June 9 - On a beautiful Saturday morning,
I decided to go to Effie Yeaw Nature Area for a paint-out where artists were
suppose to paint and then display their works for a nominal fee on the patio of
the museum. The museum was planning a fund raiser later that afternoon. I
wasn't too sure about displaying my art, but I figured I would go and check out
what other artists were doing, take a look around, and do a little painting
myself, if I was so inspired. It had been a while since I had been to
Ancil Hoffman Park and Effie Yeaw Nature Area, so I took a stroll around. I was
amazed at how much wildlife there was: deer, turkeys, egrets. 
Once I had walked
around the nature area, I went to find a nice quiet spot (which is pretty easy
since the whole place is quiet!) I set up alongside the path next to a large
meadow with my chair (a permanent addition to my plein aire supplies) and my
watercolors. My goal in this painting was to focus on not a lot of detail in
the background trees, while incorporating as much detail as I could in the tree
in the foreground. I reworked the trunk of the tree several times to get a
sense of the texture in the bark. After I was finished, I wished that the oak
tree was not so “cut off” but more in the painting.
An additional side note: I had seen so
much wildlife in the morning that I thought I should incorporate something into
the painting. I decided to put a small deer under the background tree on the
left. I did not like the way it was turning out so it quickly became a shadow
under the tree instead.
Here's one of the creations of another artist that was at the paint-out. I really liked the way this watercolor looks. It actually has the effects that I was working on with the background trees and foreground trees, but I like the way the bridge turned out! I took a picture of it on the easel while being displayed for the fundraiser.
