Earning My Lunch, Acrylic on Ampersand gessobord, 14x11", ©2012 Lucinda Howe

One of the best things about painting with a group is the friendships that develop and the chance to talk about art topics that our families are tired of hearing.  But sometimes there are too many distractions to get much painting done.

On Saturday, I was invited to a paintout at the home of a painter who is also a wonderful cook.  She planned to serve breakfast and lunch and told us to paint wherever we wanted around the farm.  By midmorning I’d had breakfast, a stroll with my camera and was sitting on the porch catching up with some friends I hadn’t seen in a while.

Our hard-working hostess came by and observed that we were “lazy, lazy, LAZY”.  She was right, and I was afraid she wouldn’t let me eat lunch, so I had to get busy.  I found a spot in the shade by the chicken coop looking up the hill to a barn overshadowed by a big old tree.  I wanted to capture the many shades of green in the foliage, the structure of the tree, and the bits of warm contrast in the rusty roof and sides of the barn.

To start the painting, I blocked in the darks with black gesso, then added a warm glaze of yellow graded to red at the bottom, then added the greens and finished with touches of white.  I had to paint quickly because the weather was warm and the paint dried almost as soon as it touched the board.  I did a little blending in the sky color, but otherwise painted in layers rather than trying to blend.

Whew! Finished in time for lunch!