Yet another wash-out. It's been raining all night and that's expected to continue throughout the day. As I've been cleaning house all week in the wake of the window installers (22 new windows, 2 new doors, and a truly gigantic mess), I'm actually a bit relieved...I'm pretty pooped. We're not scheduled to paint out next week, since we decided to skip the Labor Day weekend, figuring that most people would have other plans. The next session, therefore, will be on September 11. Meanwhile, I hope to finish up some of the studies I started earlier this summer and get them posted. Have a great Labor Day!

A rainy wash-out, I’m afraid…we had to cancel.

We had a lovely morning at Piney Run State Park, in southern Carroll County. This was the first time we’d been there, and there’s a lot of potential for additional visits (despite the $10 entrance fee for those of us not yet 65). The three of us who turned up gravitated to the boat ramp, where there was a little gazebo and several nice views out across the lake. As usual, I started out well, but lost my way a bit towards the middle. Maryland in summer is so overwhelmingly green (see my July 18 post) that I’ve been trying to follow Bob Rohm’s excellent advice, published in the August 2009 issue of The Pastel Journal (“Red Tree, Blue Tree”), for seeing beyond the local color and making more creative color choices when painting outdoors. I was concentrating on that and achieved some success, but the painting itself – considered as a whole – still needs work. So that’s three plein air pieces that I need to post, once they receive a little attention in my studio.

Two sessions missed. The first one I knew I’d have to skip: on July 31 I was in Georgia at the Colored Pencil Society of America’s 17^th Annual International Exhibition and Convention (I had a piece in the exhibition this year – yay!!). I was hoping others would be at Lake Elkhorn to paint, anyway, but I gather (I have my sources!) that that was not the case. Today I’d hoped to get out to paint, but the nasty chest cold I managed to pick up in Georgia (yes, another cold…feeling real crappy and tired of being sick) made me very disinclined to do anything other than stay in bed and whine. Despite that, however, I did get up and go out with my painting gear. Once I arrived at Lake Kittamaqundi, though, the cloud cover was discouraging, delivering a flat, dull light, with weak shadows. I waited through a couple of little spits of raindrops on my windshield until after 10:00, but no one else came to paint, either, so, not being overly inspired, I went home. We’ll do better next week…