Landscape Painting in the Brandywine Area

To celebrate  my 50th birthday...yes, I'm that old now...I treated myself to a 5-day plein air painting workshop with David Dunlop.  He is an art instructor from the Silvermine Art Guild in New Canaan, CT.  I met him at a workshop he taught at Art of the Carolinas down in Raleigh last November.  His website is here if you want to read more about him:   http://paintingclass.net/index.html

If you check out his website, be sure and take a peek at his blog...there is a link on his web page.  What makes painting with him such an enriching experience is that he goes beyond just telling you what to do.  He can explain why things work, including design elements, how the human eye perceives things, and a lot of science as to why things look the way they do.  He also gives lots of tips for portraying things in a painting to trick the viewer into believing there is more going on than there really is.  There is as much science involved as there is "art", if not more.  I can't begin to describe how much I learned.

The days were long.  Besides painting time, we went on photo walks, watched his demos, 3 dinners, critiques, the light show at Longwood Gardens, etc.  We generally got started at 9:30 am each day, and 3 out of the 5 days, it was 11 pm before I was able to get to bed.   Then I was up early each day to reload my gear (preparing more paper, panels, brushes washed and repacked, fresh water in my bucket, etc.).  In spite of taking a break from my normal diet and exercise routine, I still managed to lose 2 pounds over the course of the week.

I took tons of photos on my poor old Kodak Easy Share camera...in spite of its limitations, it still takes some decent photos.  This was the maiden voyage of my Guerilla Painter kit (9 x 12 inch pochade box, tripod and rolling bag to carry it all).  For the most part, I was happy with the equipment.  However, I learned that if rolling the bag is not an option, the smartest thing is to remove the tripod from the bag before attempting to carry it like a backpack, and to carry the tripod separately.  For me, the tripod made it too heavy for my back.  All packed up in the bag though, with a small Coleman camp stool (which also fit in the bag), the only additional things I took with me went in my regular backpack (sketchbook and pencils, pouch with my brushes in it, camera, wallet, etc.)  The more I paint, the more I realize that the less I need to take with me.  This is a link to Jerry's Artarama's page with the Guerilla Painter things...

http://www.jerrysartarama.com/discount-art-supplies/easels/travel-and-outdoor-easels/guerrilla-painter-easel-systems/9x12-guerrilla-painter-box.htm

I wore an insect-repellant sunhat, which seemed to keep the bugs away from me (I didn't use any additional repellant other than the hat).  I guess it was sheer dumb luck that kept me from having problems with poison ivy, because apparently it was growing everywhere we went, and I didn't even know what it looked like (I do now).

For now, I'm just posting the paintings I did...perhaps will post some of the photos I took at a later date.  I must add this disclaimer...as part of the instruction involved, David painted on all of these...some more than others.  So, these are collaborative efforts, not my original works of art.  These are presented in the order in which they were painted.  Oh, and for those people that think you need a lot of stuff to paint...with the exception of the last painting depicted, I did all these paintings using only 4 colors:  hansa yellow medium, quinacridone magenta, ultramarine blue, and white.  Everything you see was mixed from these 4 colors.  I also found that Golden Acrylic Glazing Medium is great stuff.  It really came in handy.

This one done on the first day, at Brandywine Creek State Park, near the Adams Dam Road entrance.  I was under a bridge for this one.  7.5 x 11 inches, acrylic on hot pressed watercolor paper (half of a quarter sheet, if you are wondering about the odd size).

Second day we were off to Longwood Gardens.  Not too far from the entrance is a long avenue of flowers, all arranged by color in rainbow format.  I fell in love with these orange flowers, and fortunately, there was a nice big shade tree nearby to paint under.  7.5 x 11 inches, acrylic on hot pressed watercolor paper

To give them a little extra pop, I worked them a bit more pink in this painting, to give complement to the green in the background.  The leaves on these plants are also gorgeous, kind of deep red and green.

I didn't paint on Thursday, because by the time we got through everything else we were doing, it was already 3:30 when we had time to paint...I was feeling rushed, so decided against painting.  This was the day we were at the Brandywine museum (home to a large collection of Wyeth family art), so I went back to the museum to look at the art some more after David's demo, a painting of a side-lit path, much like the one I decided to portray below...

Back to Brandywine Creek State Park for Friday.  This time, we were over by the Thompson Bridge Road entrance.  By this time, Mother Nature was letting us know it was summer.  As the day wore on, it got really quite hot out.  This first painting is acrylic on a 12 x 16 Pintura Canvas Panel.  This particular painting was a real lesson in dealing with light coming through spaces on the right side and how to portray this, painting foliage, dealing with atmosphere in the horizon, etc. 

This next painting, back on the hot pressed paper...more variety of foliage, lesson on portraying water, both in light and shade, reflections, etc.

Saturday, the last day, we were at Rockwood Museum and Park.  It was hot and the sun was moving quickly.  I had to move several times in the process of completing this painting, trying to stay in the shade.  I really liked the way this house and the greenhouse structure peeked out of the foliage.  Acrylic on 11 x 14 Pintura Canvas Panel.

Last but not least...a somewhat abstract painting, painted more by David than by me...a lesson in light and shadow using transparent colors against the yellow background.  I think I overworked the red flowers. Acrylic on  9 x 12 Ampersand Artists Panel.