"Lupine Fields of Prince Edward Island" (oil on linen; 12" x 12") sold

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Imagine coming upon a meadow filled with lupines like this in early summer.  It could be Prince Edward Island or Maine. Wow!

"Lavender Heaven" (oil on linen; 11" x 14")

Painting No. 1: "Lavender Heaven"
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I love lavender.  Its enchanting scent and lovely colors always make me happy.  My ideal vacation would be a couple of weeks in Provence, painting lavender fields.  Someday....  In the meanwhile, this past weekend I took a workshop with Bobbi Pratte in the lavender fields at Willow Pond Farm in Fairfield, PA.  "Wow!" sums up the experience: the weather was perfect; the views all around, enchanting; the gourmet lunch of all the dishes with lavender in them, heavenly; the camaraderie among the workshop attendants, excellent; Bobbi's instructions, superb.  I think I ran out of adjectives!

My enthusiasm for lavender motivated me to exceed my records as a fast painter.  I have painted up to three small paintings a day.  Guess how many paintings I created during the workshop.  On Saturday morning, I dispatched two paintings.  During a break after the lunch at the farm, I worked on another painting in the shade under a tree.  By the time, we regrouped for the late afternoon painting session, I was pooped out, but no matter.  I did the number four painting of the day!  I was dazed and exhausted; I slept like a log that night.

Painting No. 2: "Lavender Fields and Summer Meadow" (oil, 10" x 8")
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Painting No. 3: "Lavender Patch by the Barn" (oil, 9" x 12")
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Painting No. 4: "Red Hot Poker Summer Garden" (oil, 8" x 10")
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On Sunday morning, after adding some finishing touches on a couple of paintings from the previous day, I "attacked" the lavender fields again, which led to Painting No. 5:

Painting No. 5: "Purple Heaven" (oil, 12" x 12")
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Eventually, alas, the lavender fatigue set in.  The last painting was more or less a rehashing of what I have done so far.  Nobody's perfect, you see.

Painting No. 6: "Lavender Fields on a Summer Afternoon" (oil, 8" x 10")
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Here are some pictures from the workshop I want to share:

Lavender cheese spread container

Lunch table; Bobbi is the lady in orange T and shirt, the second from the right

Lunch spread

Lavender blueberry cheesecake; I have the recipes for all the dishes!

Lavender tour; do you know that lavender and rosemary are close relatives?

Lavender pickers; another painting material after I recover from the lavender fatigue

Painting lavender fields; I just had to take a picture of my friends working so seriously!

LAVENDER FIELDS FOREVER!

"Glorious Poppies" (oil on linen; 8" x 12") sold

"Glorious Poppies"
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"Red Poppies" (oil, 8" x 12")
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Last summer I spotted gorgeous red poppies at Green Spring Gardens Park in Alexandria, VA.  As I was leaving after a plein-air painting session, I didn't have the time or energy to do another painting.  I took a picture, thinking that I would come back soon.  I did a few days later, but the flowers were all gone!  As the Roman poet Horace said, it's carpe diem or dead flowers.  I had to console myself with the photo, which served as the reference for "Glorious Poppies."

Compare the new painting with "Red Poppies."  The old painting has a merit--soft, dreamy, etc.  But I absolutely prefer "Glorious Poppies"!  I don't know what's happening to me.  I seem to have become bolder, more confident, not afraid of strong contrasts, and so on.  The new one has more depth and interesting "details" too.  When one thinks of red poppies, one does not dream of a  romantic, pastel image, unless he is Claude Monet.  Aren't these papery, blood red flowers all about hot-headed passion?  "Glorious Poppies" fits the bill much better than my earlier attempt, I dare say.

"Southwestern Wildflower Meadow" (oil on linen; 11" x 14") sold

"Southwestern Wildflower Meadow"
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"Mule Deer in the Meadow" (oil, 9" x 12")
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Bobbi Pratte's landscape class is winding down, with just a few more classes to go.  She suggested that we should all do some field exercises, that is, paint fields.  I chose a southwestern theme.  "Mule Deer in the Meadow" was the first one I did, based on a picture I took on the way to the Cedar Breaks National Monument in Utah during my family vacation in the Southwest last year.  I didn't know why the deer's ears were so big until a friend of mine told me that they were not ordinary deer, but mule deer.

I like the second "field" painting better.  It started raining by the time we got to Cedar Breaks National Monument.  At the altitude of over 10,000 feet, it was chilly although it was late July.  At one stop, we saw a breathtaking view of a wildflower meadow sloping down to the valley of spruces and firs.  The red flowers in the foreground are Indian paintbrushes.  There were also Queen Anne's laces and many other species in the meadow.

In my opinion, the biggest challenge in painting a field is to create the sense of depth.  What's in the background should stay there and don't come forward, no matter how interesting and beautiful they are.   On the other hand, it was really hard to keep balance between enough details and fuss in the foreground.  For instance, how do I not trap the viewer's eye in the foreground with brilliant red flowers in "Southwestern Wildflower Meadow"?

Making sense of the terrain is also a must, I think.  In "Southwestern Wildflower Meadow," it is clear that the meadow goes downhill, whereas everything is more or less flat in "Mule Deer."  I can imagine myself painting fields and meadows over and over again in the future to get to the bottom of it.

"Red Poppies" (oil on linen; 8" x 12") sold

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"Red Poppies" blocked in

As I said in the entry on "Purple Irises," I am an alla prima painter, finishing a painting in one session, whether it takes one hour or a whole day.  The idea is that as long as the paints remain wet, you can manipulate the edges--hard edges for emphasis and soft ones to recede.  There are, of course, exceptions to my usual approach.  Sometimes I run out of time and can't finish a painting on the day when I started it. 

Or, like with "Red Poppies," I decide to let the first block-in stage dry.  The green seed heads are in front of the red petals, and you know one of the color principles: you mix two complimentary colors, then you end up with mud.  Greens and reds are such a complimentary pair, occurring in nature often and making it all the prettier.  The point of poppies is their brilliant reds--cadminus red, permanent rose, and alizarin crimson, etc.  Your heart rate goes up happily, exhilaratingly.  So adding green paints on top of fresh, juicy red paitnts would have been simply asking for trouble. 

As impatient as I am, I wisely let the flowers dry for two days, which meant that the soft greens and violets of the surrounding meadow also dried out unfortunately.  Dry brushing came in handy to paint in delicate stems suggestively and poetically.  I am quite pleased with how the painting turned out.

"Summer Wildflower Meadow" (oil on linen; 12" x 16") sold

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Yesterday several friends and I went to River Farm in Alexandria, VA.  We met each other in Sara Linda Poly and Bobbi Pratte's classes at the Art League School, and as we are passionate about plein air painting, we formed a group.  We paint outside once a week; some of us, more often than that.  Summer in northern Virginia is not an ideal place for plein air painting with the temperature hovering around 90 degrees and about as high a humidity level as that.  We were lucky when we went to the National Cathedral two weeks ago; we got lucky again yesterday.  Painting gods--we appealed to all gods for a good weather (ha ha!)--have been kind to us!

I went down to the meadow, attracted by the sight of Queen's Anne's lace--my favorite wildflowers.  I had about two hours available, so I got to work right away.  After blocking in, I painted back to forward: the sky, Maryland, the Potomac River, a band of trees, the middle-ground wildflowers, then finally Queen Anne's lace.   I took care with the trees to get their shapes right.  Wildflowers, in contrast, were treated loosely as shapes.  If you look at the photo carefully, there are a couple of kids runnning toward where I was sitting.  As I was taking the picture, they suddenly appeared up the path and got captured forever!

"Autumn Meadow" (oil on linen, 8" x 10") sold

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A freezing rain last night--not a good weather to paint outside.  The wildflower meadow field at River Farm along the Potomac River was in full bloom with fall flowers when I painted this piece in Sara Linda Poly's plein air class.  I just hinted at them with yellows and violets.  The bank of land in the background is Maryland.  There is a running joke among my painting friends: the Marylanders paint their home state bigger than the Virginians.  Can you tell I am a Virginian?

"Early Autumn Wildflower Meadow" (oil on linen; 8" x 10") sold

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Have you ever painted with a palette knife?  Sara Linda Poly, my teacher, challenges her students to try new things, and painting with a knife is one of those things she pulls out of her sleeve every now and then, just to torment us.  I gave it a try twice, hated it both times.  On a gorgeous day in September, she urged us again to put aside trusty brushes and wield a palette knife.  Ugh.

Perhaps it was the perfect weather with no humidity, no breeze, no clouds, no bugs, and no pestering persons around.  Something magical happened.  I found a spot down the wildflower meadow, looking up the manor house at River Farm in Alexandria, VA.  After a quick sketching with a brush directly on the canvas, I began to flourish a knife without fear.  When I got to the sky and the house, I briefly switched to brushes for control, but other than that, the above painting--"Early Autumn Wildflower Meadow" (8 x 10")--was created entirely with a knife.

In an earlier post, I mentioned my trouble, even fear of texture--trees, grass, sand, dirt, leaves, flowers, hair, etc.  How do you render these things with paint?  How do you suggest them without painting every single blade, leaf and floret?  I found an answer--use a palette knife!  I could lay down a large, flat area; I could also dab, skip, and scratch with it.  What freedom!  What joy!  Isn't painting supposed to be fun?  There you have it.