Sleeping Model and The Crossing

My figure paintings always seem to have a melancholy mood to them even when I attempt otherwise. A subject sitting still for hours on end with the only entertainment being silence from a deeply concentrating audience tends to lend itself to this result. Or, it is my perception and empathy that turns the paintings this way after having modeled during a couple of no-shows. Whichever, it comes through every time and my next goal is to inject life into my figure paintings with my imagination. Failing that, I will simply accept the beauty in melancholy and stop fighting it.

First Plein Air experience

Well today I took out the french easel that I had purchased as an efficient, space saving way to hopefully do most everything I need, whether that be painting in the little room I live in, at school, or outside. It is functioning well so far except for the fact that it loses brushes as the drawer does not fit tight so I have to jam a shim into it to keep it steady. I'm taking a painting class at the local community college and we all went to an arboretum as a group. I have to say it was a wonderful experience painting in a group, the synergy was fantastic. After 4 hours I wound up with a little 5x7 painting of a willow, a discard, and a sunburn. What a challenge landscape painting is, everything begs to be painted.