Extreme Painting!

Painting in the dark is a challenge!

                                                                       

This is my first plein-air (open-air) night painting. 

 I am wearing an Energizer 4 LED Headlight and used my Guerrilla Painter ThumBox to carry my paints, palette, and canvas boards.

The painting site was my spot along the Willamette River in Eugene Oregon.

I rode my bike along the bike trail to reach the site and passed a 1000 houses from which I could see emanating the blue-glow of TV and computer screens.

It felt good to be outside, on a special mission to capture a scene.

Sometimes I pretend that I live in a time where there are no cameras and the only way I can capture a scene is by creating, by hand, images.

Sometimes I pretend that I was born without the ability to speak words and the only way I can communicate is through images.

I love painting and I love being outside and this is what drives me to go outside in the open-air to paint--

even in the dark!

The Willamette River Series

A Haiku Painting

I raced down to the river on my bike so that I could catch the sun before it ducked behind the trees.

As I pedalled toward the Willamette River I reminded myself not to get lost in the details as I painted.

; there are so many trees and bushes along the river that it is easy to feel overwhelmed.

How can I remember to keep the painting simple?, I wondered. The thought of Japanese Haiku came to my mind. A Haiku is a short simple poem with a limited amount of syllables.

I even took out a pen and wrote the word Haiku on my hand so that I wouldn't forget.

Once I got to the river I had to hurry to set up and mix my paint on the palette. I was just in time because the sun saw me and went fugitive: hurrying like a hermit crab to hide in the cracks of underwater rocks.

I began to paint.

Haiku, I said to myself as I painted. Don't overwork it, just put the paint down and don't move it around, just put it down and leave it!

Here are the results for Sunday, 08-08-2011:





The first painting

The second painting.