La Platas from a new perspective, plein air, pastel

Here's Friday's painting, finally finished up in the studio...

La Plata Reflections - plein air
12x16 inches, pastel on black Artagain
© 2012, S.Johnson

This past Friday was the first paint-out for the informal group of plein air painters that I went out with a few times last year.  Alice is the one who manages the email list for the group, and she suggested a location - Pastorias SWA - as a location to paint.

I'd never heard of this area, located on Florida Mesa southeast of town, but Wayne had, and said it had a lake associated with it.  That was pretty much all I needed to hear, and I was sold.  What I didn't realize is what a fantastic view of the La Plata Mountains we'd have.

There was enough of a breeze to break up the reflections on the lake for most of the time we painted, but I did want to put them in, so I waited until they showed up, albeit it briefly, and tried to block them in quickly.  I ended up reworking them quite a bit today when I finally had time to sit down and paint; this painting ran the risk of being over-worked, and while I could keep tinkering with the reflections probably indefinitely, there came a point where I decided to just stop before it got to the point of no return.

There were a total of six at Pastorias, and four of us ended up painting at the same location on the east side of the lake.   In addition to the general camaraderie of painting with a group, I really appreciate that I can get immediate input regarding the in-progress painting, and suggestions.

Here are some pics of our painting "quartet":

my pastel in-progress

Sue's watercolor 

Rosemary's pastel

Alice's watercolor