Winter Light on Russel Lake, Ed Cahill, Plein Air Painting

Trouble with white

Winter Light on Russel Lake
Winter Light on Russel Lake

This weekend I was determined to get out and paint on another unseasonably nice weekend. So Saturday I drove over to Mountain Park —my safe, go-to location for painting. Two small lakes are my main attraction there and I’ve painted them many, many times.  But in the winter it is a challenge with my nemesis – sticky trees. Sticky paint too! In haste I bought a tube of off brand last week and while working on this view was very frustrated by the stickiness of this paint which must have been student quality. After a while it just would not come off the brush. Students should never paint with sub par paint by the way—it’s hard enough painting as it is.

A three hour painting turned to four and then five because I did not have enough time to start another.  The view is bright and a bit colorless and if you look close you’ll see the amount of paint I had to pile on to make this work at all. It looked a bit off while I was working but improved as I rested my eyes and got it home. I still was very frustrated and vowed to get even on Sunday.

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