Plen Aire Oils

As posted on my Home page, I've taken the plunge and have spent the last two Mondays painting with the Monday Morning Plen Aire Painters. I researched the group some time ago and wrote articles for the Artist Workshop of Sonoma County and the Artists Roundtable newsletters. I first painted at Goat Rock, on the Sonoma County coast. I have some studio work to do on that piece, and if I like the result, I'll post it another time.
My second session was at the Apple Orchards on Darby Road in Sebastopol. This is the second piece from that session. I've reworked it after the critique and like the result so much better.


This is the first piece I painted at the Darby Road site. Once again, the critique focused my attention on the blossoms and I learned it is better to blend the colors than to try to create individual blossoms, which I did on my first attempt. I have so much more to learn!!!

New Work

"Whooo Are You?"
I'm thinking about playing with watercolors. So I created this piece using watercolors, but with no instruction. I like the image but have no idea if I've done it correctly.










Painted on site, "Plen Aire" on Darby Road in Sebastopol. It's my second time out painting with Monday Morning Painters. The critique was terrific and I made changes in the studio based on the critique.










This was the first piece I painted at the Darby Road site and reworked it in the stidio based on what I learned at the critique. I find it very educational to paint plen aire and the critiques are essential to a new plen aire painter.