Here's the rest of the production from the summer and fall: two more landscapes and an attempt at an oil-painting portrait.
I can look at the first -- An Unnamed Tributary of Ben's Run -- and recall standing in the swamp with bugs and heat for a month of Saturday mornings. I struggled with constantly changing shadows as the sun moved higher in the sky. Eventually, I took a reference photo so I could preserve a moment in time and stop chasing shadows.
Nature is dynamic! When I started the painting below, everything was green. When I ended it, all the leaves were gone. Between start and finish, I was able to capture some color. Sky and shadows look different every time you go out. So, I realize that I'm capturing a composite scene. The sky only looked this way once and when it did the rest of the scene looked different!
Finally, I wanted to try my hand at an oil-painting portrait. I only had one (reluctant) human model. So, I used a blurry photo from my daughter's wedding last year for most of this. I was able to plead with my model to pose for almost three hours (not all at once)! Woo Whoo!
Here's how it turned out. I told her that she'd love it in ten years.
