I shared a few days ago about my deep dive into landscape study, drawing, and painting again.  You can read about some books and artists that have inspired me in this endeavor HERE.   On a whim, I also joined in on the Spring Sky Challenge hosted by Erin Spencer on Instagram.  A painting challenge issued on Instagram was how I started oil painting in the first place (that was the 100 Meadows Project), so it seemed a fitting way to push myself to paint landscapes daily for a month.

We have had pretty miserable spring weather so far with lots of cold, rainy, gray days, so I haven’t been outside to paint as much as I would like and I’ve been painting off of photos.  Most of the photos were taken recently as I’m out and about, but a few of the photos are old ones that I wanted to revisit.  I’ve learned to hang onto reference photos I took years ago and never painted because I either didn’t feel like they were good photos or I felt like I couldn’t paint the scene very well.  I comb back over those photos and see something new, crop it differently, or simply feel more confident that I can pull it off.  I’m looking forward to painting outside when the weather is cooperative, but this has been a very beneficial practice so far.

I feel like I got off to a slow start with paintings one and two.  They turned out a bit less focused than I wanted and I feel like I didn’t add enough variety in my brush strokes.

Both of the paintings were based on pictures I took at the drop-off line at school.  The boys’ school is situated with a hazy blue mountain range on one side and surrounded by farms and pretty rows of trees.  I often pull out my camera to capture a pretty sky or compelling light on the trees.

For day number three, it was foggy and gray, so I pulled out an old foggy/gray photo I took years ago in a park that is now local to me.  It’s an 1800s barn in Renfrew Park & Museum in Waynesboro, PA, which is only about 20 minutes away now.  I’ve been planning to do some plein air painting there but between the kitchen renovation and the weather I haven’t made it.  Painting the barn from a photo, though, would be good practice and it was.

Feeling a little warmed up, I started to play and experiment a bit more with things I learned from the art classes I’ve been taking.  Words that have echoed in my head as I’ve been painting have been…

• Don’t finish any of the painting until you’re ready to finish the painting.  Some of those undone areas say just enough and never need to be finished.  This was very insightful and helpful advice from Erin Specer to capture moments instinctively and avoid overworking a painting.
• My biggest takeaway from the class with Julie Davis regarded composition.  She showed how seemingly random arrangements of trees, branches, and leaf clusters in a painting had a very intentional composition.  It’s helped me to think through the little details of finishing clouds and trees to “point” to the focus of the painting.
• I’ve still working my way through Scot Christenson’s extensive landscape painting class, but working through his value study assignments has really helped me establish values that are clear to a viewer.  Photos can often distort values (making trees look darker than they are, etc.) and his class has helped me recognize that and adjust my paintings accordingly.

And, of course, I’ve been learning a lot from the books I’ve been reading and studying lately.  Starting on day number three, I gave myself permission to try to implement more of what I’ve learned instead of sticking to what was comfortable and familiar.  And I was so happy with the results.

I even added cows, which is something I tend to shy away from because I’m afraid they’ll look like stupid blobs.

I’m having a good time playing around with more defined cloud shapes and cleaner sky colors.

Of course, after taking a class on painting trees with Julie Davis, I need to paint some trees.  Yes, this is a sky challenge, but we often see spring skies peeking through new foliage.  This is based on a picture I took on the way home from riding with Jeff to pick up our usual Thursday night pizza for family pizza night.  I really didn’t want to ride along and hold hot pizza on my lap, but he coaxed me into going and I was rewarded with some beautiful scenery.  The “path” is actually a road, but I’m not sure I’m ready to paint on yellow lines and minivans.  I prefer a more bucolic scene.

I have to share that the reference photos I take are usually terrible.  You can often see spots or the tint on the windshield, the dashboard, the frame of the window, etc.  They’re usually blurry and poorly cropped.  If my camera roll ever winds up in the hands of a stranger they would wonder why in the world I save all of these lousy photos on my phone!  But, they give me enough information.  I crop and edit the photos before I print them out, but I also edit them in my head as I paint them.

In this painting, I wanted to capture the cloud shadow on the landscape and continue to work on defined cloud shape, distance, and clean colors.

And this was the painting I posted yesterday…

All of the paintings for this series have been on 8 x 10 panels.  I have found I can paint most 8 x 10 panels in about an hour or less, plus it’s a size that’s easy to ship and very easy to frame.

I’ve been having so much fun with it that I’ve been completing two paintings most days.  I’m trying to use reference photos with barns, water, trees, or animals so it’s a little bit more interesting than just a field and a sky.

I pulled out a frame from my stash to try on a few of the paintings and it’s really amazing how a pretty frame brings a painting to life.  Naturally, I love old frames especially.

I’m going to continue to paint the landscapes through the month (and I might sneak in some master studies and still life paintings, too) and will have another original sale either at the end of May or early June.

I am also working on new art classes for those asking!  With the noise of the renovation, it’s been impossible to record, but things should be quieting down soon.

You can follow my #springskychallenge posts on Instagram HERE.  You can follow other artists participating in the #springskychallenge HERE.