Plein air pastel landscape painting of a Michigan wetland area.

Pastel painting 8.5 inches x 11.5 inches

Yay! First plein air painting of the season in the Mitten State!

Its difficult to be a Michigan artist who loves plein air painting. Unless you are willing to brave the frigid cold, 4 or 5 months of the year are just plain shot. And, on top of that, we have had a very hard spring this year. Add that to a busy work schedule and very little outdoor work gets done. Today was the first time I was able to get out and work from life. The sparkling water in the wetlands near my house grabbed my attention, so I parked on a rutted, dirt road and went to work out of the back of my SUV. Ahhhhh…. it feels so good to get in nature to work on pastel landscapes!

Plein air watercolor landscape painting of a slough in Florida.

Plein air watercolor painting    9.5 inches x 6 inches

This is the last of my watercolor sketches from down south. I painted this plein air watercolor painting near Six Mile Cypress Slough, a wildlife preserve in southwest Florida. Most of these wetland areas have been filled in over the years to create land that can be built upon. But when that happens, all of the plants and wildlife suffer. The animals, reptiles, birds and insects have to move on to another area or die. It was fascinating to walk this protected area and just listen to all of the sounds of wetland life, without people and traffic interfering. There were so many watercolor landscapes there, “waiting to happen” but I only had an hour or so to explore. I did take a lot of reference photos and am thinking of doing a series using the slough as subject.

Plein air pastel landscape of a Michigan wetlands in mid November.

Pastel painting 11 inches x 8 inches

Last week, my friend Cecily and I braved the cold and set out to find a nice spot to paint outdoors. We felt the need to commemorate our artist friend Mary Beth Koeze who had just passed away, and, when you think of it, what could be more appropriate than to create art?

I think this is probably my last Michigan plein air pastel painting of the season. It was COLD. My fingers were numb and my ears frozen. How artists paint in deep winter, I’ll never know. But this wetland area had always intrigued me and I’m happy we seized the moment to capture some of its beauty.

Plein air pastel painting of a wetland creek in early spring

Pastel painting 6 inches x 9.25 inches $100

Please contact me if you are interested in similar artwork.

Ah…the trials and tribulations of a plein air painter….

I went out Saturday looking for farms to paint and was waylaid by a beautiful wetland area just springing to life. I set up my pastels and new ShadeBuddy umbrella in front of this languid stream and went to work. About half way thru, a huge gust of wind came up and catapulted my umbrella 30 feet into the nearby swamp. I waded in up to my ankles and couldn’t reach it so finally had to walk about a mile around on “no trespassing” land to fish it out. I’m sure the passers by where laughing their dungarees off, but I wasn’t givng up my new purchase!

But in the end, I was very happy with the outcome of this pastel landscape. It really captures the colors and atmosphere of the scene.