Painting along the Florida River - 4CPAP

Hidden River Garden - 12x16", plein air
pastel on Strathmore black paper
© S.Johnson 

From today's paint-out with the 4C group at Lemon Lake and the Florida River.

I painted there last year a couple of times, but this time, I wanted to go to a specific location we'd been to two years ago, at the far end of the Transfer Park campground.  In fact, I'd actually taken a photo of this location; the little group of Black-eyed Susans growing in this tiny wedge of earth amazed me, and I wanted to paint them.  I must have deleted the photo, and I obviously never got around to using it as a reference for a painting.

So, imagine my surprise and delight when I get down to the river and see that the flowers have, indeed, returned.

It was nice to paint something that plays to what I feel are my strong suits as a painter:  rocks and water.      And in this case, lots of rocks underwater.  Those were surprisingly easy, probably because I've been painting water all summer; the hardest part of the painting was - you guessed it:  the green foliage of the flowers.  Which probably makes no sense, but I just found it really difficult.

It was also nice to paint larger again and try a different format.  I mean, I love my squares and all, but sometimes, a 3:4 aspect is nice.   Last week, I went into our local art supply store to get some mats for photos, and saw they had my favorite Artagain in stock, so I am back in business with the 12x16"'s on location.