For me a non-stop weekend usually means half of the next week catching up! Last Friday night I attended the opening of a show at the CoCoa Gallery in Fort Collins where one of my paintings is now hanging. With no time to linger in Fort Collins, I had to get home early, finish packing my supplies and be ready bright and early for a Plein Air workshop with Jeanne Mackenzie. I haven't had to opportunity to do very much Plein Air painting so I was excited to try something new! We spent Saturday afternoon painting at Holliday park in Cheyenne and all day Sunday at the historic Shellback Ranch west of Cheyenne. The workshop was primarily an oils workshop, but those that wanted could use other media. Bringing both oils and pastels, I decided to focus on working in oils. I haven't painted with oils for many years since I lived in Arkansas which is the opposite of the dry high plains climate of Cheyenne. It was a little unnerving to jump in the water so to speak and not have a clue what was going to happen, but I ended up thoroughly enjoying the weekend working in oils. Though, I was shocked by how fast the paint dried compared to Arkansas and learned my lesson a couple of days later, as I was scrubbing dried paint off my pallet! That won't happen again!!!
This is one of the paintings I did over the weekend, there are probably other things that could be done to improve and finish the painting but right now I am pleased to leave it alone-- not taking a chance of losing the Plein Air feel. What do you think, should I experiment more with oils?
