September 25, 2010... Again!

Just dawned on me (seriously, no pun intended) that the nocturne I did last night made 3 for Saturday the 25th! Now I feel better about not painting a second one last night.

I did get up at 4 am again this morning to try to get another one in but the moon light wasn't very good, pretty dull in fact as was the sunrise. I saw it, said "That's boring"... I mean don't get me wrong, I'm glad I saw another... but it was cloudless and a litttle flat. This of course is all in relation to my having to go out and stand in the temps that are now approaching the 30's. You need some inspiration to do that in September!!!


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9/25-3 'Harvest Moonrise'
I was out in the country side waiting for dark, what a strange life I lead, when it got DARK! I check the tables so I knew that the moon was to rise at 7:38 or there about. I'm sitting on tailgate with the easel ready to go, looking at where the moon would come up. Nothing... then a glance 30º to the north, behind me, and holy moly... it's on it's way up, just starting to peak over the rise out in that direction! I grabbed the tripod and brushes and ran to the front of my truck and started painting. It rose fast but I zeroed in on it when about 3/4's of it was about the land in front of me. I decided to make it all about the moon, not much detail and in fact it was so bright that it obliterated everything with in my field of vision in front of me. It was very cool.

September 25, 2010

NOTE TO EBAY FOLLOWERS... I RECEIVED A MESSAGE FROM THEM SAYING THAT AS A "NEW SELLER" I HAVE REACHED MY MONTHLY LIMIT!!! I can call them to discuss this, but not until Monday during business hours. I do not get this one. I thought the idea was to be there selling??? They seem to want to limit your success at doing that.
So I will post these and hopefully get this worked out Monday and will then list them all at once...I guess?

As sort of promised, I got up this morning at 4:00am to go paint nocturnes! I'm not going to lie, that wasn't easy to do. I went out to dinner and did some socializing, a 'not to frequent' activity this month being a student of the night! According to our extremely accurate weather forecasts, it didn't rain like they said it would, either last night or this morning. Good thing they were wrong about this morning.

Cold this morning too... 43ºF. Gloves required for the first time since last winter's painting season.




9/25-1 'By The Light Of The Silvery Moon'
I'll tell you what... As of this morning, I get that old song's title now! It was so 'silvery' that there was almost no color, well subtle grays, but only the slightest hints of warm and cool grays. This one was painted at Little Lake, a 'little' lake five miles or so from me. What I didn't know was that there is a very healthy population of big beavers on Little Lake. I found that out because they swam up behind me while I was painting ( it was dark ), intending to come ashore I guess, and slapped their tails on the water in some sort of aggressive act!!! I acted, jumped out of my shorts in fact! They wouldn't go away, kept circling 10 yds off the lake edge, slapping tails and basically making me worried that they thought my still, concentrating legs might be tender saplings. I took out my flashlight and shined it on them, they're big! There were also about 3 or 4 muskrats swimming around. So much for concentration.


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9/2502 'Before 7:00 AM'
I left Little Lake, the beavers and muskrats needed some 'Muskrat Love' time alone. I intended to start the next painting just as the horizon began to lighten up, about a half an hour before Civil Twilight, about 6:00 am this morning, and stop just before Actual Sunrise to be 'legal'. This is what greeted me!!! And more... If I've learned and hang onto one thing from this project so far, it is to get out at Twilight on both ends of the day, morning and night. That's where the magic is happening! I always new that, I'm a hunter and fisherman after all, but life's schedules seemed to have always prevented that in my normal course of plein air painting in the past. Getting kids up for school, to school, to games, activities in the evenings after school... those kind of things. My time to paint was usually more mid-day when the other family obligations weren't there. That is what was supposed to be done then, of course. Now they're on their own. Funny how long it takes us to 're-schedule' our psyche after having done it one way for so long. Whew... I see it happening now, finally!

Nocturnes Friday & Saturday...

I want to let you know that if you're following this, the nocturnes for tonight and tomorrow night might be painted in the wee hours of the morning, before sunrise, for a change of pace and to try to "out smart" the rain and wind! Wish me luck with that one.

I've been thinking about doing this for awhile now, to paint early in the morning rather than right after dark. With the full moon (if we can see it), the light should be amazingly bright again. I'm looking forward to that. So instead of catching the last light and then dark, I'll be trying to catch dark and the first light. Fun...

Posting may wait until later in the day... A few people have indicated that they're using these posts to start things off each day. Sorry to interrupt that again, but it's all fluid.

Here's one from a few years ago for fun...


'Wild Mountain Nocturne' 6x8

September 23, 2010

It rained and rained and rained. Tonight had me limited to either in the car, the coffee shop didn't work out, the car didn't work out either. So when the rain let up for a little bit I set up under the awning of the Chisago House Restaurant and painted the corner of the street where the Bakery is... in the rain!

Only one painting in the bag for tonight. I started one in the car and ended up wiping it due to not being able to see well enough with the heavy rain. Just didn't work out...


Click Here to Bid.
9/23 'Corner of Bench and First St'
In the rain this was a beautiful corner of TF to paint tonight. I even had the assistance of lights from under the awning on the Chisago House until the owner left at 9pm. My little light did the job for the next half hour though and I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome of this one. It feels wet, it was wet.

September 22, 2010

With the possibility of a very rainy couple of days I got right to it tonight. Three pieces resulted, two right after sunset as the incredible color of the more northern sky was intercepted by the storm from that was moving in from the SW. Some Great color to paint!!! PS... there are times when I wish these weren't so small.


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9/22-1 'Raining To The South'
Wow... sunset is now 6:57, a half an hour earlier than just a week or so ago! I'm taking advantage of that. The sky is so amazing foiled against the darkened landscape, car lights and trees silhouetted in a deep, warm shroud of color. I love the contrasts that are happening in that period I keep mentioning, between Actual Sunset and Civil Twilight. This one, and the second of the night, were painted in a wide spot on County Rd 37 about two miles from my house.


NFS
9/22-2 'Scarlet'
I simply turned about 30º left to paint this one. The slash of light was awe inspiring! This kind of color, in a painting and in life, has to be seen and be afforded time spent looking at it, to get the full impact. Such fun!!! Is this legal?


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9/22-3 'Fast Food Alley'
From the 'sublime' to the 'ridiculous... but 'good to paint'! No moon means that the sky was dark once things settled into the night. I made my way up the hill above St Croix Falls to the parking lot of the Cinema and TSC (Tractor Supply Company) store. I did not need my light to paint up here tonight. That was nice for a change! So my target was Subway, the Mickey 'D' sign and the intersection of the road leading to the two. A real mix of warm and cool street light affected color, the little spots of white, tangerine, yellow, red, green and some other truly unworldly reds that I could only approximate in oils. And in case I got hungry, finished up at 10pm, I was right where I needed to be.

September 21, 2010

I'm not sure that I've painted two of these in one night that are quite so different in color yet painted within an hour of each other. The first piece was painted about a half hour after sunset, the second one started about an hour and a half later when the moon was really bright.


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9/21-1 'Isaak's Moon'
For my first nocturne tonight I painted north of Taylors Falls at the Isaak Walton League park and boat launch. I thought it might be fun to get the moon's reflection on the water. Didn't work as planned because the river is too narrow to give the space for the reflection to drop down. There is another park and boat launch on the Wisconsin side of the river, that's what the bright orange light is. Leaves are warming enough now so that even as it's getting darker, their color seems to illuminate the hills. I don't understand all of this, like the greening of the sky (probably due to the complimentary contrast of the reds and oranges in the trees on the hillside), but I paint it as I see it out there. I think that being honest and not trying to 'sway' the color towards your own preconceived ideas is an exciting way to paint. I've talked about it before, but to me, this is what makes plein air painting so exciting and worthwhile doing. I can never dream this stuff up, and it's right out there for the taking.


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9/21-2 'Lit Up'
That's all I can think of after painting the second one, how bright it was last night. I tried to paint without the auxiliary light and almost made it. It's just not quite bright enough... yet. Now we're expecting a couple of days of rain, right through the fullest phase of the moon! That is disappointing, I'll see what happens.

September 20, 2010

Duty called today and took me away from the computer so the post for last night's paintings is just getting up...

What a night! Temps near 70ºF at 9pm!!! The winds were out of the SE at about 11kts gusting to 15kts. The temperatures will be warming as the night matures. The moon is at 95% illumination.

My basic approach is to find a pull off on one of the gravel (county) roads near me and get set up just before sunset. The last few nights I've been sitting on the tailgate of my truck. Tonight I painted the moon rising at Twilight, and then again about an hour past Twilight so that the full illumination of the light of the moon was in play. Between the early painting and the later painting I sit in the brightening dark (that's an odd thing to see happen) and listen to the sounds of the quiet, waiting for the land around me to brighten up as the moon takes over the show. It's interesting to do that. As soon as it gets dark, critters start moving around you. Last night a skunk passed by, that was obvious, and other 'things' that aren't identifiable by sight are heard to be moving about in my area. I just sit quietly with lights off and try to feel a part of it all. It's spectacular!


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9/20-1 '95% Moon'
This painting was so interesting to paint because the last light of the day, the sun, was still throwing some warmth from the western horizon ( to the right on the painting ) onto the scene. At the same time the moon on it's way up, the darkness advancing, created a beautiful gray quality to the land. The wind and warmth was accompanied by a lot of moisture in the air. This affects the color, even the color that is very close. Tonight's sky was a very grayed color, the trees green was very grayed, the flatness of the land and grasses also very grayed. All of this is what made the brilliance of the moon itself stand out and dominate the scene.


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9/20-2 'Warm Southern Wind'
I can tell you that I am a lucky guy to be doing this, but I can't share that feeling as well as I'd like to. My hope is that you will feel my own joy at being here, doing this in the paintings. Tonight was one of the best.