Saturday, April 21, 2012

A Couple of Sycamores

I got out this last Thursday to paint in Spring Grove Cemetery with the Southwest Ohio Plein Air group. Well… I had a stained glass class that morning, so I got there around 1:00P and everyone was about to pack up. I've been struck by the picturesque quality of the old sycamore trees that are right down along the edge of the main pond and this one had a lovely reflection. They are just showing the first budding of what will be very large leaves, thus creating the yellow/green dappled effect against the background.
In one of the first warm spells of this Spring (an unseasonable mid-March), several of the MAPs group spent our Monday morning out side at the Snyder House in Cottell Park. This big old sycamore is behind the house and in front of the caretaker's cottage. My friend Millie was painting beside me and had parked under the tree.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Next Spring Grove

This is the next painting in the Spring Grove Fall Series. The bald cypress turn the most wonderful deep red/orange color and provide contrast to the orange and golds of the trees losing their leaves. The second largest cemetery in the US, this is a peaceful place at any time of the year and the monuments are large and dramatic. Reflecting pools like the one in the painting are scattered throughout the "lawn plan" landscape that was first developed here.

Fall Reflections, 12 x 16, oil on canvas