Along the way, before and after

This is the current painting I am working on.  My first attempt which I call "before" will appear below.  I don't think it's done yet, but it's definitely looking better.  This is 16" X 20", acrylic paint on gallery wrapped canvas.  This is my re-use of one of the canvases I had gotten as a sample to review.  I covered up the test parts with gesso and it was easy to paint on the rest.  The view is from the bike trail Joe and I took a few weeks ago.

When I looked at my first attempt, my initial impression was that it was very boring.  The trees, lake etc. were all in the right place, but without spirit.  I came up with these questions and comments for myself and tried to answer them.
1. The light and colors seem too cool, add some warm?
2. The background trees, blur more? lighter? soft edges, less intense, cooler?
3. Test out viridian and cadmium yellow mix.
4. Use a warmer brown for the main tree trunk.
5. Review the values, too much medium? Where should it be light/dark?

I worked on answering those questions and comments to myself today.  Now I'll leave the painting for a few days to see if I want to do something else with it.  Original photo of the site below:

Early spring, deciduous tree leaves light yellow green. Location: off the rail trail, Auburn, NH, south of Clark's Pond (Depot Road). To see larger images, just click on any of the images above.

Spring, finally!

Spring has finally come to New Hampshire and we are enjoying our new trail bikes. We went out on the Heads Pond trail (in Hooksett, NH) which we have walked many times. It goes much faster on a bike! Anyway, we biked as far as the "No trespassing" sign, turned around and came back a different way.  That was on the dirt road that is usually monitored by the Fish and Game Department.  It seemed a bit longer, but was an interesting ride.

I'm not sure what kind of snake this is, but is was swimming pretty fast and I was happy to get a picture. This was a flooded area of the grass, not the actual pond.  Here is a link to the NH website about snakes:  NH Snakes

We hadn't seen this beaver dam before.  This was a view from the dirt road.

We weren't sure what kind of butterflies these were, but there were a lot of them.

We walked back along Route 3 from the dirt road back to the trailhead parking lot. The photo does not do the actual view justice.  It flattens out the view of the pond and wetlands. The trailhead is across the street from Green's Marine on Route 3 in Hooksett, NH. An easy walking trail along the old railroad bed, with beautiful views of ponds.

 

Also, if you want to find more information about my e-books (poetry), just put my name into Google or other search engine. I have 3 books up on Kindle now, one on Nook. Do a search for "Linda H. Feinberg".  There are other Linda Feinbergs who are authors too, so they show up as well on your search.