Saturday, October 20, 2012

Cades Cove Painting Trip Oct 2012

On October 9th my two oldest boys and I made our annual trip to Cades Cove which is in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee for some plein air painting and R and R for the boys.

On our way up US441 the boys talked me to take an 8 mile detour to check out Clingmans Dome.  This was a great move, as we broke out of clouds about half way up.  What an experience! 


In the truck for 3 hours Joshua had to run


Some of the beautiful scenery


Best I could tell we were about 800 ft above the clouds.  This was the first time I had ever see this in person.  I always seem to show up late.


This is Joshua on the observation tower at Clingman's 




The foliage was at peak on the mountaintops 










2nd painting on the first day 10 x 12 oil, beautiful giant Black Walnut Tree, just had to paint it. The 1st one I did someone bought it off my easel, didn't have a chance to get a photo.


The first 2 days were overcast and chilly, Joshua here at the camp where we shared a tent spot with my painting buddy Craig Fanz from Linville, NC.


Sorry to say I never made it out on the bike, too busy painting.


2nd cloudy day, I did this 12x12 oil.  I realize the barn is a really boring shape, but I thought the light was interesting and did have some nice color harmony with reds and greens.


Next Craig and I painted this overcast vista, 12x16 oil, originally there was an interesting round hill to the left of the large tree group, I saw Craigs and realized my literal interpretation was not going to work, so I just connected the two hills together. 


Crazy Bear in the top of this oak tree, this guy was big, the whole tree was shaking.  Just about everywhere we painted, we saw a bear in the distance and sometimes up close.


On day 2 after dinner we thought the clouds were going to clear so we came upon this beautiful pasture.  Didn't see any horses so we thought we'd just set up and do a little quickie.


The sun was low on the horizon and would create beautiful sun spikes on the mountains, but they were very transitory.


Craig trying to capture the last bit of light on the mountain.


If you can see in the distance, there is a herd of horses.  Looking back on the event it was quite humorous,  I heard my son say here come the horses, I looked over my shoulder and saw a big dust cloud and about 6-10 horses running full steam towards us, you could hear their hooves pounding the ground.  I then remembered the warning sign about the horses biting and kicking. I thought OK, I got a nice start on the painting. what would a real cowboy do?  So I stood my ground.  Well needless to say, the horses won, you know I'm not a real cowboy, and actually have never ridden a horse solo. Thought it was time to move out of their territory when  the horse started chewing on my jacket and blowing into my ear.


Here Craig considers abandoning his easel.


This one thought he had found a little feeding cup.


Found out the horses were more curious than anything.  My son fed this one some grapes, every time he would eat a grape, he would shake his head up and down in approval. As you can see, he knew a few tricks.


Here the sky became golden for a moment, what fun it was to try to capture it!


Day 2 there was fog in the valley.  I told Craig to pull over because I knew it was a good spot.  As soon as we had set up the fog began to lift to unveil the most magical scene.


Doing a 6x8 with the brush flying


We only had about 20 minutes before the sun was full blazing.


Here are my color notes and that is all the information needed, I did add a few hay bales after this shot


6x8 oil, finished at home. Just cleaned up some edges and added a few highlights




 Craig knocking his out






Here is a picture of my palette after my 1st one. you can see the economy of mixing as well as keeping the mixture thin.




After the 1st fog scene with hay bales I turned my head to find this one 


It was changing fast


Here I did another 6x8 in the same spot just turning into the sun


6x8 oil of fog lifting, back lit


For the 3rd one we turn slightly to the south.


I chose a 12x16 as the light would linger a bit longer which would allow for a larger canvas.


12x16 oil finished at home


These 2 fellows stopped by to paint with us.  They were artists from Knoeville, TN and Asheville, NC.  The guy in the ball cap is Joe Parrott www.parrottprinting.com/paintings
 

6x12 oil 11am We saw a bear run across this field at about 25mph!


6x10 oil afternoon vista in glaring light, painted this one with my sunglasses on.  I made the mountains appear more distant by making them a lighter value.

Photos by Caleb Boyle


I look forward to next year!


Sunday, September 16, 2012

Painting The Linville Gorge



On Tuesday Sept 11, 2012, Craig Franz, Kevin Beck and I descended into the Linville Gorge for a day of painting. 


We had a cloudy start in the morning during my 1st painting.


8 x 10 oil morning study, everything was very subtle and I added a little break in the overcast to create some interest and made the distant mountain more purple relating to the sky color.


Kevin Beck surveys the next painting scene.


Kevin's first one, he doesn't normally paint small but due to the trip
down, we had to pack light.


Craig and Kevin producing


Craig Franz 6 x 8 oil on gessoed watercolor paper


8x10 oil 10AM, the sun began to shine intermittently


Kevin Beck's Rock study about 11AM


Time for a siesta I think, actually Kevin is peeling an apple


About noon these giant boulders became quite beautiful with a bit of back lighting.


Craig Franz "the rock" 6 x 8 oil on gessoed watercolor paper


Scott Boyle 6 x 8 oil , on gessoed watercolor paper, 1pm


Kevin Beck's afternoon cascade painting, Nice upright design!


About 3:30PM my buddies left and I painted this small 6 x 8 study.  The sun was getting lower on the horizon which gives us more color.  This is my favorite of the day.  I like the light pattern, kind of an L-shape shadow light.  I would like to paint something larger of this on during my studio time.


On my way out I got a picture of this old Eastern Hemlock Tree.  They have all died out in this area.  I don't know if you can imagine the size of these big guys.  Probably about 6 feet in diameter at the base.  If one of the limbs drops off on your head, you've had a bad day.


Here you can see some of the enormous White Pines on the ridge line. 


On the way out I stopped at the Brown Mountain Overlook along NC 181 to paint Table Rock and Hawks Bill which is the eastern wall of the Linville Gorge.


6 x 10 oil at 5:45PM, Table Rock on the left if a profile not recognized by most people as it doesn't look like a table at all. 


Ah that beautiful last light!


8 x 8 oil, 6:20PM The sun is almost down.  Spent about 15-20 minutes on this one.


Thank you Lord for another day!