On hot days, it’s helpful to get out of the studio and paint outdoors under the shade of riverside trees.
This painting is an impressionistic view of Mary’s River at Avery Park, in Corvallis. Families showed up just after we did, to cool off, jump in from the rope swing, and give their dogs a bath.
This composition is interesting to me, but the light/dark pattern I loved about the water that day is missing. I’ll be adding cool shadows to the background, refining the grass, and defining rocks on this version, but I also want to paint another with large flat shapes rather than impressionistic brushstrokes.