#2040 "Killarney in the Fall"

The 2017 Southampton Art School Annual Adventure was carrying on the legacy of my friend and artist Jane Champagne. This was the sixteenth demonstration painting and the fifth of Day 4 of the Plein Air Paint Out. When the group arrived they set up at the cyclonic branch of the deformation zone beach so I moved to be with them. This was going to be a windy location with the westerly fetch of blustery winds off George Lake. It was more important to be with the group than to seek sheltered comfort. At breakfast I had pointed out that the isobaric gradient was really quite weak so I was hopeful that the winds would not be an issue. The slight anticyclonic curvature of those flat ridge isobars and the cold air advection overpowered the gradient wind and it was indeed windy and even a bit chilly.

Now for something completely different. I turned away from the water toward a soft red maple clinging to life on the edge of a granite ridge. The wind was turning the leaves over and exposing the pale green under-sides. The red and orange colours of the leaves were in constant turbulent motion. The scene was a tangle of textures, shapes and colours so that is what I painted. It was a very smooth surface so one had to lay the colours on the slippery panel and leave them alone. The painting surface is heavily textured.