Yesterday was a beautiful early spring day – about 10°C (50°F) and sunny – so I headed down to Paletta Park on the shore of Lake Ontario to paint. It was a bit cool with the breeze off the lake, and by the time I was finished my fingers were pretty cold, but if I’m going to become a plein air painter, I’m going to have to learn to handle colder fingers than that!
I found a spot on the shore that faced a rocky point, with a little tree near the end just beginning to bud out. There were lots of mallard ducks and Canada geese, and a swan who disappeared soon after I arrived. And following the advice I got on WetCanvas to “put in my time with Black and White”, that’s what I used. Mars Black and Titanium White, and nothing else. It was harder than it sounds, but a very useful exercise to try to see the values without worrying about colour.On the whole, despite getting a couple of the rocks out of proportion, I think this one turned out much better than my first two plein airs.
There were a couple of sets of human onlookers – a father explaining to his young daughter that “the lady is mixing black and white and it makes grey,” and a nice couple who arrived when I was almost finished. It was nice to be a visual aid for a colour mixing lesson for a future artist (the little girl told me she has watercolour paints at home), and the polite responses I’m getting on each outing are increasing my confidence immensely.
