Plein Air Painting

Hey Friends, I'll start this post with my Favorite Little Man above, Mr .Nic, such a happy boy.
Excited about SpongeBob and wearing Elmo Slippers! He loves to sing and dance too !
Today I finally got to meet up with friends for some Plein Air Painting !! Last week was too rainy. I just joined up with this group of crazy women and I love it already.
They weren't interested in painting the landscapes ! They were experimenting with new ways of slinging and pouring paint on unstretched canvas. I painted 2 small pieces and they are pretty bad. I didn't even think to photograph them for you. I've wanted to seriously knuckle down and paint from life for a long time BUT It's HARD !!! Maybe to hard for me but I'm not giving up after just one go. I used acrylics and it might be easier w/ oils 'cuz acrylics dry so o oooo fast.
Can you see the canvas' laying on the ground? Now they will pick out an area of the canvas and stretch it and then paint on top. Can't wait to try it myself but I need to order in some supplies.
This group is trying to find a name and several are on the marque, but not firm yet.

And I forgot to post about the reception held at Second Helpings last Sat. morning, to thank the artists that painted the table tops for their new cafe. I'll post some photos soon.

Happy Trails !

Hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains

Hey Friends, I'm posting a few photos from the hike I took Tuesday. It rained the entire day, so I was hiking under an umbrella. I'm sure the critters thought I was the oddest hiker they'd ever seen. The photo above is of one of the prettiest spots in the whole ravine or maybe it would qualify as a canyon ?!
And this photo of the lake is at the lowest spot. Look at that color and I didn't alter it in Photoshop at all. There is a lot of sulfur in this area of Virginia so I'm guessing that's the reason for such a beautiful shade of aquamarine.
And this photo was taken from the very top of the tallest peak. Doesn't look so high but it is. And it took a while for this TuTu to get up there.
This was taken from the same spot, opposite direction. Foggy! These Blue Ridge Mtns. are beautiful. Hoping to get some paintings started soon. I'm thinking I might do some of the compositional work from the photos and go back to this spot to do the actual painting. Just wondering if my colors might be a little truer. Oh, this last shot is 2 photos merged but I don't know how to clean it up.

Getting out there with nature is one of the best things you can do for yourself. If you're alone you won't have to worry about if the other person is tired, bored, hungry, etc. But if someone wants to tag along, you just might inspire them to keep walking too.

Happy Trails.