PAINTING ON THE RIVER

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ON THE COOSA RIVER, that is

Steadfast 11x14, oil on linen board, framed in gold , $450 at Gadsden (Al) Museum of Art through June 5
This is day Four from the Southeastern Plein Air Festival in Gadsden Ala. The first painting on this day was this little one about 7:30 in the morning:

Silver Morning, 6x8 oil on board

Everything was so quiet, like the sun wanted to sneak over the trees.

The painters were fanned out along the Coosa River in several locations. I scouted the location between the new bridge and this rusty old original bridge. The new bridge presented a lovely challenge and several painters came up with WOW compositions. But the old rust and concrete kept calling to me over the more graceful and modern bridge. The closer I looked, the more I became attracted to it. My challenge was that the composition forming in my mind would not be the viewpoint most attractive to a collector. But I did it anyway. My habit while plein air painting is to set the easel at a sharp angle to the scene I'm painting and look over the shoulder back and forth. It became a joke among artists and visitors about what scene I was looking at. People would peer over my shoulder looking straight ahead over the easel, trying to understand the scene they saw with the strange marks on the canvas. Actually the scene would be directly to my left.

There is much less texture on these paintings than in previous paintings here on the blog, which you can see by clicking on the images.

The Gadsden Museum will have an auction on their next First Friday event, JUNE 5. First Fridays in Gadsden are a BIG, FUN, FREE event. The streets ( Broad Street) are closed with all kinds of entertainment. The Museum is on Broad street downtown in the middle of the festivities, and you can preview the 300 paintings we produced during the paintout. And you may bid on these two, or contact me lroberts@hiwaay.net