Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Because I was a bit chilled yesterday wearing short pants, I wore long pants today. I again towed my wagon 1/3 mile away from the visitor center parking lot and found a space for my easel along where a pedestrian-only road intersects with a gravel walking trail.

This is the pedestrian-only road.

This is the gravel walking trail.

Here is my easel set up and ready for work. It was a bit breezy, so I had to use some blue tape to keep my sign from blowing over.

There was an old tree stump about 15 feet away from my easel along a cedar rail fence line, so I decided to paint that scene.

My location may not have been ideal because it had dappled sunlight which created shadows on my image. The shadows made it hard for me to clearly see what I was doing. Even so, I was too lazy to move my easel. I enjoyed the shade. It was too hot in the sunlight.

This was the completed image of the stump and fence.

You can see that I secure my paper to a cardboard base using blue painters tape, which is ultimately removed.

Next, I decided to do a study of Fall color leaves:

For my last project today, I composed this colorful sketch. I find it interesting that after I've completed an image, it actually looks better several hours later. I think that's because paint typically dries darker. I've even heard that on HGTV when they're talking about selecting shades of interior house paint

Walking back to my car I noticed this old tree and wondered if any of the trees here are as old as the Civil War. I doubt it. The forests here are an interesting mix of cedar and deciduous trees. Civil War era documents describe the cedar forests. The current rail-fences here are made of cedar.

Near the visitor center, I posed my art wagon beside a historic war wagon. I thought it was an interesting juxtaposition.

Three images seems to be my daily productivity. After that, my back gets tired and my mind loses focus. At home, I paint on a flat tabletop. Painting on an easel here require more physical exertion. Even though I have a stool, I only use it about half the time. I find that I need to stand with my eyeballs close to the paper to have precise brush control. This taxes my back, shoulders and eyeballs. Additionally, the vertical positioning of the easel permits gravity to influence paint flow, which must be managed.

It was another nice day at the Stones River National Battlefield.