Foggy Morning... Same locale

Pastel on Canson paper, ~10 x 10.5"

This was painted within a day of the previous image. Same story, different result. I drove up to the park to get out of the fog, but it was up there too. I was with 4 other painters. 2 of us stuck around, and went to work. I walked around on this hillside for awhile, looking at the sillhouettes on the ridge, but then started paying more attention to the subtle color shifts of the vegetation, and the way they helped describe the form of the hill itself. Once you start this kind of image, sunshine is not welcome, as it would radically alter the palette and value range. The fog did lift a bit while I was working, but the light stayed fairly steady.

Sugar Loaf Morning

Pastel on Canson paper, 10 x 10.5"

I've been inspired by some great artists that I work with to start this blog. Here's a pastel from last September up in Sonoma.
I paint up there every year for the annual SPA plein air show. Here's a link to the event.

http://www.sonomapleinair.com/

The artists are guests in people's homes in the county, and paint all week, exhibiting one piece on Friday night for an auction dinner, and then the remainder of their work in the plaza for one day. It is a great event in many respects. All my hosts have been wonderful, generous, and interesting people, I get to spend time around some excellent painters, and painting every day for 5 consecutive days is a great workout.

If it was foggy in the morning, I would drive up to Sugar Loaf State Park to get some sunshine to paint in. Sometimes it was still foggy, but on this morning it was quite sunny. The painting is really an impression of the brightness of the morning light, with just simple shapes. The image is a bit noisy, as I shot it with my digital camera on a lo-res setting.