Mamquam River

This was the second painting of the day. Lately I have been doing a painting in the morning and a painting in the afternoon. Sometimes with the afternoon painting I am already warmed up in terms of being able to see my colors so I was looking forward to getting set up and seeing what I could come up with. Each new painting is a challenge with no certain outcome. Though with practice I hope to create the ability to complete more paintings successfully. This was a new spot for me. It was quite a cool experience as I walked through the trees out onto the expansive river bed. I wondered if I might see a bear today. There was a slight breeze sweeping across the rocks which prompted to me to make sure my canvas was well secure into my easel. It was the hottest day yet this spring! I made sure to have a proper hat this time to avoid another sunburn which I had gotten a few days previous.

As I walked about the river bed scanning the landscape for a nice composition I thought about this activity of plein air painting, of each day, taking my easel and hiking around the area I live and finding different spots to paint out in nature. I thought “This is healthy”….”Is this healthy?” I wondered what kind of impact this activity was/is having on my mental and physical health. I have certainly been enjoying it. I thought about how when I was stone carving all the time I would carve all day and then come home and go inside for the most part. The last 2 weeks I have been outside almost everyday creating paintings out in nature.

I really wanted to capture the deep blue of the river. I have noticed that my mid-colors lately have been getting deeper and more accurate and that has helped in defining the space of my paintings. It has been great to get more painting time in and execute more plein air work. Something I have really never done as much as I have the last few weeks. And I am seeing improvements which affirms what I had thought which was, I simply needed to invest more time into this point to see the results I was wanting. A long way to go, but it is nice to see some changes and improvements in the paintings.

As I was getting closer to finished I suddenly heard a voice from the trees about 25 meters away…”Hello There” I wondered “Are they talking to me” I turned around and said Hello, it was a lady I had run into 2 days earlier as I was painting in the park. Here she was walking her dog along the river trail and crossed my path again, how funny.

When all was said and done, I was satisfied.

I finished painting around 4:45. My wife gets off work at 5pm, so ‘that should be enough time to get home and photograph the work’. It was.

On the trek back to the car I decided to pull off my shoes and socks and cut across a shallow part of the river. I mean, why not! Good Decision, a nice way complete the whole experience.