This will be my last post to this blog for 2009: our plein air schedule ended on October 31. Unfortunately, the last three sessions of the year - October 17, 23, and 31 – were all cloudy, rainy, nasty days, and we were not able to paint. I did get one more session in, myself, though, before the month was over. I had a piece in a show at the South Street Gallery in Easton, MD, and on October 10 I drove over for the artists’ reception. I stayed overnight to attend a pastel demo given the next afternoon by Colleen Howe (excellent!), and that gave me the morning before the demo to paint. I’d done some reconnoitering the day before (no painting though: once again, cloudy and misty weather made it useless to set up and paint) and I decided to turn out early and head to Claiborne, one of my favorite spots. The light was perfect, the morning cool and crisp, and I was delighted! I set up along the side of the boat launch parking lot and focused on the water, grasses, and small trees. I’ve painted this same scene before, from photographs taken in December, but in early October the light and the vegetation were much warmer, with some splashes of color not present later in the year. The result, posted here, is “Claiborne Morning” – my last plein air piece of 2009, as it turned out. Stay tuned, though: we’ll be back in May!