Painting and Journaling at Basin Cove/ BlueRidge Parkway

Here is a photo of my painting at Basin Cove on the BlueRidge Parkway. When I paint from observation I journal a compositional sketch and all the colors mixed and used in the painting. It has become a ritual for me.

As I have been painting outdoors and from focused nature, I feel a kind of inner conflict. I enjoy working, expressing from the environment, and reacting to what I see, but the nature of working with passer byes always places me in a situation of push and pull of what their expectations are. Questions are often accompanied by their casual observations, and sometimes are funny or awkward.

I almost feel I am performing in the midst of creating.

This painting of Basin Cove is a triptych, of three stretched panels, on canvas primed with rabbit skin glue and oil lead ground.

I love texture and desired to push myself to be more expressive than literal or illustrative. I love the Fauvists and the German expressionists and desire to achieve rich and visceral movement with color and texture. In this painting I used palette and painting knives to apply most of the color.

Working directly from life directly and outdoors has its challenges with time. Therefore the size of the painting needs to be practical to what can be achieved within this scope. Although I enjoy landscape painting from direct observation, I have questions and concerns about the feasibility of stretching an exploration out over the course of this program.