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Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Acadia National Park Plein Plein Air Painting Workshop - Day 2



Yesterday was another fine day on Mount Desert Island - a clear, cool morning followed by warm breezes in the afternoon and just a touch of cloud to make for an interesting sky.  We started off at The Moorings, a seaside resort in Manset with a fine view of Somes Sound.  The owner was kind enough to invite us on her property to paint.  Manset, which is near Seawall, is a quiet place, and we had plenty of room to spread out in, and even a bit of shade.

Here's a link to The Moorings: http://mooringsinn.com/

Later we went to the Charlotte Rhoades Park and Butterfly Garden in Southwest Harbor.  This small but spectacular garden by the sea was filled with blooming, early summer flowers.  We had it pretty much to ourselves.  One of the demonstrations I did included the following, a quick 5x7 pastel sketch of the garden.  I was drawn to the sense of light on the blooming catnip (the blue flowers) and on the house and greenery.  The point of this demo was to show how in 30 minutes you can capture a sense of light and color, and perhaps use this sketch later in the studio as a reference for color notes.


That evening, Trina and I headed back for Manset for dinner.  Here's a shot of the harbor toward sunset.