Painting the Hudson River Valley

Diane Painting in Catskills

THE NEXT BEST THING to painting in the same locale all of your life is the excitement of painting in a new location. Seems I can’t stay in one place too long before I having to move on to the next venue.

So it was on my vacation to the Hudson River Valley last week. I did not expect to paint since this was my only chance to take a break. But God had other plans for me. I know a few people who live near or in the area but did not want to contact them prior to my trip. I didn’t know where I would so did not want to try and schedule anything.

You Just Never Know

However, I had been following a blog for some time titled,  Hudson Valley Painter, I contacted the blogger to see if she could just give me a few tips on where to photograph locations for later studio painting. What I received as a reply was stunning. The artist not only was willing to help me but wanted to paint too! She already had another artist coming in to paint with and invited me to join them for a day of seeing/painting a sights around the Catskills.

Then I was wowed (should not have been surprised as plein-air painters are among the most gracious people on the planet), asked my hubby about it and it was a done deal. So last Monday I spent the day painting with artists Jamie Grossman from New York, and Ruth Ann Sturgill from Ohio.

We spent all of last Monday touring the area. It was overcast and hazy but not raining. Nothing was going to deter us from painting. We generally want beautiful sunshiny days for painting, but learning comes through challenges. And that day was a challenge.

Two Sketches & Locking-in A Painting

Painted sketch with elements indicated North/South Park 11x14 Acrylic

First we painted from a hilltop with swiftly moving clouds and mist sporadically revealing the vista below. We had paint all over the place!

But as always, there comes a time when you have to “lock-in” your painting. I decided that I’d only pickup a hint of the Hudson in the distance through the moisture-laden air. Shown here is my painted sketch of what I wanted to capture: a distant ribbon of the glimmering river in the distance, the rock I was painting from along with foreground trees and clouds in the middle ground. I will finish this or do a larger piece I the studio.

We visited another part of this area, called North/South Lake Park, but it was not condcive to painting. There was a view once painted by Thomas Cole but with much more interest than we had last week.

Second painted sketch more developedKatterskill Falls, 6x8 Acrylic

For our second painting we made a short hike to the upper Kaaterskill falls. Jamie said it has been so dry (with the heat wave we’ve all been experiencing) that there was just a trickle of water. Nevertheless, it was a beautiful spot that made for an afternoon outing. The sun was in and out, once again we were dancing between grey skies and breaks in light. I opted to go with the sporadic light grabbing it when I could. This sketch too, is not finished but you get an idea of the rock formations surrounding us.

A great day of painting and more in my next post…a very special opportunity.

When do you know then how to “lock-in” a painting, whether in the studio or outdoors?

Tags: Acrylic plein air painting, Catskill Mountains paintings, Hudson River Valley painting, mountains and rocks landscapes, summer landscapes