• About
  • Contact Me
  • Disclosure

accentBritain

~ a romance with art and all things British

accentBritain

Tag Archives: Mason Neck State Park

Golden

30 Monday Aug 2021

Posted by pat in Art, paintings, sketching, Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

landscape painting, Mason Neck State Park, wetlands

It’s August.  Summer is in full heat, and I have spent the past couple of months painting a December scene of one of my favorite wetlands at Mason Neck Virginia State Park. It has kept me cool and calm the past two months of this beastly summer.

Painting is magic to me.  It is a time machine that can take me back to a favorite space with all the sounds and atmosphere I experienced when I was actually there.

It always happens.  No matter the amount of time that has passed, I re-enter the landscape, the coffee shop, the museum at the moment of that past encounter.

I am not a plein air painter.  I can’t step out into the weather and paint directly what I see.  It’s too overwhelming for me.  I’ve always thought it was because of my graphic design background that I like to plan and think and sketch out the image before actually starting on the canvas.

But I think it’s more that I like the image to “simmer” in my head. I think about the scenes that I encounter and photograph.  I run off prints and tape them all over my wall.  I play with cropping and color and light on the computer.

And then, finally, after sometimes months of thinking about it, it just comes together and I begin. And the image from that past encounter is now fully formed in my head.   As I paint, I re-enter that world, no matter what or where it is. And the joy and wonder returns.

As I get to the final finishing strokes, I am already beginning to think of the next image to paint.

Wetlands,Golden,  40 x 30″, oil

 

Wetlands in Orange and Blue

16 Tuesday Jun 2020

Posted by pat in Art, paintings, sketching, Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Mason Neck State Park, wetlands

One of my favorite places to walk, winter or summer, is Mason Neck State Park near the Potomac River in Virginia. There’s eagles and beaver dams and acres of wetlands.  I’ve missed it this spring.

What better way to visit than to paint from my reference photos. I can smell the damp leaves and hear the birds while I paint. This is the wetlands near Belmont Bay on the Bayview Trail.

I often follow this trail to see if I can catch the beavers out from their dens.  So far no luck.

The colors on this December day were fantastic. The blue of the sky was brilliantly reflected in the water.  Everything had a coral glow to it. The upside down images of trees in the water added to the abstract quality of the scene.

This picture took weeks of thin layering of transparent paint to capture the complexity and depth of this simple scene.

What a joy to work steadily in isolation.  Mike would just leave me to it for hours on end. The best lockdown partner I could have! Days and days of thin strokes of paint in the most beautiful colors.

And then magically, you know when it’s just enough.

“Wetlands in Orange and Blue”, 30 x 40″, oil on linen

♣ Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 27 other subscribers

♣ Archives

  • September 2022
  • May 2022
  • January 2022
  • November 2021
  • August 2021
  • May 2021
  • January 2021
  • September 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • March 2020
  • December 2019
  • October 2019
  • July 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • August 2018
  • March 2018
  • January 2018
  • July 2017
  • April 2017
  • February 2017
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • July 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • January 2016
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • March 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011

♣ Recent Posts

  • Autumn Stroll on the C&O Canal
  • A Winter’s Project
  • A Walk In The Park
  • An Adirondack Pond
  • Golden

♣ Categories

  • Art
  • Art Museums & Exhibitions
  • Bath
  • Books
  • British Virgin Islands
  • Burnham-on-Crouch
  • cars
  • Cornwall
  • Cornwall
  • England
  • entertainment
  • Fashion
  • Food
  • Gardens
  • Grasmere
  • Guana Island
  • History
  • Lake District
  • Lake District
  • London
  • movies
  • Music
  • National Trust
  • Olympics
  • paintings
  • Peak District
  • Sailing
  • Scotland
  • Shopping
  • sketching
  • The New Forest
  • The Royal Family
  • Travel
  • Uncategorized
  • United Kingdom

♣ my button

accentbritain.com
<a href="http://accentbritain.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://accentbritain.com/accentBritainbutton.jpeg" alt="accentBritain.com" width="125" height="125" /></a>
Copyright 2011 accentBritain LLC. All rights reserved. All original photos, text and art is copyright protected.

Proudly powered by WordPress Theme: Chateau by Ignacio Ricci.

 

Loading Comments...