Standing at Kill Creek

Standing at Kill Creek
Oil on wood panel, 18x14
purchase here

Mondays are busy days now that I am teaching two classes - so I have to plan ahead when it comes to my own painting.  I am working on a larger scale today - 18x14.  Starting this one yesterday between breakfast and family bowling, I got back to my easel twice today to get it painted.  The landscape reference came from a MVIS paint-out we had some time back by Kill Creek in Kansas.  Such a beautiful place with this rambling wide creek.  I used some of my own reenactment reference for the figures - since that is my focus for the month!  I'm not quite sure it is done.  I am going to leave it on the easel and look with fresh eyes tomorrow, and see how I feel about it then.  This is painting number 772 in 772 days.

Around the Bend

Around the Bend
Oil on panel, 10x8

There just couldn't be a more beautiful day for plein air painting! Jo Cunningham graciously hosted the Missouri Valley Impressionist Society today at her home in Olathe.  The rolling acres of woods led down to this amazing view of Kill Creek - and I painted it in two different directions.  As I so often do, I picked the absolute farthest location from where the house was - down a rather steep hill through the woods, across a pasture, and onto the grounds of Kill Creek Park - to walk down the side of the metal bridge to the creek bed!  But - oh - the creek was so worth the long haul!   It felt SO good to be out in nature, soaking up every sight and sound channeling the experience into my painting.  The creek babbled over rocks to my right, as I was set up in the rocky creek bed.  The water level is low - so I was able to set up on the rocky beds in the middle of the creek, which is one of my favorite places to paint from!  I saw my first tiny frog of the season, and the water is just starting to show a little green - and that means spring is coming!!  This was truly a day well spent - painting number 439 in as many days :)