FALL FINERY By Cecelia Lyden

oil/stretched canvas

11x14

www.cecelialyden.com

I painted with some friends at Ft. Hunter on Saturday. The weather was brisk, but warm in the sunshine and the color was glorious. It took a while, but the 2016 Fall has finally delivered-beautiful golds, rust, maroons, and deep, rich browns. Per usual, I completed the 'bones" of the painting [ composition, tree arrangement,value placement, some color] on site. The rest of the painting was completed at home.

TREE ON FISHER RUN ROAD By Cecelia Lyden

oil/stretched canvas

11x14

www.cecelialyden.com

Saturday was a perfect day-beautiful weather and a beautiful paint location. A few of us painted for the Dillsburg Garden Club Tour for their ways and means event. I chose a wonderful property in Mechanicsburg . There were "paintings" everywhere I looked--huge interesting trees, pastures, farm buildings, cows, flowers  and a charming house. I liked the look of this tree, with its huge, thick trunk and its fallen branches.

HOSTAS AND BAMBOO By Cecelia Lyden

oil/stretched canvas

11x14

www.cecelialyden.com

I chose the same area as Julie at the Lindenwood Estate. My emphasis, however, was the alley between the hostas, Hostas Alley, [Julie's name] and its view of the tall bamboo trees. I also loved the contrast of the bright green, sunlit ferns against the dark, in shadow, base of the bamboo trees. I'm a "sucker" for strong light contrasts.

SPRING ARRIVES AT FORT HUNTER By Cecelia Lyden

oil/stretched canvas

11x14

www.cecelialyden.com

Five of us enjoyed a perfect spring day on Saturday. The yellow forsythia was hard to resist. It screamed spring.

SWEET-SMELLING HONEYSUCKLE By Cecelia Lyden

oil/canvas

11x14

www.cecelialyden.com

After driving around Boiling Springs for about 15 to 20 minutes, Julie and I finally decided to settle on one of the many "painting worthy"spots we happened upon. It was yet another partially cloudy, humid day. Luckily the sun was out enough for me to capture a shadow of the maple tree, which made the negative road space more interesting. The honeysuckle cascading over the grey stockade fence, however, became the focus of this painting. 

A FOGGY MORN By Cecelia Lyden

oil/canvas board
11x14

www.cecelialyden.com

What a challenging subject for our plein air session this morning in Samuel Lewis State Park. The fog was pretty thick and stayed dense for the remainder of our morning. The trees were very thin and very tall. They had the uplifting and inspiring feel of columns in a Gothic cathedral. I was wishing I had a long narrow canvas to create the full effect of the branches reaching high into the sky. Creating the distance was relatively easy. The fog kept everything muted and there were no great color contrasts to distract or confuse the eye . We had a nice lunch on the river in Wrightsville. The restaurant was situated next to a very, very old iron works factory. It was another fun day.

Rockville Bridge with Train by Lyn O'Neal

Rockville Bridge with Train

oil on canvas board

9 x 12 inches

I painted this plein air piece in two sessions. Started last year on a bright, sunny day down at the boat launch at Ft. Hunter Mansion in Harrisburg. Came close to finishing, but needed to finish the water and bridge. So, last week we painted there again, only this time I was at a different viewpoint, though it didn't affect the painting. However, the light this day was overcast and even. Thankfully I remembered the backlit bridge from the prior session and the moving, shimmering water was similar. It would be nice to finish them all in one session, but that's rarely the case for me.