Shades of Grey?

Well- maybe not"shades of grey" = that was just to get your attention. There is only one grey - and that is the paper. The rest is black charcoal pencil and white charcoal pencil. Men in Hats were drawing and mostly painting at Harold Steves' farm but I decided to keep the transport simple and just work on a drawing. This building appealed because it was very dark inside but you could see the light coming through from two back windows. I also thought the wire fence would be a challenge. It is interesting to just work in tonal values for a change - and not think about colour at all. I may do some more along this line-- much easier than taking paints - and right now, I don't have a good packable easel. My good old reliable one packed it in the other day.

Plein-aire after the fact....

The top painting was as done "on the spot" in Hycroft gardens. The bottom is the same painting after setting it aside and coming back to it in the studio. I darkened the darks and made the colour richer, made the light behind the arbour even lighter and enriched the colours of the hydrangeas. I think it all results in a more appealing painting.  With acrylics, even after much experience and awareness, it is  sometimes a bit of a challenge to get the lights light enough as acrylic does darken on drying. I also think it makes a difference when the painting is viewed indoors, out of the bright natural light- it seems easier then to judge the tonal values. I've been going over - and I hope, improving, a few other paintings done this summer. One or two I was ready to trash until I sat down with them again. Second thoughts are sometimes good ones!