This is the last painting I've finished, and that was almost a year ago. It's the Esopus Creek, Saugerties, N.Y. , painted on location the summer of 2005. I went kayaking here. Saugerties is near Woodstock and not far from Kaaterskill Clove, where Thomas Cole painted.I always search around for a good composition, but this view was right there in the front yard of the cabin we were staying at. It's looking north with the late afternoon sun on the opposite bank. I set up my french easel; I had a 12x18 canvas, and I put in the drawing and shading using burnt umber and mineral spirits like watercolor. I layed out the colors on my palette and proceeded to get lost in the process of trying to get it all down on the canvas. Three hours later it was a bit sketchy, but a good start.I've always had to finish up the sketchier parts of my plein air landscapes later on, so I took a bunch of reference photos.
Seven months later I restretched the painting to make it12x16, cutting off 2" on the right. I corrected the color of the rock face on the opposite bank and painted over the shrubs on the lower left bank. It sat like that for 2 years, but I finally finished it up. I reinstated the shrubs in the foreground, got some detail in the trees on the opposite bank, and finished the overhanging leaves on the left. I wasn't sure if I had captured the monumental rock wall, so I put in the boaters as a reference point for the scale of things. Plein air painting brings back many good memories, and I'll be coming back to this subject again.
