Sharing the beauty in life...

One morning a couple of weeks ago I went plein air painting at a beautiful farm in Botetourt County and was able to get a small study done of this scene. I used it to help me paint the large version above. The sunflowers were just starting to "go over" but it was still an amazing sight. Gorgeous rolling hills all around covered in farm fields and hay. Soft puffy clouds, birds singing and a nice breeze off and on made it a perfect day for plein air. I'm blessed to have four friends to go on these excursions with and we've named our group The Double Line Painters of the Blue Ridge. Check out our website and blog to read about some of our adventures.

You can see by looking in the distance that the passing clouds changed everything quite often so I had to make up my mind about how to paint it. I chose to remember the sunny view. Whatever was in sunshine when I looked up - that's what I'd work on. Doing this little painting from life really helped me when I created the large piece. It was a different color palette and I had fun using a lot more neutrals than I usually do. Very restful.