Fishing at William B Pond

I went to William B Pond for the regular “1^st Sunday” meet-up of plein aire painters at 3:00 in the afternoon. There are tons on places to find inspiration here so it turns out I didn’t see any other artists, but sometimes that just takes the pressure off.  I found a spot on the hill above the fishing dock where a man was fishing with his young son (about 3 or 4 years old).  Now fishing is all a relative term because he was spending more time chasing after his son: keeping him from running off, keeping him from climbing the rail, keeping him out of his tackle box.  I kept thinking how he could expect a child sit for hours watching him fish?

I figured this man deserved a spot in my painting. Other than my self portrait, this was my first attempt at putting people into a painting. OK, well I cheated a little bit by sticking him in a chair and you only see his head, but it’s a start, right?

I  found the most challenging part of this was the railing on the dock. Do I paint the rail first and paint the background over it, between it? Or do I paint the rail in last over everything else? After experimenting a little, I figured out that painting it last was probably the best solution in this case. But being outside, it just wasn't drying and it got a little muddy.

By this point the dad had packed up, and the boy, barely being missed by a bike as he ran across the bike trail, was being yelled at as they headed out to the parking lot.