I went to William B Pond for the regular “1st
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.
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