I made a drawing of this willow bush against the dark trees a couple of weeks ago. The water was still and dark showing little reflection of the big trees in the background. When I returned to the site this week to capture the scene in a plein air color sketch the lake had dropped by several feet (Rattlesnake Lake is controlled by a dam by the City of Seattle). All the water in front of the willow had disappeared and I was looking at brown lake bottom instead of the beautiful yellow reflections. What to do? Well, I decided I liked the memory of the scene from before so I stayed put and painted, making up the reflection from memory! How convenient is that? Once again, my paintings are about a confluence of time, place and concept.
Here is the color sketch. I worked for two mornings during the same time for about two hours each day to complete the painting. I started with a burnt umber wipeout and painted on top of that. I like how the warmth of the darkish reddish shows through and gives it an overall color harmony. This sketch is about 7"x12". The larger studio painting will be a golden section size of 12"x19.42 inches.
This is an iphone photo so please excuse the glare. I'll be getting professional photos taken soon.
