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Last October, my friends and I (the PAC6 - a group of 6 painters) finally emerged from our pandemic protective homes and ventured outside to paint together again.   We spent a week at a beautiful retreat in Carmel.  This was our third such stay.

It was a joy to get outside with friends and paint but it had been a while and I was rusty.  I'd painted a lot in my studio at home, but it wasn't the same.

                                                                                                               

I quickly tried to capture the beautiful forms of the far shadows.  Time passes quickly when you paint outside.  The morning sun was rising and the shadows were changing rapidly so I tired to get their interesting shapes in first.

It's always a battle with me.  What am I trying to say.  What was grabbing my immediate attention was that huge rock formation in the water being pounded by large and inspiring waves.  I love the sea.  

But wait...  Isn't it about those hills and shadows??

Sigh...  So now make sure you've got those shadows blocked in....  Just do it!

Okay... now my darks of the shadows are in and my mid-tones of everything else is in....   I must leave room for the lights...   

But don't be fooled....  Everything that is "white" isn't white and everything that is "white" isn't always lighter than other lights.   Am I checking my values??

It was time to stop for the morning.   This is how I left it.

Three months later I revisited the plein air sketch you see to the on the left immediately above and while "finishing it up" I tried not to lose the things about it that I liked in the first place.

I have to say that plein air painting is exhilarating and wonderful.  I need to keep going outside to enjoy our world and to try to bring a bit of it home to share with others.

The painting at the top was how it has ended up.    Do you see what I was trying to "say"?😉😉