This painting is the one I was doing on my April 19 post called “En Plein Air.” It is of the bridge over Pleasant Run, a stream running through Indianapolis. Note the way that certain colors portray light and shadow. The sunlit part of the stream and rocks have a yellowish glow, while the shadowy part in the foreground has a blue or violet shade. Atmospheric perspective gives depth. The tree on the left appears to be in front of the bridge. The woods in the distance underneath are painted with less detail and color intensity. I wanted the viewer to be able to imagine walking down the stream.
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Grandma had died. I flew to California to be with relatives and attend the funeral. When it was over I felt lost and lonely. My father knew I’d never seen San Francisco. He rented a car. We drove downtown. I loved my dad. It was great to be with him. We ate shrimp at the pier. We rode the cable cars. He and I went up Coit Tower to see the city. We drove down Lombard Street. I bought a souvenir in Chinatown. We went to a hotel on the hill. It had a glass elevator on the outside. We rode it to the top and saw the beautiful city. We went back to the car. It was alone on the road. All the other cars were gone. We had a big traffic ticket. I still missed Grandma, but at least I had my dad. He’s been gone almost twenty years now.
One of the techniques of painting is called “en plein air”. The English translation is “open-air”. It was made very popular by the impressionist painter, Claude Monet. During his day, the accepted forms of painting were of religious, historical or mythical scenes. Landscape paintings painted on site were not common, nor were they acceptable. Monet made them popular. He would paint scenes of the sea, of rivers, his lily pond, and grain stacks in the countryside.
In tonight’s painting class I was going to teach the students how to paint skin color and do faces. I had a painting I had been working on to show them the techniques, but remembered I had a small canvas in the back seat of my car. My wife was in attendance so I asked her to pose while I drew.
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