"Late Summer In the Marsh" Plein Air Drawing and Painting by a Lowcountry Creek
There's a hint of fall in the Lowcountry this week. The weather is perfect for plein air painting in the marsh with a slight breeze and no bugs.
I started with a preliminary charcoal drawing of the marsh scene before painting. I often bring my sketch book to work out design issues in a composition. Drawing is a useful tool - it sharpens artistic observation and is a good "creative warm up" for painting.
Here's the final plein air painting of the marsh scene in oil. I've adjusted the composition to include the bend in the creek. This change leads the viewer's eye from the foreground around the bend of the creek into the marsh rather than off the page as in the earlier charcoal drawing. I've also lowered the horizon line to include more sky.
Painting is a "process" as well as a "product". Hope you like the result.
"Late Summer in the Marsh"
11"x 14"
Oil on cradled panel
2 comments:
Love the painting and the view - thanks for showing some of your process!
Thanks, Dave. I enjoy your plein air artwork at "Lowcountry Sketchbook" too.
Recently I've been re-reading the classic text, "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" to use with my drawing students.
Learning to draw and the act of drawing (which is really more about "seeing" than "doing") is so important to unlocking the brain's creative potential. You as an skilled "Urban Sketcher" are probably well aware of this.
The Nobel Prize winning work of psychobiologist R.W. Sperry on human brain-hemisphere functions underlies the understanding of how the act of drawing can cause a "cognitive shift" from left hemisphere (sequential/verbal processing) to the subdominent right brain (visual,perceptual functioning). This cognitive shift releases our "Inner Artist".
It's interesting that in the process of drawing, it's possible to control (at least to some degree) the mode by which our own brain handles information.
The act of drawing can be a means to a wonderful "Zen" state of creativity where the mind loses tract of time and creative expression seems effortless.
What a great motivation to draw. No wonder the number of Urban Sketchers seem to be growing on the Internet.
Hope my ramblings haven't put you to sleep. Thanks for stopping by the blog and your remarks.
KMS
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