Sunset No.49

4/30/12
Interesting how the pond scum is a lovely color of grey this time of year, and it serves as a painting device adding depth to the water. Even though the sun sets so far to the right now it still reflects off of the clouds and effects there color in interesting ways. 

Sunset No.48

4/27/12
The bugs were out with a fury, I'm sure I looked crazy as I swatted all sorts of creepy crawlers off of me while painting. I painted the sky with broken color strokes of pink and yellow not mixing very much on the pallet, a little bit of a different thing for me.

Sunset No.47

4/25/12
Missed the cool clouds but made the best of it.

Sunset No.46

4/23/12
I moved the composition down to the bottom and made my focus the sky. I ended up leaving bare toned canvas showing through on the bottom, an interesting color consisting of  transparent oxide red and brilliant pink. Now if only I could be perfect enough to capture the brilliant color of the sky as the sun sets so quickly.

Sunset No.45

4/20/12
Burnt out from painting all day on a larger sunset in the studio, I struggled to drag myself reluctantly to the days sunset. I had lots of paint on my pallet before I arrived so I was able to start right away. I really wanted to capture the green of the bushes near the middle right of the composition , so I put them in first and went from there. I added the grey parallel bands in the sky at the end as they emerged with the setting of the sun.

Sunset No.44

4/18/12
A stormy day with large grey clouds moving across the sky from left to right. I set up quickly and started painting without hesitation, my goal was to capture a little of the yellow that graced the top of the moving clouds. 

Sunset No.43

4/16/12
I like to let the image speak for itself but the story is just too good to not tell. I arrived at a good time and started to set up, also my wife came with the baby and stroller and was walking around the lake while I painted. As I opened my setup and got ready to paint I realized I had no panel to paint on, nothing. At this point my wife was 10 minutes away and she had the keys to the car. So I left my setup open and started running towards the direction she was headed ten minutes prior. I caught up with her in just a few minutes, she was surprised and in disbelief as I was, we both didn't want to miss the sunset and it was dark. so we headed back to the car running as fast as we could pushing the baby stroller llong with us. almost back to the car we looked over at my setup about 100 or more feet away and saw a man standing near the my things, we thought it was strange and wondered who he was and what he wanted. So we got into the car and I quickly drove us all the way back to our home to get a panel to paint on. I left my wife and baby at home and headed back to do the sunset alone. Then it happened, I pulled up and parked, and noticed that a man in a white shirt was still standing in the same spot watching my things and he had a small light lit as well. I headed towards him going around the building. When I got to my things he had walked away and was about 50 feet away with his back turned. Who was he and why did he wait with my things and then leave right when I arrived? I believe in angels do you?

Sunset No.42

4/13/12
Leaving the house was just the start of a rough outing. I frantically closed up my painting box and,quickly grabbed my Utrecht bag with all of my supplies trying to hurry to the sunset before it got too dark. Then I realized that there was a puddle of  turpentine on the table and floor where I set my box on the way out the door. Now the house smelled like pine trees because I forgot to put the lid on the small container that holds the turps in my paint box...Then I arrived at the sunset with more fun. I had forgotten my tripod, so I would have to set up my paint box on the ground avoiding the ant beds and weeds along the shore of the lake. Bugs were crawling up my pant legs and biting me, i'm not sure what kind of bugs maybe flees but not mosquitoes. I tried to hurry this one painting fast but using lots of paint. A new composition with more foreground. 

Sunset No.41

4/11/12
I feel allot better about things when I'm not as much a slave to reality or slavishly copying . I prefer instead to strive for a statement of beauty above all else even if that means to divert from reality. I picked out a wall color today as well (to show the paintings on), I got a small can for $2.50 at Lowe's, it is a very nice dusk grey color.

Sunset No.40

4/9/12
Tried to see things as larger colored masses today, also tried to capture the feeling of the sunset. The sun is moving farther and farther to the right, it is almost all the way out of my usual compositions so the colors are less strong it seems and the effects are different than before.

Sunset No.39

4/6/12
I waited to see if the colors would change but they didn't. A welcome addition did appear after my waiting, the large grey cloud in the upper left of the sky. The colors went on a little thinner than maybe I had hoped for but it wasn't too bad, I think it turned out ok.

Sunset No.38

4/5/12
An overcast cloudy and stormy sunset. I never can tell on days like this if it will clear up suddenly and show some color. It stayed grey and the mosquitoes bit like crazy, It was good to get this one done quickly.

Sunset No.37

4/2/12
Another overcast day with allot of biting mosquitoes. I quickly toned the panel with a dark purple and started painting. My focus or idea or inspiration was the peaking light in the sky.