West Point Hay Shed

Painting on location "en plein air" is always a challenge, usually a pleasant one though. Nothing tests your skills as a painter more than trying to record what you see in the limited time before the light changes too much, usually about two hours. However, if you paint early in the morning or late in the evening you have even less time. That was the case for this painting I did in the rural Utah town of West Point not far from the shores of the Great Salt Lake. I had less than two hours before the sun hit the horizon and the shadows change even faster during that time of day. You have to lock in your value pattern early and stick with that plan regardless of what the light does. When I started this painting the foreground was in light as you see it in the painting, by the time I finished that whole field was in shadow from the trees across the street. I varied from the original plan only in one regard. The light was so warm just before the sun set and made the trees glow that I just had to glaze some yellow over the trees in an attempt to duplicate the effect. The lack of time is also why you have to simplify more than you might in the studio. There was actually a tractor and truck in this scene but given the small size of the panel and the limited time I elected to leave them out as well as other unimportant details. Maybe I'll make a larger studio painting some day that will includes a truck and tractor.