Day 5, Easel on Down - Follow the 50

Today I painted. I'm starting to get the rhythm of driving, sleeping, painting (hiking too). The days when I don't drive are so long and free! The only part I don't like so far is eating alone.  Sometimes I can get people to talk to me, sometimes I can't, but mostly its lonely.  I'm not sure if I am tired of reaching out or if people in Oklahoma are less accessible than in Arkansas. Anyway, the painting part of today was great.

I set up at the edge of a lake. The temperature rose from low 40's to mid 50's  and the wind was mild at first.  I got out a big canvas because I foresaw painting only one piece in Oklahoma.  I am starting to be realistic with myself. I drew a detailed pencil drawing first.  I fleshed in a composition but my focus was on value.  I wrote the words "darkest", "2nd darkest", etc. over each succinct area of the drawing. I am not usually a planner but this really helped me deal with the change of light in a four hour span. My primary goal was in covering the entire canvas with at least one layer of paint.  When I go back to it, the white of the canvas will not distract my attention and the colors will provide something to build on. Hopefully the value will be correct.

So now I have two large, wet paintings in my super cool portable painting rack (thank you, Allen) and two small ones.  Tomorrow I drive to Texas to visit my number-one-son, Peter aka Pedro aka Pascaal. This time I will enjoy the scenery of the trip and maybe even pull over and sketch a view or two. I can't wait to see Peter and the city of Austin and have a cold beer while listening to great live music.

My stay in Oklahoma has been short. They say the topography in this SE corner is atypical for the state.  I guess that means my paintings are more about my journey than about some kind of quintessential state landscape. One thing I noticed: the coyotes here sound just the same as back home.