I had spent this afternoon down by the river,
trying to compose all the beautiful elements
into my painting for the day:

This morning I had wanted to initially paint this
cliff side but I had not anticipated the lighting,
and upon hiking to the cliff I had remembered
that the sun does not set the stage for this area
until later in the afternoon. So, I had decided
to paint a scene of several boulders instead,
and wait for the sun to set the context for later.

This location in the greenbelt is the place
that I was introduced to plein air painting,
almost three years ago. I decided to take
another visit now that I'm more experienced
at painting. I've tried painting this cliff area
several times in the past but the results
weren't too pleasing. This time I'm happy
with my attempt.

As I was walking along the creek bed
I saw the morning light being cast onto
the trees and ground, not yet having
reached the boulders; simple enough
to setup my gear and paint.



Soon after I had begun, not more than
30minutes into the painting, I saw
that the sun had started to caress
the boulders and eventually wash
out the whole scene with that
saturated light of noon. I'm often
reminded that landscape painting
isn't about copying the scene,
but rather trying to make a
meaningful statement in paint.

(In this photo, the light saturated
everything. My original idea can
be seen on the canvas, not in the
scene before me anymore.)



'Rivers'

Drop me in the water

By Robert Faires

One of my plein air paintings, entitled "Bull Creek"
was mentioned in a review written by an editor for
the Austin Chronicle named Robert Faires, for an
upcoming group show at the Wally Workman Gallery,
called "Rivers"