an hour's worth of home work

Here are two plein air paintings I have completed recently. During both days the weather proved to me that summer was at last gone....  One painting day there was a brisk wind whipping up pine needles and oak leaves in the bright sunshine. The other day, the cold rains held off long enough to paint an impression of the Merrimack River.

 

The back lit, gnarly willow trees were on a marshy island in the middle of the Artichoke Reservoir, with their dark reflections on the water's ruffled surface.  I like the negative spaces between the trees and tried to capture their leaves aglow with the blue back drop of the other side of pond.

       

 

The Point Shore Amesbury painting with all the summer boats removed and placed in winter storage had the end of season sadness in the gray tones of a dank morning.  I enjoyed the pattern play of the empty docks canting this way and that on the water all tethered not far from the shoreline.

 



The top paintings of the diptychs are what I accomplished in my plein air session and the bottom paintings are the finished paintings...about an hour's worth of home work to finish them off.