May 7 2019 - Heritage Farm In Spring

Welcome to our new season of Plein Air painting. There will be a few new places this year that we have not previously visited, so that should be exciting and inspiring. This is an invitation to all TCAA members to recommend places you would like to paint or draw. Just email me - jmitastudios@gmail.com and I will put it into our summer schedule. We are looking for places that have a variety of subjects, a place to park, with emphasis on safety and mobility. Some of us come with easels, paints, tables and chairs to paint our morning away, so in most cases we don't want to have to hike a 1/2 mile to get to a good subject.

Some recommendations when you join us, please think about how much sun may be shining. Hats with wide brims are really good, in case there is little shade. Many of the farms we visit are very open and have a lot of sun exposure. Sun block is always good. Some have purchased easel umbrellas to attach above their heads. These can be pricey but are worth the cost. One of the more expensive ones, a Guerilla painters umbrella can be purchased at Amazon, but you can also check to see if they might be available at Jerry's Artarama or Dick Blick, to name a few.

Remember to bring water to keep yourself hydrated. A snack such as granola, crackers and peanut butter, or veggie sticks will keep your body happy as you paint or draw. 

For purposes of cleanliness, bring a garbage bag to throw any used paper towels or Kleenex into. You might want to have an extra bottle of water to clean your hands, or try wearing latex disposable gloves. 

Bug spray may be necessary if we have an especially wet summer. This will bring out mosquitos. Also, to try to keep ticks off of you, wear your socks over your pants, preferably white socks so the ticks can be seen. You can also try wearing deet on your lower legs and shoes, but another underused idea is wrapping a tick and flea collar around each ankle. This will deter them from climbing up and finding a nice home on your back or on your abdomen. 

If anyone has any other recommendations, share them through email. Any and all ideas would be helpful. 

So, what about our first outing? Well, it was a beauty of a day. The sun shone all morning, and temperatures stayed around 65. There was little wind, so the day was just perfect. 

We made our way to Heritage Farm in Bolton, CT. This is a popular farm to visit anytime of the year and many paintings and drawings come from our visits. 

It was a very light patronage this past Tuesday. Susan came briefly to take some pictures. The others were Linda, Christine and myself. It is very early for landscape, but the lovely yellows and greens across the hills were beautiful. The newly emerged leaves waved happily in light breezes, emanating with a lovely golden glow as they spread out their leafy hands. 

The biggest issue was the color. Most are used to certain greens when painting. This day, we all had to add a great deal of yellow to that green to try to capture that lovely spring green. 

Christine and I chose the stone wall that leads down to a grove of majestic oaks. Christine nearly finished one painting in acrylic and was working on a second one until we left. She captured a nice soft view to match the softness of the day, with harder edges revealed in her stonewall. The contrast of soft and hard is what made her painting so appealing. You can feel the solid roughness of her wall, and you really understand the scene. It is filled with a relaxed hand, and I can't wait to see the finished painting. She had to wait for paint to dry before adding the closer trees.

Linda sat on a nearby bench to capture the same hills and shades of yellow greens. Her choice was pencils and pastels. To create the yellow green is hard with pastels. There is no color quite like it, so Linda found herself overlaying much of the green with a pale yellow. It was a challenge, and that is part of what plein air is all about. Whatever your medium, whatever your skill level, as artists you can still be perplexed by the light and the color. We all learn many things as we attempt different scenes at different times of year. I hope Linda has finished her pastel. I would like to add it.

I used a different angle for my choice of oil. I am still learning a lot about plein air. I started by sketching my horizon with willow charcoal, then added the main lines of my composition. As I painted, my tendency to detail too much as I start is my waterloo. I did not get far, and unlike Christine, I did not read the scene nearly as well. So I will call up my photos, probably start the painting all over again, and hopefully finish it to my liking.  

Our next plein air outing will be Tuesday, May 21. We are having our monthly evening meeting on May 14 so we will not have a morning gathering. 

The location will be The Lodge at Crandall Park 2 in Tolland, CT. Hopefully many of the rhododendrons will be in bloom, along with the numerous wild azalea surrounding the pond. We will meet at the lodge parking lot and find our subjects from there. 

May 21 - The Lodge, Crandall Park 2, 124 Cider Mill Rd., Tolland, CT. 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Hope to see you there.

                                                        GALLERY