brutal heat index of 106) led me to move the session to Monday, July 26, when we’re expecting more moderate temperatures (like in the high 80s). Unfortunately, I’ve since learned that most of us – including me! – can’t be there Monday, so we’ll have to skip this session. I also won’t be around to paint out on July 30 (Lake Kittamaqundi), as I’ll be in California at the CPSA’s 18^th Annual International Exhibition and Convention. So my next blog will be a report on the August 7 plein air session (assuming the weather cooperates).

Barbara, Brenda, Rita, Maria and I made our group’s first painting venture into Oella, small town on the east bank of the Patapsco River, across from Ellicott City, built 200 years ago to house local mill workers. This was a VERY hot day that we thankfully spent in the shade of Mr. Jay Patel’s Country Corner Store (Mr. Patel also very hospitably allowed us to park in his lot), painting the Mount Gilboa Chapel. This is a small stone church built in the mid 19^th century by freed African Americans; it is included on the National Register of Historic Places. Since I was not entirely sure how long I’d be able to stay out in the 90-degree heat, I chose a piece of Wallis paper on which I’d previously laid in a very dark brown wash in acrylic (covering an earlier unsuccessful painting that I’d brushed off). I really love the effect of pastel on a dark dark surface, but there are some tricky things you have to take into consideration. First, even mid-value pastels look quite light against the dark surface, and if you’re not careful to adjust for that, your finished work can end up in far too low a key, especially when working outdoors. So it’s a good idea to start by popping in one or two of your lightest lights (which you’d normally save till last) just to help you gauge your remaining values correctly. Second, brushing light pastel off a dark surface will leave ghost traces, so if you want to preserve the crisp freshness of confident strokes of color against the dark underpainting, you need to get it as right as possible the first time and be willing to accept what you lay down. It’s for this reason that I chose the dark surface for this particular session: I knew it would force me to work as quickly and as surely as I could: no doodling or re-painting allowed! The result, “Mt. Gilboa Chapel,” is certainly no masterpiece of realism, but I am basically pleased. I will probably re-work it some in the studio – I want to soften the hard edges and perhaps darken the shadow side of the chapel a bit – but for illustration purposes, I’ve posted here, anyway.

Instead of painting at Lake Elkhorn (still a goopy brown from being dredged), we went back to the Howard County Living Farm Heritage Museum – always a favorite spot. There were 5 of us: me, Barbara, Brenda, Rita, and Maria, braving the heat and the dust (Maria in a skirt and low heels...how does she do that??). I have to admit my mind was overly occupied with planning for the opening reception of my Artists’ Gallery show that evening and not focused enough on painting: it took a real effort of will to concentrate. The light changed frequently as clouds paraded by overhead, and it was a good day to do sky paintings. As an earth "anchor" I chose a small grouping of trees that I’ve been wanting to paint for a while now, and I’m about 80% happy with the result: I’ll post it here once I’ve dealt with the other 20% and photographed it.

Although we did not have a paint-out scheduled for this week, the weather was just irresistible, so I joined the Paint 360 Meet-Up group at the Avalon-Orange area of the Patapsco Valley State Park to paint the Thomas Viaduct. It is the oldest major railroad viaduct in North America and the first built on a curved alignment. This year marks its 175^th anniversary, and the Friends of the Patapsco Valley and Heritage Greenway have put out a Call for Entries for artists and photographers to portray the Viaduct for a show to be held at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, opening at the end of July. I had a great time painting and was very pleased to meet some new plein air colleagues. I’m also fairly happy with the painting I did, but it does need some work before it’s ready to submit. I may just leave it as a study and do a larger studio piece for the show, based on the plein air piece and on the photos I took…I will decide that over the next day or two. //Have finsihed the studio version, which I've posted here: it's called "Steadfast" and I plan to deliver it to the B&O Railroad Museum tomorrow morning.

The schedule called for a trip to Kenilworth Gardens today, but I had to take a pass, as I had not finished preparations for hanging my show later that day at the Artists’ Gallery. I know that Kay and JoEllen went, though, and reportedly had a great painting day. We also decided not to schedule a session over the July 4^th weekend, as people generally have other stuff to do.

Back to the regular paint-out schedule. This week we drove down to the Potomac and painted along the canal, at Riley’s Lock. It’s a long drive from Ellicott City, but I’d been wanting to paint there since I discovered it by accident last year. Barbara and I were the only ones who made the trip, and I have to say that, after anticipating it for so long, I really and truly screwed the pooch. It was just a bad painting day: no focus, poor composition, muddy color. I made a number of other bad decisions, too, such as setting up so that I was looking into the bright light coming off the water, which made me squint all morning and gave me a doozey of a headache later on. Maybe I painted so much the week before I broke something…like my art brain. No idea, but it was a disappointment, I can tell you, and the result went straight into my Portfolio of Shame. But there’s always next week!

I was lucky enough to be one of thirty artists selected to participate in the second annual Mountain Maryland Plein Air event in Cumberland, under the auspices of the Allegany Arts Council. It was a wonderful week: gorgeous scenery, friendly and hospitable people, excellent event organization, (mostly) great weather, and the opportunity to meet and paint with some truly remarkable artists. I completed 4 paintings the first day (what was I thinking?) and then was so pooped I was able to do only one the next day. I did make a stab at a second, in the afternoon, but got caught in a rainstorm, and by the time it cleared up, I realized I was just too &%$# tired. This was my first plein air event, and I realized that 1) painting outdoors once a week in a leisurely, all-the-time-in-the-world sort of way does NOT prepare you for the gotta-have-two-paintings-that-don’t-suck-by-Friday frenzy of a timed event; and 2) I’m not in my 20s (or 30s or 40s) anymore. But it was really a lot of fun, and I may even consider entering more of these events, once my feet stop aching. My sincerest thanks go out to Kelly Moran and Andy Vick and all the wonderful staff of the Allegany Arts Council and the Saville Gallery, who worked so hard to pull this off; to juror Lee Boynton for selecting a nicely eclectic group of artists to participate; and to the welcoming people of Allegany County who made the event memorable for me, including Henry Maier and his wife Nancy, who invited us up to paint from his property (I wish I’d had more time!!); the other folks who stopped to chat the first morning on Murley Branch Road and to suggest other great views to paint; the wonderful folks at the Stone Age Café in Flintstone, who also pointed me to some great scenery; and Ron in the red pick-up, who invited me to Forsythia Lane to paint from his hillside and gave me some great photographs of local scenes several decades ago.

We weren’t certain we’d be able to paint this day, since the weather forecast was calling for thunderstorms and a 30% chance of rain. But Clark’s Farm is just so peaceful and beautiful, I really wanted to try. I figured that a 30% chance of showers meant we had a 70% chance of not getting rained on, and luck turned out to be on our side. The day was a bit overcast, so there were no strong shadow shapes to build a composition on, but that also meant the light was less likely to change on you. There were three of us – me and Brenda up at the house and Nancy somewhere down the back drive – and I set up overlooking the cow pastures and pond. The cows and cats were very interested in what we were doing and kindly posed for our photographs. I completed a 9x12 and managed to stay firmly on the “less is more” side of the painting equation…of course, it helps you stay loose when you’re not certain how much time you might have before you’re caught in a downpour! I’ll post the painting here once I photograph it in a week or two.

This morning we made our first painting trip to the Patuxent Wildlife Refuge, south of here, off Powder Mill Road, and it was well worth the trip. There are two lakes and a causeway between them, along with blooming flowers and a still-under-construction wetlands environment and boardwalk that will have wonderful possibilities once they’re completed and a bit more mature. The staff was extraordinarily nice and helpful, happy to point out some of the best places for views. On this first visit, though, we did not get much further than the causeway: the views there of the lake were wonderful, and the three of us (me, Barbara, and Brenda) set up there, taking care to stay in the shade and out of the way of the passenger tram. (Note for next time: Don’t forget the sun umbrella!) I did a small (8x10) piece on Richeson board (“Shoreline”) and am happy with it: I am trying hard to focus on shapes and the underlying abstract design, especially in these smaller pieces, rather than become overly concerned with detail (a bad habit).