Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Arboretum in January

One of the paint-out groups I'm in had our quarterly planning meeting last week.  We all get together and suggest locations where we'd like to paint.  We always meet at the local Arboretum which has a nice cafe and patio.  Then we paint after our meeting and gather again for lunch, and to share our artwork.  After our last meeting in the fall, I painted The Roofers in gouache.  Several other plein air paint-out pieces at the Arboretum can be found in my Label section on the right.   

It was such a nice "summer-y" day in January for us painters.  We are having unusually warm weather here.  I always feel short on time after our planning meeting and our "deadline" to be back at the cafe.  I checked out several of my close-by favorite areas but nothing appealed to me.  Nothing looked like a "painting".  There's a lovely greenhouse section that is great for photos but I haven't figured out how to paint it yet.  I just went back to the cafe area since it's up some stairs and has a nice view.  Wow, the afternoon sun shining through and back-lighting some trees looked like a neat subject to try.  There's a walkway with people passing by too.  I ended up with a fun gouache piece.  As usual we shared the patio with some preening peacocks. 

5 x 7 gouache



14 comments:

  1. Lovely to see you are still alternating from gouche to watercolour. Your style suits both beautifully. Lovely addition of the people in this and a fabulous touch with the vibrant yellow.

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    1. Thanks Laura! It was a fun piece after I finally got started.

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  2. Your gouache paintings sparkle with light and vibrancy Sherry. I have never seen that many peacocks in one place

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    1. Thanks Lorraine! The peacocks are way too friendly and will snatch sandwiches out of people's hands if they don't pay attention.

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  3. Beautiful glow of light through the trees.

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    1. Thank you Polly! I was hoping that effect would come across.

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  4. Love these figures and the indication of the bicycle, the light and the pop of red! Well done.

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    1. Thanks Joani! I really appreciate your comments.

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  5. This one sparkles, Sherry. You're so lucky to have this great weather - glad you can paint during January!

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    1. Thanks Terry! This piece was fun after I finally got started.

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  6. Bright and beautiful - love the jewel colors you used.

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  7. Beautiful, Sherry! Makes me wanna get outside and try a little plein air myself.

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