Along Mystic River

I've been a bit lax over the past week as far as blog posts go.  Haven't had (or made, perhaps is the better word) the time to paint, although I've certainly been thinking of it.

Anyway, here's the latest boat/reflection pastel.  I think that it is a good idea to have a goal in mind when doing a painting, or at least I try to.  Goals vary, depending upon the day, my mood, and what I'm painting.  For this, I had three goals:  1) add to the boat/reflection series; 2) simplify the scene; 3) work fast.

Along Mystic River

11x9" on 320# sandpaper 

Photo was one I took the day after I got back to town from AZ, along the docks on the western side of the river.  On the far shore, the tall building is where boat repairs are done at one of the marinas.  Decided to keep that in, but simplify it.  Ditto the building along the left.  I didn't spend much time making sure the perspective of the buildings was absolutely spot-on, and it shows, but that wasn't a goal.  In the photograph, the front roof of the building fell right behind the boat.  And lots of large sailboat masts were visible.  So, I eliminated those and shifted the building so it wasn't competing with the shape of the boat.   Still not sure if it works so well.   Ditto the boat itself - I didn't fuss around with getting its shape perfect, so I sketched in the basic shapes formed by the hull and top sections, and just grabbed pastels and went for it.

The painting was done in less than an hour, and to that end, it's good practice for plein air painting.  No tinkering, no futzing.

So, for the goals I had in mind for this painting, it was indeed a success.  The boat reflections are off a bit, but I found that they were my favorite thing to paint.  I usually keep paintings a while before binning them, unless they are absolutely awful, in which case, they get tossed almost immediately and don't make it onto the blog.

I may stop with the boats for a bit, and concentrate on reflections of trees and light.